that failure is really inexcusable on their part. You’d think after watching Joba rocket to the majors they would spend their resources properly instead of giving Luis Castillo 4 years.

Mets have found success in the small college type guys like Gee, Antonini, Buaelac, Shaw etc. as well as some high schoolers like Scott Moviel and Kyle Allen but obviously their bread and butter is their international scouting. F-mart, Flores, Marte, and Puello are just a few of the exciting guys.

The mets scouts have had better success with turning some of the smaller guys into prospects as opposed to the big guys, thats why its always hard to rank the mets system cause their are always unknown guys who seem to have potential, as well as some production, but no one really knows about. More so then a typical ml system.

Overall the system is a lot better than people think at first glance. F-Mart just turned 20 and will be in AAA this year, which places him still ahead of the curve in that regard. Hes putting up solid numbers in the Dominican league as we speak and should make an appearance in the bigs sometime in 2009. Marte and Flores both have big time upside and production at an early age to go with it.

The pitching is where they are somewhat thin and thats exactly what they need to focus on in the 09 draft. Im a big believer in Holt and agree completely with what the Mets said about his secondary stuff, that it was not at all bad but that he simply needed to throw it more to improve upon the pitch. Niese is a good #3/#4 if he can develop a harder curve and Parnell and Kunz both appear to be power back end of games relievers. Add in two of the most underrated prospects in baseball in Scott Moviel and Kyle Allen (moreso Moviel) and they have a nice base. Need to get another big time arm in the system through this draft like they did with Holt, Sean Black from Seton Hall would be perfect for the Mets.

Obviously the system has improved a lot since last year. I’ll post my top 25 list as of now.

1. B+ Fernando Martinez
2. B+Wilmer Flores
B [Daniel Murphy]
3. B Brad Holt
4. B Jon Niese
5. BJenrry Mejia
B [Nick Evans]
6. B Jefry Marte
7. B- Dillon Gee
8. B- Reese Havens
9. B- Bobby Parnell
10. C+ Josh Thole
11. C+ Michael Antonini
12. C+ Eddie Kunz
13. C+ Ike Davis
14. C+ Scott Moviel
15. C+ Cesar Puello (sleeper pick)
16. C Ruben Tejada
17. C Francisco Pena
18. C Nathan Vineyard
19. C Greg Veloz
20. C Nick Carr
21. C Javier Rodriguez
22. C Robert Carson
23. C Kyle Allen
24. C Angel Calero
25. C Brant Rustich

The C guys are somewhat interchangeable. I tried to be consistent with John’s grades. There are a bunch more C guys with upside like Familia.

There are a lot of guys in this system who could easily be top 100 or top 50 guys as soon as next year, but they could also fall off the map.

Would he have been better off if the Mets hadn’t jumped him three levels at once?

1. Fernando Martinez, B+
2. Wilmer Flores, B+
(Daniel Murphy, B)
3. Jon Niese, B
4. Brad Holt, B/B-
5. Jefry Marte, B-
6. Jenrry Mejia B-
7. Nick Evans, B-
8. Reese Havens, B-
9. Eddie Kunz B-
10. Ike Davis, C+
11. Bobby Parnell, C+
12. Dillon Gee, C+
13. Dylan Owen, C+
14. Josh Thole, C

The rest are interchangeable. I like the Mets’ farm system more than most, chiefly due to the amount of upside. Martinez, Flores, Holt, Marte and Mejia all have extremely significant upsides, IMO.

The Mets have done some improvement, but, their prospects tend to be overhyped. Lastings always struck me as a toolsy guy who probably would never fully reach his hype because of strikezone judgment. Though to his credit he had a very solid first full season at age 23 last year. Though on balance my experience with Mets prospects is that they usually turn out a notch or two below what they were hyped to be, but they end up trading away many of them anyways.

I <3 Kirk!

Their financial resources will always allow the Mets to be competitive. Their prospects’ greatest utility is going to be bringing back major-league talent in trades.

Therefore they should concentrate, as someone said above, on just drafting talented baseball players, regardless of position. A high percentage of these players won’t live up to expectations, anyway. Positions can be sorted later on.

I also think they should consider going above-slot. This makes financial sense. More talented prospects will equate to either more talented major-league players during their cost-controlled years, or more trade chips.

Before the Seattle trade, I would have said the system had moved up to almost middle of the pack, maybe around 17. But they gave up three decent C+ type guys there, which really cuts down the depth that was developing. So they may be knocked back even to the lower third again.

But I do think they have improved the last few years in drafting and developing. Here’s my attempt at a top 25 stood before the BP list came out:

1. B+ Fernando Martinez
2. B+ Wilmer Flores
3. B Jon Niese
4. B Brad Holt
5. B- Reese Havens
6. B- Nick Evans
7. C+ Bobby Parnell
8. C+ Jenrry Mejia
9. C+ Dillon Gee
10. C+ Jefry Marte
11. C+ Ike Davis
12. C+ Josh Thole
13. C Eddie Kunz
14. C Brant Rustich
15. C Scott Moviel
16. C Francisco Pena
17. C Cesar Puello
18. C Michael Antonini
19. C Scott Shaw
20. C Ruben Tejada
21. C Greg Veloz
22. C- J Familia
23. C- Rob Carson
24. C- Kirk Niewenhuis
25. C- Tobi Stoner

So maybe I had Marte a bit low? I also wonder whether Evans was ineligible under their rules, or they just don’t like him as much as I do. I know BA never liked him much. The other three guys I have in the top 15 there who aren’t real high ceiling are Niese, Gee, and Thole. Those 4 are all guys without “star” tools or ceilings, but who I think can potentially be big league regulars, who I rank highly just because I have confidence in them coming near their potential at this point.

In the 16-25 range, Antonini, Shaw, Tejada, and Stoner would be the lower ceiling guys, all of whom I’m a bit more uncertain of, but who have impressed in some ways. The three pitchers have especially impressed with their performance. Tejada impressed a lot with his skills, esp. his defense and contact ability, and at only 18 could turn into a higher ceiling guy as he matures, but he needs to get stronger before I have confidence he won’t top out in the upper minors.

As for the comments on the Mets drafting, I think they have tended to do reasonably well lately with high picks when they’ve actually had them. They mostly need to keep more picks, let more guys leave for FA, etc., if they want a stronger farm. And maybe try not to make too much a habit of trading 4 or 5 guys for 1 guy. Sure it’s worth it sometimes. But nobody has the talent to make blockbuster trades like that every year and keep a top ranked system.

I do think things have improved some lately, though, as for getting talent from past the first 2 rounds. They especially seem to be doing a better job lately of developing hitters. They seem to have a method there that is working, as far as teaching a sound plate approach. Guys like Carp, Murphy, Evans, and Thole all learned sound hitting approaches in the Mets system which allowed them to succeed so far without star tools. Hopefully Ike Davis will also make the adjustment and have similar success.

I’d like to see more success on the pitching side. They’ve had a few mid-rounders putting up good numbers in A ball the last couple of seasons, but Niese, Parnell, Gee, Antonini,and Stoner is still a fairly thin SP crop for the upper levels. For the most part, the Mets SP prospect crop right now offers you a choice of ceiling or command; you aren’t permitted to have both. I’d like to see one of the higher ceiling guys moving up to A+ next year step up and pitch as well as Gee, Stoner, or Antonini did in 2008. At least there’s a fair supply of candidates.

1. Fernando Martinez (B/B+)
2. Wilmer Flores (B-/B)
3. Jon Niese (B-/B)
4. Brad Holt (B-)
5. Nick Evans (C+/B-)
6. Bobby Parnell (C+)
7. Jefry Marte (C+)
8. Reese Havens (C+)
9. Jenrry Mejia (C+)
10. Josh Thole (C+)
11. Eddie Kunz (C/C+)
12. Dillon Gee (C/C+)
13. Francisco Pena (C/C+)
14. Ike Davis (C/C+)
15. Scott Moviel (C/C+)
16. Michael Antonini (C/C+)
17. Scott Shaw (C/C+)
18. Robert Carson (C/C+)
19. Cesar Puello (C/C+)
20. Dylan Owen (C/C+)

The rest I’m considering (No particular order): Brant Rustich, Greg Veloz, Nathan Vineyard, Kyle Allen, Shawn Bowman, Nicholas Waechtler, Ruben Tejada, Jeurys Familia, Michael Olmsted, Tobi Stoner, Guillame Leduc, Kirk Niewenhuis

First off, I have a really harsh grading system that I find, on the whole, usually ranks players a quarter to half grade down from other ranking systems.

As to a few of my choices:
Thole - I really believe in Thole and think that he could be an average starter for a major league team. Yes, his defense needs work, but until this year, no one envisioned him as more than a fringe player so he never got the attention necessary to work on his defense. His grade is probably higher than it should and I think next year will be the year he proves me right.

Marte/Flores - I want to believe, I really do. I think they both have the opportunity to be special talents. But I’m very reserved and careful when it comes to youthful players and don’t grade them extraordinarily high. Flores ends up in my top 100 at his current grade and Marte is just outside (within the top 150).

10-20 Guys - essentially, they are all interchangeable. Some of are there because of their draft stock (Kunz/Davis), some for their youth:output (Carson, Puello, Moviel, Pena) and others because of their production (Owen/Shaw/Antonini). I think, of the guys there, Carson/Antonini/Davis/Moviel/Pena have the best chance of moving up a grade to C+ or B-.

State of the Farm - Its getting better. We have a few interesting guys for impact talent and finally are producing guys who may not be impact talent, but have the potential to at least do something if given an opportunity (E.g. Gee/Owen/Antonini). For years we’ve had to sign retreads to fill AAA, but now it may be home grown talent, which is a good thing on the whole because it means we are getting some value out of the later rounds of the draft, although spending a little more wouldn’t hurt. Next year I think the system may look a whole hell of a lot better. Not upper echelon, but closer to top 15 (right now, I put us about 18-22).

I’m about as big of a Mets fan as you’re gonna find, so here’s my list:

1) Wilmer Flores B+
2) Fernando Martinez B+
3) Brad Holt B+
4) Jon Niese B
5) Bobby Parnell B-
6) Jeffry Marte C+
7) Reese Havens C+
8) Greg Veloz C+
9) Scott Moviel C
10) Cesar Puello C
11) Jenrry Mejia C
12) Jeurys Familia C
13) Ike Davis

I think everyone has been pretty accurate about the state of our farm. There are a few low ceiling accomplished prospects at the higher levels, and a bunch of young latin prospects with big-time ceilings.

I think Fernando will be a 290-25-100-10 guy in the majors, but Flores has blown me away every time I’ve seen him. I think the Miguel Cabrera comp is a good one for Flores, as he has shown great power at such a young age. He’ll end up being a Corner Outfielder, but he’s not a bad athlete by any means.

Holt is awesome. He absolutely has the potential to be the best pitcher from that draft. His secondary pitches are developing and his fastball is extremely good. He could have a Joba-type role for the Mets in 09 if someone goes down in the pen.

Puello and Familia are my 2 favorite guys in the C/C+ range. Puello has a really nice bat, I think he could have a breakout year in 2009.

Greg Veloz doesn’t really get talked about very much, but he had a big year. He has a lot of tools, and can be a 280-20-80-20 guy in the Majors.

Kevin Goldstein mentioned him as one of the 8-10 guys you could consider for the last few spots in the top ten. Thought I’d throw that in here, since no one has mentioned him yet (including on any of those lists). It seems he is this years only big IFA signing for the Mets, and hasn’t played in the US yet, but given the track record of the last few years there, he’s one to keep an eye on in 2009.

This is probably two broad but if I was the mets gm I would be focusing in on high upside prospects. I think the problem with the mets recent drafts is when they have had high draft picks they’ve focused on low risk/low reward quick upside players. Mostly I’d be looking at some high upside pitching prospects. Basically stop taking relievers. You can always convert a starter to a reliever but it’s kind of hard to take a guy with one pitch and turn him into a starter.