I was thinking about this earlier today, coincidentally. I see it like this. In baseball, you draft guys knowing they will need at least a year before they can play at the big league level. And, in baseball, prospects are more important as trade chips than in other sports, such as football or basketball. So, in general, you just want to get the best player available, without regards to positions. Now, baseball also does not have a salary cap. This is good for teams such as ours, but not as good for teams like the Pirates. For example, last year, the Pirates had a lot of trouble signing Pedro Alvarez because of his extravagant demands. Aaron Crow and the Nationals failed to come to an agreement. Teams such as the Yankees go over slot in the draft because they can. They can afford to draft and sign the players that slip between the cracks. So why can’t the Mets? But then again, why can’t the Mets pony up an extra $2 million to get Derek Lowe instead of Oliver Perez, which would not only give us a better player, but give us a first round draft pick and a supplemental? Things like this lend credence to people dissing the Wilpons/Omar.

and more of an excuse for poor drafting strategies. It seems to me like we just target quicker turn around players earlier, especially in the more recent years, rather than targeting guys who will be cheaper to sign.

Some of those systems have recently graduated a lot of high impact players, the D-backs and Reds, and maybe the Twins, which is why they’re so low on the list.