The Mets surrendered 1st or 2nd round picks for Pedro, Wagner, Alou, K-Rod and Bay and they (probably ownership) made the call to not offer arbitration to departing free agents that would have returned draft picks in Leiter, Piazza, Floyd, Oliver and Lo Duca. Minaya chose to punt on supplemental round picks in order to resign or pick up the options on Valentin, El-Duque, Mota, Alou and Delgado and that the Mets cashed out a first rounder and two supplemental round picks in the Wagner and Barajas late season salary/signing bonus dumps but what did the Mets spend the limited amount of money allotted for the draft on when they did make a selection.
The following are the 25 largest signing bonuses handed out to Met draft picks during the period 2005-2010.
Pelfrey.......3.55 M 1st round (9).......RHP...29.......MLB..........Minn.
Harvey.......2.65 M..1st round (7).......RHP...24.......MLB..........Mets
Davis........1.57 M...1st round (18).....1B.....26........MLB.........Mets
Havens....1.41 M...1st round (22)......SS.....26.........AA...........40 man roster
Holt...........1.04 M......1st Supp (33)......RHP...26........AAA.........Minors
Matz..........895 K........2nd Round..........LHP....22........Rookie...Minors
Kunz..........720 K.......1st Supp (44)......RHP...26.......MLB.........Minors (SD)
Vineyard...657 K.......1st Supp (47)......LHP................Rookie....Out
Rodriguez 585 K......2nd round..............OF.................A-.............Out
Mulvey........585 K......2nd round............RHP...............MLB.........Out
Dotson......500 K......13th round...........LHP.....22......Rookie.....Minors
Moviel.......415 K........2nd round...........RHP..................A+...........Out
Smith........410 K.......3rd round............RHP.....29.......MLB.........Clev.
Forsythe...392 K.......3rd round...............C.......23.........A+...........Minors
Rustich.....373 K........3rd round...........RHP...................A+............Out
Kirk N........360 K........3rd round............OF.......25......MLB............Mets
Niesen......351 K........3rd round...........LHP...................AA.............Out
Goeddel....350 K.......24th round..........RHP.......24.......A+............Minors
Shields......315 K.........3rd round............SS........25.......A+............Minors
Allen...........250 K........24th round.........RHP.......23.......A+............Minors
Vaughn......240 K.........4th round............OF.........24.......A+............Minors
Ratliff.........225 K.........4th round...........OF.....................AA.............Out
Holdzkom.210 K.........4th round...........RHP........25......A+............Minors (Cinn)
Ceciliani...204 K.........4th round............OF..........23.......A+............Minors
Peavey......200 K.........6th round............RHP........24......AA............Minors
All prospects while their in your system retain some value either in potential or to assist in upgrading with a Justin Upton, Wil Myers or Denard Span but when I look at the 25 largest expenditures of the draft during the Minaya regime I can see why we weren't able to make competitive offers. I'm not counting any of these guys out but it's pretty hard to see any difference makers arriving out of this group unless things turn around pretty quickly. Between under performance, age and injuries it's not unlikely that only the top 3 of the 25 most expensive draftees will have had any sort of impact when all is said and done.
Matz and Ceciliani if they can stay on the field, Vaughn as a good platoon RFer, Forsythe as a backup catcher. things could click for Goeddel and Peavey and Kirk may be useful as a 4th or 5th OFer but that is more in a support role and a lot less than one would expect from the 25 most expensive draft picks over a six year period. The same situation exists internationally where the largest allocation of dollars went to Deolis Guerra, Fern, Flores, Pena and Urbina.
The failure to develop true difference makers from the guys that money was invested in (so to speak) is behind the promotions and tryouts of guys like Duda (85 K), MDD (110 K) Thole (?) Carson (?) Edgin (2 K) Schwiden (?) McHugh (?), Gorski (118 K), Lutz (120 K), and Satin (25 K). While it's great getting something more than useful from Murphy and Gee, not to mention Niese (175 K) you cannot expect to beat the odds on everyone.
Anyone see any of the top 25 making a major impact on the Major league squad?