The Mets may have gotten a steal with the 89th pick in the draft of Blake Forsythe, but more on that later. Forsythe is a junior out of the University of Tennessee and, when he's going, he is an offensive player, playing backstop (a combination that every team hopes to find). Forsythe graduated high school in 2007 and he was not drafted out of high school. In his senior year he hit a school record 13 homers, and also had 53 RBI's while batting .443. He put up good stats in his junior year posting a .385 BA, 42 RBI's and 10 homers. In college his numbers were trending towards a great junior year, but he trailed off:
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The above table is from here. The following is his 2010 batting line:
A lot of scouting reports say that he just wasn't “right” this past year. He was swinging at missing at a lot of stuff, and looked like he was trying to drive up his power numbers. If that is the case then the Mets might have a steal here. If this problem is him lengthening out his swing, then Mets coaches can get him back to a shorter, sweeter swing. I'm not saying that Forsythe will be a star, but his struggles this season is what kept him out of the first round, and I feel that, or maybe more hopeful, that he can be coached out of this and become that first round type of player he was orginally projected to be.
His 2009 stats are impressive, if he can get anywhere near them in the MLs it would be a great pick.