I recently heard a story during a Yankee telecast (one of the few I watched this season) that when the Yankees drafted Derek Jeter with the 6th overall pick in the 1992 draft, he was brought to meet the team and management at Yankee Stadium. Upon meeting Jeter and his parents, then-manager Buck Showalter remarked, "I don't know if he's going to be a good ballplayer but he's going to be a good Yankee." Now the die hard Met fan will question the existence of "a good Yankee" but I think Showalter's point was that he would represent the organization well and not embarrass himself or the team, which I begrudgingly admit is generally the norm for Jeter.
Watching this video of the Mets first-round pick in this year's draft brings that statement to mind. Keep in mind that this kid is only 18 years old.
Aside from the maturity in the press conference, I noticed he has a sweet swing, which is really smooth. He is often compared to Andy Van Slyke, which is a pretty good comparison if he has that kind of glove to go along with that kind of bat.
Of course I'm no expert on evaluating talent but out of the big three outfield prospects the Mets had in the mid-2000's, I thought the order of talent was Carlos Gomez, then Lastings Milledge, and then Fernando Martinez (I may be proven right here). On the pitching side, I felt that Mike Pelfrey should have gone in the Johan Santana trade and the Mets should have held on to Philip Humber (which I was nearly wrong about but may be proven right in the end too.) Perhaps it was the years prior to then hearing about the over hyped Alex's (Ochoa and Escobar) that conditioned me to look for signs of talent rather than take everyone else's word for it.
Then again, if I'm what I've read about Bryce Harper blowing a kiss to the opposing pitcher after hitting a home run is an indication of his psychological state, I may be proven right in the end with what I said about him two years ago.
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