Tag Archives: Matt den Dekker

2018 Mets Card Spring Preview

Low expectations all around

The Super Bowl is a distant memory, the Olympics are over, and the snow is melting (tomorrow’s bomb cyclone notwithstanding). Baseball’s back! Down south at least. There’s still another month until games that count, but Topps already has two 2018 releases out the door and we more or less know who will be on the Mets to start the season. As to how the team will do this year… They’ll have some cards, so let’s just see what to expect on that front.

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2010 Mets Draft Class Autographs

Generation TJ?

Full list of 2010 Mets draft picks

Five years after the bulk of Generation K was drafted, the whole bunch was coming up bust. Whatever excitement had been building was gone as each player would miss significant time due to injury before being dealt away for practically nothing. What does that have to do with 2010? As it turns out, the Mets’ 2010 draft class was loaded with stud pitching. And serious injuries. But that’s where the similarities end.

1 Matt Harvey 3 Blake Forsythe 4 Cory Vaughn 5 Matt den Dekker
6 Greg Peavey 7 Jeff Walters 8 Kenneth McDowall 9 Jacob deGrom
10 Akeel Morris 11 Adam Kolarek 24 Erik Goeddel 30 Josh Edgin

Matt Harvey didn’t exactly excite the fanbase when he was drafted number 7 overall in 2010. A high risk/high upside pick, Harvey was coming off a somewhat problematic stint with UNC after being drafted 118th overall out of high school three years earlier. The talent was there, but could he figure out how to use it? Harvey impressed at every level but somehow never attracted much hype in the minors. That all ended in 2012 when Harvey made his MLB debut and quickly became the Mets’ ace. A month into the 2013 season, Harvey was a hobby hero; his autographs commanded $100 due to their high demand and relative scarcity. When he finally signed his 2011 Bowman Platinum autographs two years late, Matt Harvey was one of the biggest sports figures in New York City. And then he broke.

Harvey wasn’t the first pitcher from this draft class to go through Tommy John surgery and he wouldn’t be the last. Just a few months after the draft, 9th round pick Jacob deGrom, a converted shortstop, went under the knife. After missing a year, deGrom followed Harvey’s path through the minors, quietly impressing with even less hype than the fallen ace. As a 2014 without Harvey loomed, deGrom was almost forgotten among a trio of hot young pitchers starting the season in AAA. Scouts gave deGrom high marks, but most people saw the bullpen in his future. When spots in the rotation opened up in mid-May, Jacob deGrom made it clear that he was not destined for a relief role. Matt Harvey returned to the rotation in 2015 sharing the ace role with the 2014 NL Rookie of the Year.

The bullpen had its share of surgeries in this draft class as well. Minor league closer Jeff Walters had Tommy John surgery in 2014 after setting the AA Binghamton saves record in 2013, and then Josh Edgin, a rare bright spot in some awful Mets bullpens, went down in 2015. This opened the door for Erik Goeddel, a 24th round pick due to signability concerns. Four Tommy John surgeries, two top starters, and two relievers who have contributed at the major league level. Not bad. And that’s not counting Akeel Morris, who is still in the low minors, or Greg Peavey, who was lost in the Rule 5 draft. So what about the bats?

The Mets went with three position players after picking Harvey, catcher Blake Forsythe and outfielders Cory Vaughn and Matt den Dekker. Forsythe was dumped off in the beginning of the 2014 season after ominously being assigned to Binghamton without being issued a number. Vaughn was promoted to AAA after being the most ineffective Binghamton outfielder at the plate and looks like he won’t get any further by the time he becomes a minor league free agent. And Matt den Dekker watched Juan Lagares take over as the Mets’ starting center fielder while recovering from a 2013 spring training injury. While he still got a chance to prove himself in 2014, den Dekker would start the 2015 season with the Nationals after being dealt for bullpen help.

Five years later, Generation TJ has already surpassed Generation K with one more arm still developing. The bats never came around, but with these arms, who needs bats? Right, the 2015 Mets…

Best Mets Cards of 2014

Firsts, lasts, and everything in between

It’s hard to believe that it’s March already. And this piece is two months late… Between Topps and Panini releasing products right down to the wire, chasing down cards, and chasing down answers, it took me longer than expected to get this the way I wanted it. 2014 brought us the first cards, first autographs, and first memorabilia from the first Mets player to win the Rookie of the Year award in 30 years. It also brought us the last autograph card from the first person ever to wear a Mets uniform.

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The Essentials: 2014 Mets Memorabilia

Panini Turns Variety Into Notoriety

With all of the cards released across dozens of products in 2014, it can be hard to figure out what is worth collecting and what might as well be forgotten. What makes something essential? It’s a mix of collectibility, notability, and attainability. Popular brands/inserts and autograph debuts will dominate here, not big money low-numbered parallels or big stars. Just about everything mentioned here should still be fairly easy to find on the secondary market at reasonable prices.

Now in the second year of the post-black era, the Mets memorabilia offerings in 2014 were a bit more colorful than they’ve been in the past. Color has been hard to find recently, but new blue and orange jerseys and a renewed focus on pinstripes at home helped to turn things around. It was looking like a great year for memorabilia until the black came back courtesy of Panini. The plague of “event-worn” memorabilia has now spread to baseball.

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The Essentials: 2014 Mets Autographs

The Prospect Boom Goes Bust

With all of the cards released across dozens of products in 2014, it can be hard to figure out what is worth collecting and what might as well be forgotten. What makes something essential? It’s a mix of collectibility, notability, and attainability. Popular brands/inserts and player debuts will dominate here, not big money low-numbered parallels or big stars. Just about everything mentioned here should still be fairly easy to find on the secondary market at reasonable prices.

2014 continued the Mets prospect autograph explosion that started in late 2013, but that fizzled out late in the year. While that meant lots of autographs for many top Mets prospects who had previously been overlooked, it was bad news for the Mets’ 2014 draft class, which is still waiting for its first autograph card from Topps.

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2014 in GIFs

Duda doing all the things that Duda does

Another year, another batch of GIFs to entertain, amaze, and confuse.  2014 had a lot of highs and lows.  And a lot of Lucas Duda.  But before we got to the Mets’ first base conundrum turned revelation, let’s check in on the minors.  This year, I experimented with GIFs from original video content shot at minor league games.  I’ve already covered the 2014 Binghamton Mets in GIFs, so let’s start with the Brooklyn Cyclones.

Marcos Molina rocketed up the prospect lists in 2014, going from a relative unknown to one of the hottest pitching prospects in a system filled with them.  Here he is on what must have been an off day for him.  He still pitched well, but it wasn’t anything worth raving about.

One of the other big names in Brooklyn was Michael Conforto.  Taken tenth overall in the 2014 draft, Conforto came with high expectations.  He started his professional career off with an impressive hitting streak, which he is shown here extending.  If he keeps this up, he could make it to the majors very quickly.

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