Mets Minors: A cumulative Top 20 list

I’ve arranged a meeting of the minds (although some of the minds were none the wiser).  In case you are not aware, the Mets have more blogs than any other sports franchise (so it seems) so as I read and research I pull top 20 lists from here and there and everywhere.  There is, of course, MY Top 20 List:

1. Zack Wheeler
2. Wilmer Flores
3. Brandon Nimmo
4. Jeurys Familia
5. Michael Fulmer
6. Rafael Montero
7. Matt Den Dekker
8. Gavin Cecchini
9. Domingo Tapia
10. Aderlin Rodriguez
11. Luis Mateo
12. Collin McHugh
13. Vicente Lupo
14. Cesar Puello
15. Steven Matz
16. Jefry Marte
17. Cory Mazzoni
18. Reese Havens
19. Cory Vaughn
20. Kevin Plawecki

Yet any one person’s list is going to show their biases pretty strongly.  I favor up-side over numbers but also give credence to numbers when I can.  It’s arbitrary, but it’s opinion and opinions are often arbitrary.  My list is meaningless but the following list is less so:

1. Zack Wheeler
2. Wilmer Flores
3. Jeurys Familia
4. Brandon Nimmo
5. Michael Fulmer
6. Rafael Montero
7. Gavin Cecchini
8. Matt Den Dekker
9. Domingo Tapia
10. Cesar Puello
11. Jack Leathersich
12. Cory Vaughn
13. Collin McHugh
14. Vicente Lupo
15. Luis Mateo
16. Aderlin Rodriguez
17. Juan Lagares
18. Cory Mazzoni
19. Reese Havens
20. Juan Urbina

This list represents the combined opinion of five (Top 20) rankings.  To show you the staggering variety in rankings there are a total of 37 players listed amongst the 5 lists.  This shows you just how much opinion varies from one list to another.  While it doesn’t match my list man for man, the list feels like a reasonable facsimile of who the Met’s top 20 prospects are.

You will notice that there are 10 pitchers and 10 hitters listed.  This is peculiar, given what we hear about the Met pitching depth exceeding the hitting depth, but there is an equally powerful need for people to balance their lists.  We see players like Vicente Lupo who has yet to play pro-ball in the US and Reese Havens who is falling off the edge of the prospect cliff ahead of players like Logan Verrett, Tyler Pill and Darin Gorski who have all succeeded at Port St. Lucie.  I’m reminded of the show “Newsroom” which stated that occasionally News outlets are required to report skewed findings just to SEEM like they are being balanced.  The Met farm is not balanced and because of that, we cling to certain players who we’d ordinarily abandon.

I’m going to profile these top 20 players moving towards Spring Training and will be compiling a brand new Top 20 for after the final cuts have been made.  If you would like your thoughts added to future Cumulative lists, let me know and I’ll add you to the spreadsheet.