213 Miles From Shea

In this series of articles (as
described earlier) the Mets drafts of each year of the decade will be analyzed
in terms of players that made the majors, and for more recent years, players
that were drafted that were traded in key trades (this section will be focused
more on later drafts, where the players haven’t made it to the majors yet).

Since
this article is focusing on the 2000 draft, it will be more of a focus on how
the players that the Mets scouted turned out after they were drafted. There
were four players the Mets drafted that made it to the majors later on in their
careers.

Billy Traber: The Mets first pick in the draft came from the 16^th
pick in the first round (via the Mariners) and the Mets selected Billy Traber,
an LHP from Loyola (CA). Traber was part of the trade that brought Roberto
Alomar over to the Mets. Traber himself made his major league debut for the
Cleveland Indians in 2003 where he had a 5.24 ERA over 111.2 innings pitched.
He was then claimed off waivers to the Red Sox in 2004. In 2005 he rejoined via
Free Agency the Indians and then in 2006 made his way over to the Nationals
where he pitched 43.1 innings in the majors and then 39 innings the following
year (ERA’s: 2006-6.44, 2007-4.76). In 2008 he played with the Yankees where he
pitched a little over 16 innings and in 2009 he pitched 3.2 innings with the
Red Sox.

Bobby Keppel: Keppel was the second draftee for the Mets in 2000.
They selected him with pick 36 in the supplemental round. Keppel stayed in the
Mets system until he was released by the Mets in 2005 where he then joined with
the Royals. In 2006 he made his major league debut where he had a 5.50 ERA over
34.1 innings. The next season he was with the Rockies where he had an ERA over
11 over 4 innings of work. He made it back to the majors last season with the
Twins with a 4.83 ERA over 54.0 innings pitched.

Chris Basak: Basak was the 25^th pick in round 6 for the
Mets in 2000. He has not had much success in the majors. He was released by the
Mets in 2006. In 2007 he played in 5 games for the Yankees where he had only
one at bat (and didn’t get a hit).

Jeff Duncan: In round 7, the Mets selected Duncan. Duncan was first
drafted in ’97 by the Cubs, but he didn’t sign. He is the only player the Mets
drafted in 2000 that made the majors with the Mets. He played in two seasons
for the Mets in 2003 and 2004. In 2003 he hit .194 and in 2004 he hit .067. He
hasn’t played in the Majors since.

Tonight I will be starting a series where I look at the drafts in the last decade for the New York Mets, starting with 2000 and through 2009. The reviews look basically at the players that Mets drafted who eventually made it to the majors for the earlier seasons, and for the later seasons, the reviews look at players involved in key trades, and players who look to be making a big impact in the near future for the Amazin's.

So far 6 of the 10 reviews have been written, and its not secret that the 2001 draft so far has been the best for the Mets, where they drafted David Wright (you may have heard of him). Also, 2005, depending on how the players develop, could possibly pass the 2001 draft thanks to a couple of pitchers a catcher that caught our eyes late last season.

I hope you all like the series, suprisingly I have learned a lot from researching these posts.

Hey Readers:

I am currently working right now on two separate projects right now for this site, and my site over at Fan Huddle. As of right now, the first set of articles I am working on is a review year by year of the Mets draft “success” of this decade (which means for the early 2000's, the success is pretty well determined at this point, but later years the success (or lack) has not been seen yet). I have finished 2000-2004 and I am planning to start posting these articles on this site starting on January 4 and going through January 14.

The second set of articles I am working on will be posted on my Fan Huddle site, and will be a Spring Training Preview of possible position battles, and story lines to look for. The series will go by position. Most likely these articles will start to be posted on the 10th, as we wait to see a clearer picture of what the 40 man could look like.

Of course I will continue to post regularly on both sites on other topics, but get excited for these two series (especially the Decade Draft series, I am really happy with it so far).

-Elliot

In this morning's Sports Center on ESPN, the Mets made both of their top 10 lists. ESPN presented, as usual, its top 10 plays of the year and of course, that had to be followed by the NOT top 10 plays of the year. The Mets were honored by being featured in both lists.

For the actual top 10 list, the Mets Daniel Murphy was #9 with his fantastic flip of the glove to the pitcher covering first base after the ball bounced off the edge of the base. Its one of those plays that is hard to describe in words. Below is the video of this amazing play.

The Mets also made the #1 NOT top ten play of the year. It's a night you probably remember. A night a lot of your hope for this season just went away completely. I am talking about of course when the Mets where about to get a great 8-7 win over the Yankees and then Luis Castillo didn't catch an easy two out pop-up, two runs scored and the Mets lost the game 9-8. That play is probably still in your mind if you saw it, so there is no reason to post it here.

In all of the excitement with Bay to the Mets, the possible (and not possible) availability of Carlos Zambrano, and Matt Holiday, there has been very little coverage of five minor signings that have occurred from yesterday to today.

The Phillies have been busy with one major league signing and one minor league signing. On the major league side, the Phillies added another arm to their bullpen in the form of Danys Baez. Baez just finished a contract with the Orioles where he had an up and down time where he pitched poorly and pitched well. He is coming off of a better year than 08, when he didn't play at all, and a poor 07. The contract is said to be for two years. The other players the Mets signed is Tagg Bozied, who was a big prospect several years ago, and then suffered a major injury in 2004 in a celebration. He played for an AAA team last season. He is 30 years old.

The Cubs have signed Marlon Byrd to a three year contract today. Yesterday the catcher's market got slightly smaller as the Rockies negotiated a one year deal with Miguel Olivio, which leaves Torrebela with one less option and leaves more compeption for the Mets catching job that Molina is holding out on.

Another NL East move happened yesterday as Kelly Johnson ended his time with the Braves. The Brave who caused the Mets much grief in the last several seasons has signed a one year contract with the Diamondbacks. I'm pretty glad to see him not in the division anymore.

Jason Bay and the Mets agreed to a 4 year, 66 million dollar deal with a fifth year option yesterday (pending a physical) meaning that the slugger will be patrolling left field. At first, believe it or not, I wasn't excited about this deal, but now I am, because I am excited about some of the promise this provides.

Think about the outfield of the Mets now. We have Bay, Beltran and Francoeur. A combination like that in the lineup is one of the best outfields in the league in terms of hitting (assuming Francoeur plays the full year for the Mets next year with the numbers he put up as a Met, not a Brave). There is the potential here for a lot of homers and really a lot of runs. If the lineup looks like this:

A few days ago, over at Fan Huddle, I made my case for the Mets signing Chapman. This was of course before the signing of Bay, but I stand by my words and still feel that Chapman is a worthy route for the Amazin's to go.

Later I will be posting my new look at the pitching on the Mets a direction to go now that they have committed money over to Bay.

Well, it has been a while since the Mets initial contract offer, and still no Jason Bay. A few days ago Gammons made a statement about how Bay would rather “play in Beirut than in Queens”. This sounds like a classic “he's just not that into you” situation. He doesn't want to play for us (based one what we are offering) and we are, smartly, not going to over buy on Bay. So what does that mean?

Well first for Bay, that means he will have to drop his requests becuase there are close to zero teams out there that can pay him what he wants to play.

For the Mets, it means they are probably making the right decision, as long as they go and plug up some holes. You know when you are hungry, and it is just as easy to eat a salad as it is to eat some Fast Food. You want to eat the Fast Food, and you will enjoy it, but you know later on it will hurt you. Well thats the situation here. We will enjoy having Bay in the lineup, and at first it will be good. However, as the year's go on, he will become a problem, especially if we give him 5 years. It won't be too big of a problem, but still a problem.

So what do we do instead?

We need to sign a pitcher, still look for a Castillo trade, and find a power outfielder that is reamining on the market that we can sign for one year (and only one year) and then spend big money on Free Agents next year, as that class is looking better. We still have a good core of players, we need to fill in the gaps right now.

This isn't about the Mets but its the holidays! That time of year where there people wish for snow, are the in mood to give, families get together and listen to Holiday music….by Rick Dempsey?

For those of you who don't know who Rick Dempsey is, he was the catcher for the Orioles for a while, and the MVP of the 1983 World Series. He was also known for his great antics during rain delays in Baltimore. Now he can be known for his album of holiday songs. I was filling up on gas at my local Royal Farms (in Baltimore) and they were playing Christmas songs. After one song, they advertised Rick's album and said that the previous song was sung by Rick himself. He actually does not sound that bad.

You just don't wake up to find a catcher singing, but whatever. Happy Holidays to everyone out there.

(If you are curious about the musical styling of Rick Dempsey you can preview his album on I-tunes)

Last week I wrote two articles for my other website, the Fan Huddle network, the New York Mets page, that I never linked here. The first of the two articles was about Fernando Nieve. Before his injury last year, he was a good surprise for the Mets in the starting role. Well he has been recovering well and he was doing pretty well in the Winter Leagues. The post written about him can be found here.

The second article was about Jose Reyes' interview with WFAN about he was happy, feeling better, and getting ready for next season. That article can be found here.