Just in time for prospect season, we take a look at the idea of "windows" and a team's prime time to win. Inspired by what seems to be a once every three years rebuild for the Oakland Athletics, is there going to be a time where all their premier prospects hit and they'll have the best chance to win? Here we present the pleasures of trying to maximize production during one's service time.
15th in the series, we look at the New York Mets. Ranked 15th overall by John Sickels, they have no A-rated prospects but 9 B-rated prospects. Keith Law's 2012 organizational rankings sees their system lower at 22nd overall. As Ed Valentine noted in his piece early this month, it's interesting to see how Sickels and Law vary in opinion regarding their rankings.
Sandy Alderson is in the building and ready to tackle the task of rebuiid. Just about how long will it be before the Mets are best aligned to win again?
For a team that lost about $70 million last year, Alderson temporailty has his hands tied in terms of payroll. According to ESPN, they look to trim their payroll by $50 million, and once Santana and Bay's contracts are off the books (combined $42 million this year), they should be able to make some moves that can help put this rebuild on hopefully the fast track. Here's what their 2012 lineup looks like:
New acquisition, Current roster info from MLB Depth Charts
Starting Lineup
1 CF Andres Torres*
2 2B Daniel Murphy
3 3B David Wright
4 1B Ike Davis*
5 LF Jason Bay
6 RF Lucas Duda
7 C Josh Thole
8 SS Ruben Tejada
Bench
C Mike Nickeas
1B/OF Mike Baxter
IF Ronny Cedeño*
IF Justin Turner
OF Scott Hairston
Starting Rotation
1 LHP Johan Santana
2 RHP R.A. Dickey
3 LHP Jon Niese
4 RHP Mike Pelfrey
5 RHP Dillon Gee
Bullpen
CL RHP Frank Francisco*
SU RHP Ramon Ramirez*
SU RHP Jon Rauch*
MID LHP Tim Byrdak
MID RHP Manny Acosta
MID RHP Bobby Parnell
LR RHP D.J. Carrasco
A good thing to look forward is the majority of their prospects start coming up next season including the top 3 prospects: #1 Matt Harvey, #2 Zack Wheeler and #3 Jeurys Familia, along with mega contracts coming off the books in 2014 lead to their window to win opening once again.
See the previous graphics in this series: Mariners | Athletics | Astros | Cubs | Pirates | Royals | Twins | Indians | Padres | Diamondbacks | Rays | Jays | Braves | Nationals
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