Mets Minors: 2010 Draft time capsule (Matt Harvey)

Compared to the 2009 draft, the 2010 draft seemed to have more general talent in it.  Additionally the 2010 draft was simply a wiser and better used draft for the Mets in general.  The usually doubts about who the Mets could have had are less clear but right now, at least, it doesn’t look like the team did poorly at all.

Winners:

• Matt Harvey (Future Ace)
• Cory Vaughn (Powerful and solid fielding corner outfielder)
• Matt Den Dekker (Powerful and solid fielding centerfielder who K’s WAY too much)
• Jacob DeGrom (Solid workhorse starter)
• Akeel Morris (Still raw with great potential)
• Adam Kolarek (Future LOOGY)
• Ryan Fraser (In the future bullpen discussion)
• Hamilton Bennett (In the future bullpen discussion)
• Josh Edgin (Probable high-leverage reliever in 2013)

Losers:

• Blake Forsythe (Doesn’t seem to have the hitting chops we expected)
• Greg Peavey (Stumbled HARD in AA)
• Jeffrey Walters (Progressing too slow to be of use)
• Kenneth McDowall (Released)

The Winners list is pretty long and the losers list still has several names of players who COULD make it to the MLB eventually.  This is, of course, the issue with reviewing a draft that was so recent.  The names on the winners list won’t stay there forever and the names on the losers list might escape but it’s pleasing to see that through two season a third of the Met signings look to have some sort of future with the big-league club.  Erik Goeddel doesn’t make either list because he’s not been good enough to be a winner or bad enough to be a loser.  How did the rest of the league do?

Notable Draftees Around the League:

• Bryce Harper, C/OF (Round 1) Washington
• James Taillon, RHP (Round 1) Pittsburgh
• Manny Machado, SS (Round 1) Baltimore
• Drew Pomeranz, LHP (Round 1) Cleveland
• Yasmani Grandal, C (Round 1) Cincinnati
• Chris Sale, LHP (Round 1) Chicago AL
• Gary Brown, OF (Round 1) San Francisco
• Drew Smyly, LHP (Round 2) Detroit
• Adrelton Simmons, SS/RHP (Round 2) Atlanta
• Garin Cecchini, SS (Round 4) Boston

It’s hard to analyze the drafts successes for other teams without months of research into each and every pick but it seemed to me that the top talent was deeper in 2010 than in other drafts.  Overall, the Mets probably did pretty well if you consider things.  Matt Harvey was the big pick and a lot of people questioned it at the time but now I think most of those same people are feeling more at ease.  Yasmani Grandal is really the would-a could-a should-a name that jumps out but I don’t think any Met fan is upset about Matt Harvey at this point.  Right now… I’d have to rank the draft as an A for the Mets but that grade is based largely on players who have not yet made the majors.  If Matt Harvey and Josh Edgin alone reach the potential they showed in their brief stays I’d rank the draft no worse than a C.

7Train offered some thoughts of his own:

Certainly Matt Harvey appears to be an unqualified success but that is more due to having the 7th pick which I don’t think was the plan entering the 2009 season. We should get a player in that spot when we draft in the top 10. To Minaya’s credit we did.

Still and all any discussion of the 2010 draft would have to begin with the two picks (20th and 39th as it turns out) that we traded away for LH DH Chris Carter in the Wagner trade and the 2nd rounder we shipped over to Boston as well for Jason Bay.

There are numerous top prospects including guys we would absolutely love to trade for that were drafted between the 20th and 57th pick (Bay’s) that could already be ours including HS CFer Christian Yelich at #23 400K over slot to Miami at 1.7M who at 20 produced a .330/.404/.519 in A+ after entering 2012 as BA’s #41 ranked prospect. SF’s RH CFer and frequent trade target Gary Brown in AA BA’s #37 ranked prospect went at 24. 3B Zach Cox, BA’s #88th ranked prospect went at #25 to St. Louis. RH RFer Kyle Parker went at #26 .308/.414/.562 A+ to Colorado. HS LHP Jesse Biddle went #27 to Philly. HS RHP and BA’s #62 Zach Lee went at #28 in a massive over slot to LAD 5.25M. HS RHP Aaron Sanchez went at #34 and at 19 posted a 2.49 in A+ to Toronto. RH RFer Bryce Brentz .296/.355/.465 in AA went #36 to Boston. SS Taylor Lindsey 20 in A+ .289/.328/.408 in A+ went to LAA at #37. HS RHP Noah Snydergaard, 19 A+ 2.60 went at #38 to Toronto. RHP Asher Wojciechowski 2.06 AA went at #41 to Toronto. HS RFer Drew Vettleson 20 in A+ .275/.340/.432 to TB at #42. HS RHP and BA’s #20 Taijuan Walker went to Seattle at #43. HS 3B and BA’s #45 Nick Castellanos to Detroit at 44, huge over slot at 3.45M (+2.6M) 3B Mike Olt BA’s #43 went to Texas at #49.

In the 2nd rnd at #51 the Nat’s took LHP Sammy Solis, 22 2.72 in A+ (+350K) Braves took RH CFer Todd Cunningham .309/.364/.409 AA at #53. With our pick Boston took RHP Brandon Workman 23 touched AA 3.96 and a 4.6 K/BB.

Once again as usual the industry spoke to the value of our draft picks and said that our 240K and 110K OF prospects were less valuable than Miami’s 1.7M, SF’s 1.45M and Colorado’s 1.4M dollar one’s and we could have easily had Harvey AND one of them if we were willing to spend what is essentially cab fare for a Major league baseball team but we threw away the picks for salary relief and window dressing.