213 Miles From Shea

Milton Ramos was drafted in the 2014 draft in the third round. The 19 year-old short stop was the Mets second pick (thanks to Curtis Granderson). In limited AB’s this year due to being drafter this year, he had 166 AB with a .241 BA, .299 OBP, .355 SLG. In his 40 hits he had 9 doubles, 5 triples and no homers. He can also play second base, last year he split time about 60/40 between two favoring shortstop.

The short story from scouts is his defense is great! His hitting is quite the opposite.

The Mets future at shortstop and second base doesn’t rest on Milton Ramos, like it did back when they drafted Reese Havens. The Mets have Ahmed Rosario for short, and Dilson Herrera for second, (but prospects break your heart, shout have traded for Tulo, extend Murphy, yadda yadda yadda).

Milton Ramos is deep down the prospects charts, which is fine. He has a lot of time to work on his craft and hopefully with good coaching he can develop a respectable bat to go with his glove. Hitting prospects at short are always valuable.

Akeel Morris was drafted by the Mets in 10th round of the 2010 draft. The 22 year-old pitcher has been with the Mets since was 17 and has pitched in the Gulf Coast League, for Kingsport, Brooklyn and Savannah.

Statistically, he had good run of it in 2010 in a limited exposure of 8 games, 24.2 innings and 2.19 ERA. The worrisome season was 2012 where he posted a 7.98 ERA over 38.1 innings. However the last two years he has turned it around on the stat sheet. In 2013 with a 4-1 record over 45.0 innings posting a 1.00 ERA, 1.156 WHIP and 12 K/9. In 2014 he put up an identical record in Savannah with a 0.63 ERA over 57.0 innings with a 0.719 WHIP / 14.1 K/9.

These are good relief numbers! He most likely projects as a middle inning reliever, maybe like a Vic Black type as an absolute highest ceiling. Amazin’ Avenue puts it best when they talk about all of the effort he puts into his throwing, which would be the main concern.

One of the benefits of having so many pitching prospects the last couple of years is several prospects that would have more of a spotlight and pressure on them, don’t. Miller Diaz is one of those prospects. Joining the Mets as an international free agent at the age of 17, the now 22 year old has been with the Mets since the 2009 season. Overall in the minors he is 22-13 with a 2.96 ERA.

He first started playing in American minor league’s in 2011. He had a 4.32 ERA over 11 games and 7 starts with a 4.32 ERA between the Gulf Coast League and Kingsport. The following year he posted a 3.56 ERA over 11 games in Kingsport and then one start in Savannah. The year after he was sent to Brooklyn over 13 games and 12 starts with a 7-3 record and a 2.02 ERA. He was rewarded last year with a promotion back to Savannah where he was 6-1 over 13 games and a 2.25 ERA.

Miller Diaz doesn’t have an incredible high ceiling, maybe back of a rotation starter or long man in the bullpen, but now that he has two consecutive, promising statistical seasons, he may be able to move quickly through the minors to a debut. In his last two seasons he has been able to keep his WHIP down and increase his strikeout numbers, if he can continue to do that, we may start to see him creep into top 20 Mets prospects conversations.

Robert Gsellman is a right-handed pitcher drafted by the Mets in 2011. The 21 year-old pitcher has pitched in four seasons in the organization ranging from the Gulf-Coast league when he was 17 to Savannah last year. Overall he is 17-15 with a 2.85 ERA, a 1.265 WHIP, 6.9 K/9, 2.81 K/BB.

Last year he was 10-6 in Savannah over 20 games and a 2.56 ERA and 116.0 innings with a 1.345 WHIP, 7.1 K/9 and a 2.71 K/BB. He’s still young, so the hope is he starts moving up through the system last year. The ceiling for Gsellman is probably a back of the rotation type pitcher. In 2013 he pitched 5 games in Savannah and 2 in St. Lucie. It may be slightly disappointing that he was in Savannah for all of last season, but the Mets are stacked with pitching prospects. Hopefully he starts off the year in St. Lucie.

Amazing Avenue has a good write up on his stuff that doesn’t show up on a stat sheet.

For all of the Mets pitching strength, there’s a bit of a vacuum when it comes to left-handers, so right now anyoen who is on the Mes and is a borderline prospect that throws lefty is probably going to get serious look, especially when the only solidified lefty in the big league pen is Josh Edgin.

Dario Alvarez played three seasons in the Phillies Dominican Summer League team between 2007 and 2009. He then made his way to the Mets organization at the age of 24 in 2013. Overall in the minors he has a 20-14 record with a 2.66 ERA over 304.0 innings, a 1.178 WHIP, 10.4 K/9 and a 3.03 K/BB ratio.

Last year for the Mets he played in Savannah, St. Lucie and Binghamton with a 10-1 record over 29 games, 6 starts, 73.1 innings with a 1.10 ERA, 0.886 WHIP, 14 K/9 and a 6.71 K/BB ratio, so his numbers shot up, which is why we are now talking about him. He spent the bulk of the season in Savannah where he was 3.3 years older than the average player, so that probably factors into his numbers a bit.

I’m guessing that he is going to start high in the Mets organization this year, and when the normal bullpen changes start, if he is putting up numbers close to what he did last year, he may get a shot because as stated earlier, we need lefties. He’s intriguing but he is also an older player entering this season at 26.