At Baseball America, John Manuel ranked the top prospects in the Eastern League, putting Fernando Martinez at #7, Daniel Murphy at #13 and Jon Niese at #18. Martinez was #3 on last year’s EL Top 20.

Here are his important assessments on each guy:

On Martinez

Martinez continues to elicit a range of reactions.

One AL scout called him a below-average runner with a tweener profile, lacking the impact bat for an outfield corner. A manager who said he liked Martinez’s bat last year believed that he’d lost some explosiveness in his swing.

“I like him a lot better than I did last year,” one AL scout summarized, “but he’s not Carlos Beltran.”

Some scouts I talked to complained that they had trouble getting a read on Martinez because he was so rarely on the field.

On Murphy

Scouts agree with the shorthand assessment of Murphy’s Binghamton manager, Mako Oliveras: “He’s a grinder who can hit.”

Scouts don’t consider him capable of handling second base consistently, but he should continue to hit enough to fit in left field for New York long-term.

On Niese

Scouts project him as fourth or fifth starter in the short run, and as a No. 3 or 4 starter as he gains savvy and experience.

Some scouts were concerned with his delivery, as he lands with an open front shoulder and leans back in pronounced fashion toward third base. The delivery hinders Niese’s control, though he has developed a slider that acts like a cutter to gives him another pitch he can throw for strikes.

I just don’t know where this slider stuff is coming from. Niese throws a fastball, which he can cut a little bit, a big curveball and a changeup. He did not throw a slider in any of his big league starts. The SNY crew repeatedly talked about how Niese needed to develop the ability to spin a harder curve in addition to his big loopy one.

“It’s a funky delivery,” an AL scout said, “but it’s deceptive and helps him.”

LHP Adam Bostick – L/L – 6’1” 233 lbs – Acquired in trade w/ FLA w/ Jason Vargas for H. Owens & M Lindstrom – b. 3/17/83

Bostick’s season was cut short by micro-fracture surgery on his knee in May. In April, he was 2-1 in April with a 3.86 ERA but was 0-1 with a 10.67 ERA in May. The primary difference was that in May batters hit .354 against him versus .223 in April.

RHP Brian Stokes – R/R – 6’1” 210 lbs – trade for cash w/ TB 11/07 –9/7/79

Pulled off the Tampa Bay Rays scrap heap by the Mets, Stokes provided some effective innings for the New York bullpen, after serving as a starter in New Orleans. Note, however, that he was more than a little homer prone in the bigs.

Stokes is now 29. He’s no building block, of a franchise or a bullpen, but he served as a nice cheap piece in 2008. Stokes is unlikely to improve upon his 2008 work moving forward.

Brandon Knight – L/R – 6’0” 195 lbs – MiLB FA ’08 – b. 10/1/75

First Major league appearance sine 2002? First MLB start? First MLB win? Pitching your team to a spot in the medal round at the Olympics. Winning bronze in Beijing? Yeah, it was a pretty good 2008 for Brandon Knight. And remember, he almost quit playing for coaching.

Could he recapture the magic as a 33-year old to become a swingman again in 2009?

Carlos Muniz – R/R – 6’1” 190 – — 13^th rd ’03 LBSU – b. 3/12/81

Muniz didn’t allow a run for the first month of the season, until his 12^th appearance as a Zephyr. During this span, I was lucky enough to run into a few of Muniz’s friends in the parking lot before a Mets-Dodgers game in LA. Muniz is a middle reliever, if that, but nothing more.

Willie Collazo – L/L – 5’9” 170 – signed as MiLB FA 3/1/06 – b. 11/7/79

Collazo is a short lefty with a short fastball whose best pitch is a changeup. He’s fearless and will attack both lefties and righties with his heater, his change or his slider. If the Mets did not see fit to give Collazo a look in 2008, do you see it happening some other time?

Now that I’m not watching Mets games every night, I can return to my end-of-season recaps.  We resume by taking a look at some of the guys who pitched in New Orleans in 2008.

LHP Jon Niese – L/L – 6’4” 215 lbs – 7^th Rd ’05 – b. 10/27/86

Niese had a very good season. His increased attention to his own physical conditioning paid big dividends.

At this point, Mets fans have seen Niese live a few times. They’ve seen the big curveball. They’ve seen the fringy 88-91 mph fastball that loses life as the game wears on. The changeup that at times was good – hey, Mike Cameron swung through it. Niese says he learned a cutter. Planning around young pitchers is tough, just ask the Yankees, or Mets fans about generation K, but the most likely scenario is that Niese will go to spring training in 09 with a chance to win a rotation job.

Eddie Kunz – R/R – 6’6” 265 – 2^nd rd ’07 – 4/8/86

Kunz did not acquit himself well in either AAA or the big leagues in 2008. However, he reached the big leagues with just 76.2 innings split between SSA Brooklyn, the Arizona Fall League, AA and AAA.

There are some things to like about Kunz. He’s big. He’s a great quote. Most importantly, he throws a nasty, nasty sinker at 94 or 95 mph from a low ¾ arm slot. It’s a plus MLB sinker. His slider can be tough on righties.

There are some things not to like about Kunz. With some violence in his delivery, scouts are concerned about whether he’ll ever have good command. Kunz low armslot is a liability against lefties against whom he doesn’t have a second offering. He is uncomfortable throwing his slider to lefties. In college, he used a changeup to lefties, but the Mets had him focus on his sinker/slider combo early in his professional career.

Kunz really is not far from helping in an MLB bullpen. His ceiling is up to him. If he can find a way to neutralize lefties – through the development of his slider, a return to his changeup, or the addition of a splitter – he could eventually grow into a closers role.

Bobby Parnell – R/R – 6’4” 200 lbs – 9^th rd ’05 – b 9/8/84

Parnell didn’t exactly dominate AA or AAA as a starter, but the Mets, short on arms, brought up the young flamethrower and tossed him in the bullpen. And it looks like that’s where his future lies. Parnell can hit 95 mph, giving him plus velocity, his only plus offering. Neither his changup nor his slider was an average big league pitch when I saw him live in New Britain in his final AA start. The velocity alone isn’t enough to be a successful MLB reliever, but it’s a good start.

I thought having the Mets greats wear the Mets jerseys from their playing days at the Shea goodbye ceremony was an inspired sartorial choice. When you see #31 with #41 can you still be upset?

No St. Lucie Mets made BA’s list of the league’s top 20 prospects. None deserved to. However, J.J. Cooper answered three questions about Mets prospects in his chat.

Q: Richard from Ft. Lauderdale asks:
Any thoughts on Ruben Tejada of the Port St. Lucie Mets?

A: J.J. Cooper: Tejada was given credit for hanging in there. A scout who saw him early in the year said he looked completely over his head and there was a lot of puzzlement over why the Mets would put an 18-year-old in position to fail like they did. Tejada still has some impressive tools, especially defensively, but it was hard to get much read on him at the plate when he was getting carved up by more experienced pitching. He did show a quick bat and gap-to-gap power, but he needs to get a chance to have some success to build on, which means a repeat trip to the Florida State League is in order.

Q: Lance from Memphis, TN asks:
Were any Mets considered for the list?

A: J.J. Cooper: Dillon Gee and Dylan Owen are a pair of guys who know how to pitch with average stuff. Ruben Tejada is good defensively and has a quick bat, but he was way over his head in the FSL. Josh Thole can hit, but there are few who liked his work at catcher. Those were the highlights, but none of them were right on the edge of the Top 20.

Q: The Whale from NYC asks:
RH starters Dillon Gee (Mets) and Kenny Rodriguez (Jays) posted impressive seasons, and two of the best K/BB ratios among FSL SP. How close did those two come to making the list? Do either have the stuff to continue their success at higher (more age-appropriate) levels next season? A:

J.J. Cooper: That’s the concern with both of them. Gee looks like a potential No. 4 or No. 5 starter in the big leagues with average stuff and some feel for pitching. Rodriguez would have ranked below him if we had stretched the list deeper.

The rest of this week and early next will be taken up with finishing up a team-by-team review of the organization. Alongside that content, I’ll be doing HWB updates. When the AFL starts in a little over a week, I add those in and track the various Caribbean Winter Leagues when they get moving later. My goal is to begin a Mets top prospects series two weeks from today.

KG On Mets in Hawaii

At Baseball Prospectus, Kevin Goldstein wrote about the prospects going to Hawaii and had this to say about the young Metsies:

Greg Veloz, Honolulu (Mets). Athletic and raw, the 20-year-old Dominican shows gap power and plus speed, but he’s prone to chasing pitches and can be sloppy on defense.

Ruben Tejada, Honolulu (Mets). Overmatched in the Florida State League this year as an 18-year-old, the Panamanian Tejeda doesn’t have a ton of tools, but he shows outstanding defensive fundamentals, as well as solid pitch recognition and a feel for contact.

Junior Guerra, RHP, Honolulu (Mets). He pitched at four levels during the season, allowing just 15 hits in 34 innings while striking out 41. Short and stocky, Guerra has plus velocity, a developing breaking ball, and good command, leaving some to see him as a bit of a sleeper.