Baseball America Mets Top 10 Prospects

[Jeffrey]

Here is Baseball America's Mets top 10 prospects going into the offseason. Trading away Michael Fullmer (top to middle of the line pitcher) and Casey Meisner (a lefty that did well in the lower minor leagues) will hurt this year's top 10 prospect list because most felt Fullmer was probably between no.2 on the list.. Graduation of two top 10 prospects in Noah Syndergard and Michael Conforto to the roster. Dilson Herrera and Rafael Montero has exhausted their prospect elgibility. Overall, the Mets has done a great job with their farm.

1. Steven Matz, lhp
2. Amed Rosario, ss
3. Dominic Smith, 1b
4. Gavin Cecchini, ss
5. Brandon Nimmo, of
6. Marcos Molina, rhp
7. Luis Carpio, ss/2b
8. Desmond Lindsay, of
9. Matt Reynolds, ss/2b
10. Wuilmer Becerra, of

http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/new-york-mets-top-10-prospects/

[Jeffrey]

1. Steven Matz, lhp - Fourseam Fastball 94-96mph, Curveball 76-78 mph, Changeup 84-86 mph, slider 87-88 mph

We all know how good Matz can be. His ceiling is top of the rotation pitcher. He still has plenty to grow, especially with his secondary pitches. He still needs a secondary out pitch (most likely his change up). Dan Warthen always teaches his pitchers the slider which Matz currently uses the least. Its best to say he will use it a lot more now that Warthen will have more time with Matz.

2. Amed Rosario, ss - Our highest international signing at 1.7 million and so far he has been worth it. He has everything you want in a prototypical SS. His defense is already major league ready. He is still ahead of the curve with his bat and some say he might have some pop once his body fills out. Will most likely be at St. Lucie for majority of the year.

http://espn.go.com/blog/newyork/mets/post/_/id/49954/mets-to-sign-dominican-shortstop-for-1-7m

3. Dominic Smith, 1b - 2013 first round pick. Last offseason many scouts were concern about Smith's power. This year totally different story. You can see his power beginning to form with a boatload of extra base hits (33) and homeruns (7) while maintaining a .300 batting average. His defense is above average. he is currently playing in the AFL and will probably be promoted to Binghamton next year.

4. Gavin Cecchini, ss - 2012 first round pick. Before last year many fans thought he was a bust. He might have finally turned the corner, hitting .317/.377/.442 with 7 homeruns and 28 doubles in Binghamton. Last year he had 28 errors and that's a big concern. In the end, he might need to change position due to Matt Reynolds, Tejada, Flores and Rosario blocking him.

5. Brandon Nimmo, of - 2011 first round pick. When the mets drafted him out of HS, he was super raw. Played in Wyoming where there was no legit HS baseball team. Sandy's first pick and knew that he was a long term project. After 4 years, Nimmo is slowly showing what the front office saw him. High OBP guy but they were hoping for some power out of him. He hasn't shown that yet. He can play CF which is a good sign for him to come up to the majors in 2016. He will start in hitters friendly Vegas.

6. Marcos Molina, rhp - Other than Matz, he is the only pitcher on this list. Molina is a long ways from being in the majors. Just had Tommy John Surgery a few days ago. To have TJS now was questionable since he miss most of the season trying to rehab his arm. Will miss 2016.
7. Luis Carpio, ss/2b he signed as an international FA for $300,000. He was no.30 on Baseball America's top international FA in 2013. Other than, I do not know much about him. Just like Rosario hitting at the lower end of many analysts' top 10 list two years ago, not many fans knows who Carpio is.

[url]http://www.baseballamerica.com/international/mets-sign-no-30-international-prospect-luis-carpio/
[/url]

8. Desmond Lindsay, of - 2015 first round pick. The Mets didn't think he would fall all the way to the 2nd round. He did have an injury in his senior season that would have him fall but they had him ranked very high. He was so good at Rookie ball that they had to promote him to Brooklyn which is amazing. 18 years of age and was already in Brooklyn. ETA: 4 years

9. Matt Reynolds, ss/2b - he has accomplished everything he could in the minors. Will be competing for a spot this spring and perhaps and starting role between Flores, Dilson and himself. He can hit for average, if everything falls in place for him, he can be a no.2 or 7 hitter.

10. Wuilmer Becerra, of - probably one of the most lopsided trade in recent memories. When people think of the RA Dickey trade, most fans would think about Thor and Travis D'Arnaud. Becerra was signed by the Blue Jays for 1.3 million dollars at the age of 16. He has absolute raw power and we are getting to see that power. Needs to cut down on those strikeouts but no one is going to say anything just yet.

The top 10 is obviously not as strong as last year's. The Mets did graduate Conforto, Montero, Herrera, Plawecki, Logan Verrett, and Robles.

Trades that got the mets to the World Series included a surefire top 5 prospect in our system, Michael Fullmer. A 10-15 prospect Casey Meisner. But it was all worth it.

[Stannis]

Steven Matz is a given imo. No chance he doesn't become anything less than a really good 3-4 starter on most teams unless he is burdened with injuries. I don't even consider him a prospect tbh.

Looks like most of those guys in the top 10 won't make a MLB appearance until 2 years from now with the exception of Nimmo and Reynolds. Nimmo can come in handy if Larages will need surgery. Reynolds looks like he can at least be a good utility infielder, which will be needed with Tejada out and Dilson likely to start his first real season at 2B.

It always sucks losing prospects (Fullmer and Meisner) for one year rentals, but something had to be down to make a push for the playoffs and World Series. Sure, maybe with a little more patience, the Mets could've received a better deal this year for more long term players. But those two prospects are still in the lower leagues. This team has a great six man rotation once Wheeler returns. There's always the chance those pitching prospects will never make the MLB. With a team like the Mets, they have to be in win now mode because they can't afford to resign even half of their homegrown talent in 3-5 years. You can't win anything if you don't try to make something happen from the front office. This year, you do those kinds of trades again with one of the MLB starters this time around. So you can always look at these scenarios in two different ways.

[Jeffrey]

This spring training, we will have Matz as a solid 4 spot in the rotation. Herrera and Reynolds will probably be battling for a starting position and a roster spot. Brandon Nimmo and Cecchini will be waiting in the minors if someone goes down. The next 2 years Mets will probably be on a downswing until the next crop starts to move up.

[Jeffrey]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/AdamRubinESPN/status/663801484333723648[/tweet]

That's not good. I wanted to see him go up against some good competition and see where he is really at.

[Jeffrey]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/AdamRubinESPN/status/663821358262976512[/tweet]

And now Dominic Smith goes down. Geezus

[Daaaarryyl]

7. Luis Carpio, ss/2b he signed as an international FA for $300,000. He was no.30 on Baseball America's top international FA in 2013. Other than, I do not know much about him. Just like Rosario hitting at the lower end of many analysts' top 10 list two years ago, not many fans knows who Carpio is.

I'd say his upside is a rich man's Ruben Tejada with a ceiling of a very rich man's Tejada.

Basically take everything Tejada does: Hit/Field/Run/Power/throw, and add 5-10 points to each one like you're playing NBALIVE LOL.

Is that something great? No. But could be a pretty good player. If he becomes a .275/.350 guy with 20 steals and good D at SS, that would be very cool.


Did you write all that? If so, excellent job.

[Jeffrey]

7. Luis Carpio, ss/2b he signed as an international FA for $300,000. He was no.30 on Baseball America's top international FA in 2013. Other than, I do not know much about him. Just like Rosario hitting at the lower end of many analysts' top 10 list two years ago, not many fans knows who Carpio is.

I'd say his upside is a rich man's Ruben Tejada with a ceiling of a very rich man's Tejada.

Basically take everything Tejada does: Hit/Field/Run/Power/throw, and add 5-10 points to each one like you're playing NBALIVE LOL.

Is that something great? No. But could be a pretty good player. If he becomes a .275/.350 guy with 20 steals and good D at SS, that would be very cool.


Did you write all that? If so, excellent job.

If he is that... a .275/.350 hitter than that is a very good signing. If he is a better version of Tejada and he plays for the Mets for 3-4 years, it was a great investment.

A lot of fans tend to want the big bat or the ace in the farm, if they are neither of those then they are easily replaceable from FA. The Mets are going to need these everyday or platoon players from the farm. Sandy A. wants to emulate the St. Louis Cardinals where they just keep churning out prospects and replace them.


Usually when guys like Luis Caprio or Amed Rosario that just pops out of nowhere from many professional analysts top 10 then they are very close to a 5-tool player. Whether they show it or not, the potential is there. I guess we will get more from analysts and scouts alike.

[Jeffrey]

October 25th... Keith Law scouting the AFL (Winterball)... this is what he had to say about Dominic Smith before he went down...

http://espn.go.com/blog/keith-law/insider/post?id=4424

• Mets first baseman Dom Smith is one of the top pure hitting prospects in the minors, and he showed it this week in the Valley with hard-hit ball after hard-hit ball and some outstanding at-bats (as well as a couple where he barked at the ump over some strike calls). ...........

Smith's swing is so simple, and despite the lack of home runs in two full seasons in the minors -- both in bad power parks -- there is raw power in there and it's going to come as he moves up the ladder.

[Luv those Knicks]

BA called Carpio a first round talent and a pest with the bat.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/appalachian-league-top-20-prospects-chat/

Carpio is a sparkplug on both sides of the ball. He’s a pest with the bat. One scout told Baseball America that Carpio would be an easy first rounder in the upcoming draft class.

and in the same article:

Q: In addition to Carpio and Ramos, did any Mets prospects earn consideration for the list?

Hudson Belinsky (BA): Witt Haggard is more than just a plus-plus name! Command will be the key for him, but he pitches in the mid-90s and has some bite on his slider. Ivan Wilson has big time tools, Dash Winningham has some juice in the bat, Patrick Mazeika is an interesting college hitter. Adrian Almeida is a lefty up to 97 with very poor control. It was an intriguing cast of characters.

Carpio's barely 18, so it's early but there's some nice praise written about him.

[Jeffrey]

Dominic Smith named All AFL team.

1B: Dominic Smith (Mets' No. 5 prospect)
Smith picked up in the AFL where he left off in the Florida State League, making consistently loud contact and barreling the ball to from line to line. MLBPipeline.com's No. 92 overall prospect hit .362 in 14 games for Salt River and might have contended for the batting title if not for a muscle strain that sidelined him for roughly two weeks. The 20-year-old's approach supports the numbers, too, as he's extremely patient and willing to take a walk but also is comfortable hitting in any count and seldom expands his zone. Meanwhile, Smith's defense at first base drew rave reviews throughout the fall.

http://m.mets.mlb.com/news/article/157752492/mlb-pipeline-names-its-2015-all-afl-team