Reviewing the Mets Draft

The baseball draft is a confusing one. A team really doesn’t know what they’ll get until midnight on August 15th. Crazy, right? While the system needs to be fixed, as it’s unfair to the college coaches and to the professional teams, as a Mets fan, I am ecstatic about the 2011 draft success.

At midnight, the Mets bagged some of the more important picks in their draft. Brandon Nimmo, the team’s first-round selection, signed well over slot for $2.1 million. In addition, the Mets signed every pick up to the 12th round, including 5 high school players.

Instead of repeating what everyone else says, I’ll give you some sleepers to put you to bed tonight.

The ‘Steals’:

3rd-round selection Logan Verrett out of Baylor signed at midnight for $425k. A college arm, Verrett is advanced enough to start out in High-A and could be on the same work plan that 2010 first-rounder Matt Harvey faced this season. Verrett sits at 88-92 mph with the fastball, but his best pitch is his slider. Expect to see him start in St. Lucie next season.

11th round selection Christian Montgomery is as good as it gets. Before the draft, he was considered a lock in the first round, until he rapidly lost velocity in his fastball. Last summer, Montgomery’s fastball sat at 90-95 mph, however he was consistently throwing in the mid-80s during the spring. He’s going to be a work in progress kind of guy. High risk, higher reward.

Phillip Evans stunned everyone. When the Mets drafted him, he was considered a lock to play college ball at San Diego St. But when you throw supplemental-round money to a 15th-rounder, you make moves. Evans signed for $650k, well over what MLB suggests. He’s a shortstop right now, but the Mets are considering moving him to catcher, which I don’t agree with. We all see how Josh Thole turned out. Don’t mess with what’s not broken, right?

The ‘One That Got Away’:

If there was one player I wanted more than Phillip Evans, it was 20th-rounder Mason Robbins. The Mets farm system doesn’t contain many young outfield bats and the addition of Robbins could have made this draft even more memorable. He’s a power-slugging player who has the bat to stay in a corner outfield slot.

When the draft concluded, I gave the class a “B-” on the talent that was drafted. The B- represented the picks as they were. The grade could have gone down or up.

After some thinking, I’d give this a solid “B”. The Mets went with the dark horse in Brandon Nimmo, something Mets fans haven’t seen in a while. The Mets signed 11 high school draftees, the highest in god knows. From being a team that was known for drafting the signable college kids, to changing into a team that will go after the toolys high school kids is something I look forward to seeing.

What did you think about the Mets draft?