Still fairly bad IMO. Who’s going to make an impact soon? These are a bunch of lottery tickets. They have a few interesting players, so does everyone.

But considering they traded four of their top five prospects at the end of last year, and the only one of those four to graduate was Gomez, you have to be a bit impressed with the turnaround.

Let’s hope this bunch turns out better than the steaming pile of crap that was sent to Minnesota (excepting Gomez who the jury is still out on).

Agreed, it’s hard to justify Flores being a full level above kids like Marte and Mejia, and so far above Puello that he’s completely not ranked (At least not in the Top 20). Marte’s stateside debut was nearly as impressive as Flores, although yes, on a level lower, and Mejia probably has the best raw stuff in the Mets system. I don’t think it’s a case of him overrating Flores as much as it is him playing it safe on the latter three.

I think he overrated Moviel, Shaw, and Tejada. Moviel is huge so scouts love him, but he still throws only low 90s with fringe average secondary stuff. Shaw is your classic 4 pitch, none of them are particularly great control pitcher (See Owen), and Tejada really hasn’t ever shown a power swing. I personally would have had players like Rustich (Still throws 95 with a good Slider, just working as a starter now), Puello (Upside, Upside, Upside), and Josh Thole (Still a high OBP catcher, and only played the position for one year so take the poor defense reports with a grain of salt) in front of them.

I haven’t heard much. It wouldn’t surprise me if he went to A-ball though(Savannah).

Not top 15, but around 18-22 sounds about right. It’s not a terrible system at all. Decent back-end of the rotation depth(Gee, Antonini, Owen, Stoner, etc), and a lot of high potential guys.

I’m optimistic about him. He might be a great third catcher/backup first baseman/bat off the bench.

Pena has the higher ceiling, more power potential, likely more defensive potential, and was only 18. Thole is closer to the majors, impressed at a higher level, and in the Arizona Fall League, but is still most likely not more than a backup with a decent stick. I happen to like Thole at 15-20, but you really have to believe in his bat to justify that. And the bat doesn’t have a high ceiling either (not that much power potential there).

On top of that, prior to this season he had a career .679 OPS. A lot of people are going to want to see a repeat performance before they believe this year wasn’t a fluke. Another way to look at it, at age 20 last year in the SAL, he wasn’t any more accomplished a hitter than Pena was this year at 18. So while I like him there, despite all that, I’m being pretty aggressive with that ranking. A lot of people will have him around 30.

I don’t know that much about him but as far as I know, he has a decent fastball and a good curveball. I’ve heard people say he could make a very good reliever, but his high end is probably a 2 or 3 starter.

I can’t imagine it’s so deep that he’d be a keeper at this point. The Mets system looked pretty thin a year ago. So a lot of guys made lists who might not have otherwise. He had decent numbers this year, but most of it was out of the pen, and still at a very low level. He may still be interesting, but, there are an awful lot of guys just in this system I would like more.

Just from the Mets, the pitching prospects I would take before Orta include: Holt, Niese, Gee, Mejia, Parnell, Kunz, Rustich, Moviel, Shaw, Carson, and Antonini.

He looks like an organizational player to me. And I’m a Mets homer and haven’t really heard anything about him. The guy was a 22 year old in Rookie ball who put up a good ERA with mediocre peripherals.

My understanding is that he’s had a bit of injury trouble and their moving him slowly. He’s got the stuff to start, so the Mets want to try him as a starter, but he closed in college so they’re being cautious with the conversion I think. Look for him to move quickly if he can get healthy.

I really think that would be a mistake since he’s really only got one pitch at this point and is working on consistency with the others. He needs to use A ball as a chance to learn those pitches.

If the secondary stuff has progressed as much as some are saying, he might be ready for AA.
If you think he’s going to spend most of the season there anyway, might as well start him there.
Planning on moving guys around after only a few weeks is just disruptive of the rosters; some other player then has to start at AA and be demoted. I’d rather they put the guy where he fits best, and then consider promotions at mid-season.

Also might depend on whether you see him as a SP or RP. There were good reports on the curve, but I wonder about the change-up. If he still has a lot of work to do on the CU, I could see him maybe being better of at St. Lucie for the first half. If they’d rather have him ready quick as a bullpen arm though, he only needs the two pitches, and may as well be in AA.