Sometimes sixth place is something to celebrate

ESPN’s Keith Law says the New York Mets have the sixth best farm system in baseball. He ranked them 14th last year and 22nd in 2012.

That does feel like something to celebrate. I don’t always give Sandy Alderson the credit he deserves, but he has done well in restoring pitching depth to the Mets’ minor league organization.  He’s made some good – potentially brilliant – trades, turning Carlos Beltran into RHP Zack Wheeler, R.A. Dickey into C Travis d’Arnaud and RHP Noah Syndergaard, and Marlon Byrd into RHP Vic Black and IF Dilson Herrera.

(However, Omar Minaya did not leave the cupboard completely empty – Baseball America’s organizational top prospect list the winter Alderson was hired included Jenrry Mejia, Wilmer Flores, Matt Harvey and Lucas Duda, with Dillon Gee, Jeurys Familia, Juan Lagares and Matt den Dekker failing to make the cut.)

Law unveiled his list of the top 100 prospects in baseball today, and five Mets are on it: Syndergaard (#24), d’Arnaud (#36), 1B Dominic Smith (#39), RHP Rafael Montero (#60 ) and OF Brandon Nimmo (#92)

Smith, last year’s 11th overall pick in the June amateur draft, is a surprise to crack the top 50 considering that he has yet to play a full season of professional baseball and is years away from the major leagues, but that’s part of the fun of these lists.

Baseball Prospectus and MLB.com also recently released their list of the 100 (or 101) top prospects in baseball, and the Mets have three players on each list.

Baseball Prospectus has Syndergaard at #11, d’Arnaud at #48, and IF  Flores at #71. MLB.com also ranks Syndergaard at #11, but lists d’Arnaud at #22 and Montero at #85.

Now it would be nice if the Mets had more position players who were close to being Major League-ready. But let’s be happy with what we have, and hope that most of the Mets’ prospects turn into major league regulars, including a star or two.

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