I was quite happy to see some spirited discussion about several of the recent posts on this blog, most notably yesterday’s about Baseball America’s Top 10 lists for the Mets and Yankees organizations. Some of the comments really interested me, specifically the ones about the purpose of this blog and of the Beating the Bushes column. Because of that, I wanted to take some time address them. I’ll address the most important question first – at least the most important one from my point of view. I can understand the frustrations some of you have had with the way many of these recent posts have been about projections going forward. However, when things begin to slow down here in the winter, and prospects are home for a month or two before the beginning of spring training, there are limited options for content besides recapping the previous year.
Now that I’ve gone through and done that, however, my plan is to start getting in touch with some scouts who saw a lot of these same players play in winter ball, as well as throughout the 2008 season, to try and get some solid outside opinions on a lot of the players that have been mentioned, both in the various posts over the past few weeks and in the comments sections.
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With that out of the way, I wanted to get to some of your thoughts on the players mentioned on these lists, and who were included in the Bushes All-Stars. I’ll start with Chris Aguila. I would agree with the assessment that his numbers were inflated in the Pacific Coast League from where they would have been in the International League. However, I still think he would have put up decent numbers in Buffalo – even if his home run totals may have been closer to 15 or 20 homers than 29.
That said, he was included in the Bushes All-Stars because he hit a ton of home runs in Triple-A and made the Triple-A All-Star team. I based these teams on the numbers players put up in 2008 much more than their long-term professional potential. Obviously Chris Aguila wasn’t going to become a major factor in the Mets’ plans going forward, but he had a great 2008 – thus his inclusion in my All-Star team.
As far as Baseball America’s list goes, by the way, New Orleans was used because those players played in New Orleans last year. I added the teams each player was on in 2008, so someone who didn’t know off-hand could see where each of them was last year.
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One of the more interesting players not to make the Mets’ Top 10 list is Ike Davis, the organization’s top overall draft pick in the 2008 draft. For those wondering why Davis was left off of the list, here is the answer:
.256, 0 HR, 17 RBI
Those were the numbers Davis put up with the Brooklyn Cyclones in 215 at-bats last year – not exactly stellar. He clearly is going to be a project for the Mets, and has a long way to go before he comes anywhere near reaching the levels he was supposed to when he was drafted.
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When you look at the Baseball America Top 10 lists, in particular, you often are going to find that they tend to be skewed towards players with the highest talent ceilings in each organization. A perfect example of that is Andrew Brackman. Despite the fact that he hasn’t thrown one regular season inning in the minor leagues after undergoing Tommy John surgery, he still was ranked No. 3 overall in the Yankee system because he is 6-foot-10, incredibly athletic (played basketball as well at N.C. State) and is capable of throwing near 100 mph.
As some of you indicated, that often hinders players who don’t have the same physical tools from being ranked as highly on lists such as this one. Two such palyers have been mentioned in some comments – pitchers Dillon Gee and Dylan Owen. Both are right-handers who don’t throw particularly hard. In 150 innings between High-A St. Lucie and Double-A Binghamton, Owen was 13-7 with a 3.66 ERA, striking out 131 and walking 42. Gee, meanwhile, was 10-6 with a 2.96 ERA between with the same two teams.
Since they both should begin 2008 with Double-A Binghamton, I am looking forward to keeping track of both of them an comparing their performance.
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Thanks again for everyone’s interest in the recent posts. I hope you keep reading and commenting in the coming weeks and months. I’m going to write a separate post about this later on tonight, but anyone who has a question about the minor leagues, whether about the Met or Yankee systems or something else, feel free to e-mail me at tbontemps@nypost.com. I’m going to leave my e-mail address at the bottom of each post now, with the hopes that some people will use it.