Hey, the draft is tomorrow!!! (Sun 7/9)

[Frayed Knot]

So in the first 30 picks of Round One the Mets pick 32nd.
It seems that there's a new rule where Uncle Steve going over the "suggested" salary cap (by, like, 3.2 billion dollars) means the Mets are penalized in draft slots.
So, despite losing out to the Braves last September and playing, like, 50 games worse than them since, we wind up picking eight slots after them.


So who's the hot commodity at #32? I have no fuckin' idea.
But you can tune in Sunday night at 7 on MLBN or ESPN (wait, ESPN covers baseball?!??) to find out.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Not knowing any of the players, I think I'd like to see them draft some college starting pitchers.

[Frayed Knot]

Supposedly a hitter-heavy draft. Except that those kinds of descriptions generally point only to the top dozen picks or so, so who knows.

[Edgy MD]

The Mets are actually supposed to pick at #22, but got docked 10 slots by spending too much bonus $$ last year.

Stupid stuff.

[Frayed Knot]

So here's a list of impressive sounding (or not) prospects that we most definitely will NOT be drafting with our first pick.
Personally, I don't like any of these guys so I'm glad they're going elsewhere before we draft the real prize of the group.


1) Pirates — Paul Skenes, RHP, LSU
2) Nats — Dylan Crews, OF, LSU
3) Tigers — Max Clark, OF, Indiana HS
4) Rangers — Wyatt Longford, OF, U Florida
5) Twins — Walker Jenkins, OF, N Carolina HS
6) A’s — Jacob Wilson, SS, Grand Canyon U
7) Reds — Rhett Lowder, RHP, Wake Forest
8) Royals — Blake Mitchell, C, Texas HS
9) Rockies — Chase Dollander, RHP U Tennesee
10) Marlins — Noble Meyer, RHP, Oregon HS
11) Angels — Nolan Schanuel, 1B, Florida Atlantic
12) DBacks — Tommy Troy, SS, Stanford
13) Cubs — Matt Shaw, SS, U Maryland
14) Red Sox — Kyle Teel, C, U Virginia
15) White Sox — Jacob Gonzalez, SS, U Mississippi
16) Giants — Bryce Eldridge, James Madison U
17) Orioles — Enrique Bradfield, OF, Vanderbilt
18) Brewers — Brock Wilden, 3B, 3B, Wake Forest
19) Rays — Brayden Taylor, SS, TCU
20) Blue Jays — Arjun Nimmala, SS, Florida HS
21) Cardinals — Chase Davis, OF, U Arizona
22) Mariners — Colt Emerson, SS, Ohio HS
23) Guardians — Ralphy Velazquez, C, California HS
24) Braves — Hurston Waldrep, RHP, U Florida
25) Padres — Dillon Head, OF, Illinois HS
26) Yanquis — George Lombard Jr. -- SS, Florida HS
27) Phillies
28) Astros
29) Mariners
30) Mariners
31) Rays
32) Mets —

[Edgy MD]

I think that's the first time teammates have gone #1 and 2.

Dillon Head, LOL.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Mets pick Georgia high school SS Colin Houck. ESPN jocksniffers compare him to Evan Longoria

[Frayed Knot]

#32 to the NY Mets -- Colin Houck, SS, Georgia HS

Considered a top-15 draft pick, he's also a QB with a scholarship offer for Mississippi State
Same HS as current Brave Matt Olson

[nymr83]

2nd round Mets took the guy who spurned them in the 3rd round last year. i guess that means they either have a deal with him or value a compensation pick next year more than they value whoever was on the board

[Frayed Knot]

Colin Houck

Scouting grades: Hit: 55 | Power: 55 | Run: 50 | Arm: 60 | Field: 50 | Overall: 55

One of the better two-sport prospects in the 2023 high school crop, Houck is a three-star quarterback recruit who passed for 2,189 yards and 24 touchdowns as a Parkview HS (Lilburn, Ga.) senior. He turned down football offers from Power 5 programs to commit to Mississippi State for baseball, though he's unlikely to get to Starkville as a projected first-round pick in July. He's the latest phenom out of Parkview, which has won three national championships and nine state titles in the last 25 years, while producing four big league hitters, most notably Matt Olson.

Houck's combination of strength and bat speed give him plus raw power, and the right-handed hitter already shows a propensity for driving balls in the air to his pull side. He does swing and miss and chase pitches more than is ideal at times, though there's optimism that he can improve as a hitter once he concentrates solely on baseball. He has looked more consistent at the plate this spring and does use the entire ballpark, though most of his pop goes to left field.

Gatorade's Georgia state player of the year, Houck can flash solid speed but projects as an average runner once he fills out his 6-foot-2 frame. Though he's more physical than twitchy, his plus arm and outstanding body control give him a chance to be a big-bodied shortstop. At worst, he'll move to third base and could be a plus defender while fitting the offensive profile there.

[Frayed Knot]

Brandon Sproat

Scouting grades: Fastball: 60 | Curveball: 45 | Slider: 55 | Changeup: 50 | Control: 45 | Overall: 50

Since his high school days, Sproat has tantalized scouts with impressive raw stuff, but hasn’t always delivered consistent results. The Rangers took him in the seventh round out of high school in 2019, but he opted to head to Florida. A year in the rotation in 2022 was a little up-and-down, but was enough for the Mets to take him in the third round, but he decided to come back to the Gators for one more season, giving him one more chance to impress scouts.

Sproat looks the part with his 6-foot-3 frame and has a potential four-pitch mix to use to get hitters out. He’s flirted with triple digits in the past -- his fastball averaged close to 96 mph in 2022 and he was once again in the 94-98 mph range this fall. He does have distinct breaking pitches, with a mid-80s slider a potential true out pitch that misses a ton of bats and a slower get-me-over type of curve. He has feel for a mid-80s changeup that he doesn’t throw as much, but it could be a fourth at least average pitch.

The right-hander made strides in finding the strike zone last year and showed solid command in fall ball, though his fastball can be too straight at times and he gets hit more than he should given his stuff. Another inconsistent turn in the Gators weekend rotation has once again made it difficult to figure out where he belongs on a Draft board.

[metirish]

Are those grades out of 100?

[Frayed Knot]

For some reason baseball rating system evolved into a 20-80 scale
So 50 is still average but Pete or Judge might have 75-80 power numbers while Vogelbach would rate as a 20 runner.

[metirish]

Thanks FK

[nymr83]

You could at least give Keith Law credit for his writing that you copied and pasted, even if I understand not wanting to link to articles behind a paywall

[Edgy MD]

The 20-80 grading system is generally credited to Branch Rickey. If one set of numbers appears, we should understand it as the profile the scout believes the player will have when he arrives in the majors, but sometimes they give you two sets of numbers — one representing where the player is now, and a second representing where he should be.

So while the numbers skew toward the mean, finding an 18-year-old guy who you can confidently state will have even modestly above average power when he matures into a big leaguer ain't nothing for a scout. And finding an 18-year-old who gets a 50 on anything NOW — meaning he'd be average with that skill if you dropped him into the majors right out of high school, is an eye-opener.

But again, you mostly get only the MLB projection numbers. When you read something like "plus power" or "plus fastball," you can understand that to be the equivalent of a 60 rating. A "plus-plus" tag equates to about 70. An 80 rating is usually described in text as "elite" or just "80-grade."

It's rare that a scout will come out and turn in an initial report with an 80 grade, because that means sticking your neck out, and who wants to do that on a teenager? But as a player gets a rep, and a consensus builds around him, ratings might grow less conservative. Still, a scout typically has a lot more confidence penning in a 20 or 25 grade for a player's weak areas (even a real prospect's weak areas) than he or she might have writing in a 75 or 80 for a player's strongest areas. The industry stops and gasps when an 80 rating comes down the pipeline. But Wilmer Flores typically got 20 ratings for his speed, despite coming up at a speed position (shortstop) and was still never-the-less considered to be a very solid prospect.

[A Boy Named Seo]

New boys are both "blessed" to be drafted. The end of this is pretty funny. Houck cracks a smile when talking about his Braves fandom and his newfound loyalty to the Mets.

https://www.mlb.com/video/houck-sproat- ... ideo-share

[A Boy Named Seo]

Sounds like the Mets maybe got lucky and knew what do about it

[bmfc1]

Sprout had to "consent" to being drafted for a 2d time by the same team. I wonder how that consent was conveyed. Do they have a form for him to DocuSign? Is it as simple as a thumbs-up emoji?

[Edgy MD]

You know it's a good pick because all the draftniks are high-fiving Mr. Met as Dan O'Dowd says the Mets "really didn't get penalized at all for going over that first-round sheshhold."

[Methead]

Our minor league system could really use another Zebulon or two.

[metirish]

How are the picks from last year doing ?

[Edgy MD]

Our minor league system could really use another Zebulon or two.

Plenty of good stuff stiil available at Zebulon and McKenzie's wedding registry.

[A Boy Named Seo]

Day 2 of the draft starts NOW!!!!

https://www.mlb.com/draft/2023

[A Boy Named Seo]

Mets sign a two-way guy! Nolan McLean throws heat and hits dingers. Decidedly fun pick.

https://www.mlb.com/prospects/draft/nolan-mclean-690997