Players have until Friday, July 12th to sign. Picks in the first 10 rounds in the draft are assigned pool values. The total pool value of the Mets' 11 picks from the 2013 Draft's first 10 rounds is $6,990,000. If the Mets sign all of these first 11 picks, that total represents the penalty-free money they would be able to spend. Any amount over that total would be taxed at a 75% rate. Any amount more than 5% over that total would result in the loss of future draft picks (this is a threshold that has not yet been breached by any club). Additionally, for all signings outside the fi ..read more

Top Pitching Prospect of the Week Luis Cessa, SP (A) - 7.2 IP, 1-0, 0.00 ERA, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 10 K Cessa is part of a Sand Gnats rotation that all season has been taking turns being fantastic. On the season, Cessa has tossed 53.2 innings and has struck out 50 against just 9 walks. He's been susceptible to the long ball, having surrendered 8 HRs, but clearly that wasn't a problem this past week, when he left the game with 2 outs in the 8th after collecting 10 strikeouts and allowing just 2 hits, no walks, and no runs. Cessa is one of several low cost, under-the-radar international prosp ..read more

Top Pitching Prospect of the Week Jack Leathersich, RP (AA) - 2.2 IP, 0-0, 1 SV, 0.00 ERA, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 7 K Any of the four starters in the Honorable Mention section would have been a fine choice for this spot, but I almost chose Leathersich last week so I put my finger on the scale and gave it to him this week. This has been a pretty typical week for the 22-year-old lefty, which is remarkable. Since the Mets drafted Leathersich in 2011, he has faced 456 hitters across four minor league levels and he has struck out 184 of them (40.4%). This despite a fastball that lives in the ..read more

Top Pitching Prospect of the Week Steven Matz, SP (A) - 6.0 IP, 0-1, 3.00 ERA, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 9 K An overslot pick in a forgettable 2009 Mets draft, Matz has spent most of his 3 and a half years in the system dealing with arm issues. So being 21 (22 next week) and still in A-ball doesn't really raise any age-related red flags. It helps that the hard-throwing lefty has been outstanding so far for the Sand Gnats. In 34.2 innings this year, Matz has collected 39 strikeouts (10.1 K/9) and issued 11 walks (2.9 BB/9). This past week, Matz matched his career high in ..read more

Top Pitching Prospect of the Week Matt Bowman, SP (A+) - 7.0 IP, 1-0, 0.00 ERA, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 9 K In a week in which the system's top 3 pitching prospects each turned in a fine start, the soon-to-be 22-year-old from Princeton stole the show. Bowman followed his pro debut (in which he struck out 30 against just 2 walks in 29.1 innings for Brooklyn) by breezing through the South Atlantic League (in which he went 4-0 in 5 starts and struck out 26 against just 4 walks in 30.2 innings). He hasn't missed a beat in the Florida State League, winning his first 2 starts and putting up 16 Ks ag ..read more

Top Pitching Prospect of the Week Zack Wheeler, SP (AAA) - 6.0 IP, 1-0, 0.00 ERA, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K Even Mets fans with only a passing interest in the minors have Wheeler on their radar. The sole return the Mets got for Carlos Beltran in the July 2011 swap with the Giants, Wheeler has jumped from excellent prospect to elite prospect. He's a consensus Top 10 pitching prospect in baseball and fans rightly dream of the tall righty pairing with Matt Harvey to form a deadly 1-2 punch at the front of the Mets' rotation for years to come. And the future is rapidly approaching. After struggl ..read more

Top Pitching Prospect of the Week Noah Syndergaard, SP (A+) - 7.0 IP, 1-0, 0.00 ERA, 5 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 7 K In a strong week for Mets pitching prospects, I'm going with the second piece in last winter's blockbuster deal that sent RA Dickey to Toronto, who turned in his best performance as a Met this week. In fact, Syndergaard hasn't allowed an earned run in his past two starts, covering 13 innings during which he's walked 3 and struck out 11. The tall righty was the Mets' consensus #3 prospect coming into the season, so it's nice to see him settling in to Advanced A-ball so quic ..read more

Check out a short piece I put together about Brandon Lyon's incentives, my debut as a contributor over at Metsblog ..read more

Top Pitching Prospect of the Week Rafael Montero, SP (AA) - 6.0 IP, 1-0, 0.00 ERA, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 6 K I do what I can to mix it up when selecting the top prospects of the week, but Montero is making that difficult. Another strong outing this week brings his season line to 3-0 with a 1.59 ERA, a .71 WHIP, and a 27 to 1 K:BB ratio. In his first 4 starts he's carving up the Eastern League like he's a big leaguer. And in light of his success and the Mets' starting pitching woes, there are many fans calling for just that. But as good as he's been, now's not the time. I expect Montero will ..read more

Top Pitching Prospect of the Week Jacob deGrom, SP (A+/AA) - 14.0 IP, 0-1, 3.21 ERA, 10 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 1 BB, 15 K There may be some recency bias in effect here, but deGrom earns this spot on the strength of his stellar AA debut last night. He was a hard-luck loser as the B-Mets went down 1-0, but he lasted 8 innings, giving up 1 run on 3 hits and a walk with 8 strikeouts. DeGrom is perhaps the most underhyped of the Mets vaunted collection of prospect arms, though I doubt that remains the case for much longer if he continues putting together starts like this. On the older ..read more