Classless Mets Lose to Cardinals, Draft a Zucchini or Something Applesauce

Meet the Mets

Lost in all the hullabaloo of the MLB draft, the Mets did play a game yesterday, falling 5-4 to the Redbirds who avoided the ignominious four game sweep. Jon Rauch gave up the game-winning two run homer to Allan Craig in the eighth and apparently has been suffering from some elbow tenderness. Maybe that's the kind of thing you want to have checked out before using him in a high leverage situation, you guys.

Of course the big news of the day was the MLB draft (well at least is you are an inveterate prospect obsessor like me). With their first round pick the Mets selected Gavin Cecchini a high school SS from Louisiana. He's the son of two coaches and his brother is in the Red Sox organization. Here's Alex's scouting report. MMLB has some more Cecchini reports from various scouting sources for you to peruse. With their supplemental round pick, the Mets took Kevin Plawecki, a catcher from Purdue. Again, Alex has you covered.

So, you might have noticed that Mets fans lit the blogosphere on fire last night shortly after each of these picks were made. For example, I don't recommend reading the comments under Toby's post about Cecchini. (Granted, generally I don't recommend reading comments at any site on the internet) Everyone wanted Lucas Giolito, who was eventually picked by the Nationals at 16. And to add insult to injury, the Nats have a much smaller bonus pool than the Mets. But to be fair, 14 other teams passed on Giolito as well. Does he have the higher ceiling? Sure? Have we seen his medicals or bonus demands? No. Would I have taken him? Yes. But I don't pretend to have close to the same volume of information that the Mets do. But it's draft day, the one of the year that we all get to be experts on amateur talent.

I suspect that the Mets are going underslot on the first two picks in a weaker draft class in order to save money for rounds 2+. This draft class is weak mostly because it is weak for the first 100 picks or so. After that, the talent level is about the same as it is every year. There's an advantage to being able to spread out $500,000 of overslot money over five picks than there is loading all your eggs into one basket, no matter how sexy that pick might be.

Finally, here's a list of the SS by Mets affiliate:

AAA: Kazmar

AA: Rodriguez

A+: Tovar

A: Rivera

A-: Phil Evans

Of those guys, only Tovar and Evans are likely to sniff the majors and only Tovar is likely to be able to play SS there. (I hold out hope on Evans, but I am about the only one). Tovar's bat is pretty fringy as well. Cecchini projects as an average to above average MLB SS with an average bat, say Tejada with a bit more pop. That is incredibly rare and valuable. He wasn't going to make it out of the teens, so it's not like it was a crazy reach. Would I have gone that way? No. Is it indefensible? Hardly.

Okay, rant over.

With Chris Young to start Tuesday, the Mets need to clear a 40-man spot. As widely suspected, Jack Egbert will be the victim. The Mets still will need to clear another space when they transfer Beato off the 60-day DL, Carson, Lutz and (sigh) Satin would be the most likely candidates. Young is taking inspiration from Johan's no hitter. As are we all, Chris.

At least Josh Satin should be able to enjoy a few more days on the 25-man, as Jason Bay's return has been delayed by illness. Let him play! Let him play!

Jon Niese got the all clear from doctors, after developing a rapid heartbeat in Sunday's game, but will need to undergo a procedure over the all-star break.

Former legal person Craig Calcaterra considers whether or not the Mets can actually ban the No-Han party crasher for life.

Diehard Mets fan Jon Stewart talked about witnessing the Santana no-hitter, while David Letterman had to do the Johan top 10, as our ace was catching a flight to D.C.

Finally, Ted Berg has his usual scouting report on the Mets picks.

Around the NL East

The Dodgers picked off the Phillies, scoring the winning run against Jonathan Papelbon in the ninth. Papelbon, in case you were wondering, is still a jerk.

The Nationals, Marlins and Braves all had the day off.

In the shock of the century, the Braves took a prep arm from a Georgia high school in round one. As mentioned earlier, the Nats grabbed Lucas Giolito and his sprained UCL, while the Marlins went after college southpaw Andrew Heaney.

Around MLB

In a mild surprise, Carlos Correa went #1 overall in the MLB Rule 4 Draft. Many pundits had Correa listed as the top talent in the draft, but most thought Stanford righty Mark Appel would go first. Correa is the first Puerto Rican player to go #1 overall. Appel ended up falling all the way to #8 and the Pirates. That is already looking like a fun negotiation. And of course, it is never too early to make completely wild guesses about winners and losers, right?

Here's a complete list of everyone that was picked last night. The draft resumes with Round 2 at noon today.

The Giants beat the Cubs with some help from Starlin Castro, who has worked his way into Dale Sveum's doghouse. Guess the Cubs weren't kidding when they said everyone was available.

Jarrod Parker took a no-hit bid into the 8th inning, and the A's pounded the suddenly scuffling Rangers.

Finally, FanGraphs takes a look at Carlos Beltran's HoF case. Yeah, that's going to be a fun argument in 8-10 years.