With the 12th pick in the draft, the Mets selected SS Gavin Cecchini out of Louisiana (Barbe High School). Currently Cecchini has a commitment with Ole Miss.
The Mets actually draft Gavin a day after he was named Louisiana’s Mr. Baseball. In his senior season Gavin had a .413 BA, 7 HR, 32 RBI and 31 SB. In this article, Gavin talks about how he was actually benched by his father (his coach) after a slump early on in his High School career. Right off the bat from reading this article, I’m a fan of Gavin’s mental make up. Fighting through a slump and hardship early helps lead to success later on (or in other words, its better to fail and overcome early than have that happen later on in life, Ike Davis). This explains why some of his early high school numbers look fairly awful. His rebound though, obviously, has been fantastic.
This profile talks about Gavin’s quick hands and ability to hit the ball hard to all parts of the field. The profile mentions that he has the physical make up to stay at the short stop position, and potentially be a speed threat, which is lacking right now in the Mets current farm system. The major rankers have him ranked between 11 and 19 overall, and as one of the best SS in the draft.
This pick seems to make sense with the Nimmo pick from last year. Try to roll the dice with the high picks, and (we’ll see as the draft progresses) go with the safer college picks soon after. As with all high school players, signability could be an issue. The Mets right now lack bat prospects and getting some deep in the system like Cecchini and Nimmo could be the nice boost that the farm system needs, especially if the Mets go into full on compete mode in 2014 and need to trade some prospects.
