August 15th has come and gone. All teams have signed whatever draft picks they could, and I have to say the Mets did a very good job. They only whiffed on two of their top 20 picks, but both 12th rounder Kenny Mathews (Cal State Fullerton) and 20th rounder Mason Robbins (Southern Miss) had a very high interest in pursuing college. Considering the Mets drafted as many high school kids as they did, you have to expect to miss more than a typical year. Either way you must credit them for what they did accomplish, and on paper this draft looks like it could end up being a very good one.

The Mets have been in the basement as far as spending goes in all of MLB over the last few years. When calculating money spent on the draft all that is included is top 10 round kids and then any over slot bonuses after round 10. Here is a round up of the Mets investments for the 2011 draft.

OF Brandon Nimmo – $2,100,000
RHP Michael Fulmer – $937,500
RHP Cory Mazzoni – $437,500
RHP Logan Verrett – $425,000
RHP Tyler Pill – $200,000
LHP Jack Leathersich – $110,000
OF Joe Tuschak – $250,000
1B Cole Frenzel – $200,000
SS Danny Muno – $10,000
LHP Alexander Panteliodis – $175,000
RHP Matthew Budgell – $225,000
RHP Christian Montgomery – $250,000
SS Phillip Evans – $650,000 (biggest bonus outside of round 2 in Mets history)
OF Bradley Marquez – $325,000
C Jeffrey Diehl – $130,000

That brings the total to $6,425,000 which is a substantially higher figure than the Mets have spent since at least 2004. You can see a chart comparing what the Mets have spent each year since 04 over at Mets Minor League Blog

Now for the fun, let’s compare it to the rest of the NL East’s top 10 rounds+over slot for the rest of the NL East.

Braves – $3,022,200 .. Mets outspent Atlanta by $3,402,800
Marlins – $3,855,000 .. Mets outspent Florida by $2,570,000
Phillies – $4,230,300 .. Mets out spent Philadelphia by $2,194,700
Nationals – $14,676,100 .. Washington outspent the Mets by $8,251,100

Outside of the Nationals who just went wild (Anthony Rendon, Alex Meyer, Brian Goodwin, Matt Purke) , the Mets significantly outspent the rest of the NL East. This is not a trend I have really ever seen for this team. I hope the Mets continue this, and keep making quality draft picks to really bolster the system to the point where it should be. There is absolutely no reason the New York Mets should not possess a top 5 farm system in baseball. It is going to be a work in progress given the farm that Paul DePodesta came into, but with their work ethic and baseball knowledge there is no reason to think the Mets will not end up where they need to be. The 2011 draft gets two thumbs up from me, now build from it.