John Sickels over at MinorLeagueBall.com posted his Top 20 Mets Prospects yesterday and, well, it's not pretty. The Mets' farm system only has two players ranked higher than a C+, with Lastings Milledge and Mike Pelfrey both garnering A= grades.
The overall dearth of top-tier prospects in the Mets' system should come as a surprise to very few, as the Mets dealt away four of their top twelve minor leaguers in the deals for Carlos Delgado and Paul Lo Duca:
[x] RHP Yusmeiro Petit (Delgado)
[x] 1B Mike Jacobs (Delgado)
[x] 3B Grant Psomas (Delgado
[x] RHP Gaby Hernandez (Lo Duca)
Petit, Hernandez and Jacobs were 2-3-4 in the Mets' system back in November according to Baseball America, and they all fall in Florida's outstanding Top-10, one reason the Marlins could be a very good, young, cheap team within a couple of years.
You can only shed so many tears over the losses of Petit, Jacobs and Psomas, since they netted the Mets a superstar first baseman, but the trade of Hernandez for Lo Duca still boggles my mind. There is no guarantee that Hernandez will ever develop into anything special, but we already know what Lo Duca is: an aging, no-walk no-power catcher with an inaccurate throwing arm and a penchant for second-half collapses, despite "playing the game the right way".