Ken Davidoff

Ken Davidoff

MLB

Oakland’s Gray underscores draft whiffs by Mets, Yanks

SAN FRANCISCO — It doesn’t get any better in this job than getting to cover a winner-take-all contest, so I’m fired up for American League Division Series Game 5 between the Tigers and A’s.

A’s manager Bob Melvin surprised few on Wednesday when he tabbed rookie Sonny Gray to start over veteran Bartolo Colon; it seemed inevitable once Melvin declined to say Tuesday night (following a Game 4 loss) who would start. Gray pitched brilliantly against the Tigers in Game 2 out here, whereas Colon took the loss in Game 1, though he wasn’t awful (six innings, three runs).

And so continues an October in which young pitching has been front and center. Here are some random thoughts about that phenomenon.

1. Let’s start with the 2011 Mets. In Sandy Alderson’s first amateur draft with the team that June, the Mets popped Wyoming high school outfield prospect Brandon Nimmo with the 13th overall pick. On the very next selection, the Marlins took Tampa high school pitcher Jose Fernandez. And at 18, the A’s selected Gray.

Yup. Not good, so far.

You of course want to give this more time. A draft deserves five years to fully marinate before you start shaking your fist and pointing fingers. Nimmo, 20, put up a .273/.397/.359 slash line with Low-A Savannah in 2013 while playing center field. The scouts with whom I’ve spoken about him are lukewarm.

Furthermore, when you evaluate a draft, you evaluate the whole draft. 2011 Mets picks such as right-hander Cory Mazzoni (second round) and left-hander Jack Leathersich (fifth) have climbed up the system and displayed some promise, though both are already 23.

The reality, though, is the Mets, given their financial constraints, needed to produce many extra-base hits in finding and procuring cheap talent in order to fully rebuild. Their trades of Carlos Beltran (for Zack Wheeler) and R.A. Dickey (for Travis d’Arnaud, Noah Syndergaard and others) look like potential extra-base hits.

They could use more. Hence the glaringness of Nimmo’s slow climb vis a vis the meteoric rises of Fernandez (a strong candidate for National League Rookie of the Year) and Gray.

And of course, we’d be remiss if we didn’t add that the Mets’ top draft pick of 2012, shortstop Gavin Cecchini (selected 12th overall), is on the clock a little more thanks to the success of No. 19 pick Michael Wacha with the Cardinals.

2. Let’s shoot over to the 2011 Yankees. What do Colon and A.J. Burnett, whom Pirates manager Clint Hurdle dissed in favor of rookie Gerrit Cole for Wednesday’s NLDS Game 5 start, have in common? They were teammates on the ’11 Yankees. As was Freddy Garcia, who made yet another improbable comeback to start NLDS Game 4 for the Braves against the Dodgers; he got a no-decision as Atlanta lost.

So if the A’s lose tonight, then 60 percent of that ’11 Yankees starting rotation will have been part of the narrative of three teams’ postseason demises. Another 20 percent, CC Sabathia, already has taken responsibility for his role in the Yankees’ plummet out of the postseason altogether.

3. That underlines how heavily the Yankees have relied on veteran pitching for a long time now, though there’s at least hope 26-year-old Ivan Nova has figured out some things. Still, you’d like multiple options; it isn’t clear yet whether Michael Pineda constitutes a legitimate 2014 option. Maybe David Phelps can work his way back into the mix after a right arm injury curtailed him this past season.

Building a farm system involves both drafting and development. No team is going to draft perfectly. Always, you can point to a player drafted in the second round and beyond who proceeds to do great things and say, “The other 29 teams whiffed on him.”

Hence the importance of development. Look at the Cardinals, who won Game 4 against the Pirates behind the pitching of Wacha, international free agent Carlos Martinez and closer Trevor Rosenthal, selected in the 21st round of the 2009 draft.

As Hal Steinbrenner made clear in his comments to Joel Sherman on Tuesday, he is looking at every component of the Yankees’ player development process. As he should be. It’s superficial to simply wonder why you didn’t select Player X. You also have to wonder why you aren’t producing our own Player X.

4. This Tigers-A’s Game 5 marks the final game of the first round. So assuming Justin Verlander and Gray go ahead and start, the average age of this postseason’s starting pitchers (counting the wild-card games) through the Division Series is 27.7, in 20 games.

Last year, in 22 games through the Division Series, the average age of the starting pitchers was 28.8.

It’s not a huge difference, but it’s interesting. Remind me to keep calculating that through the Championship Series and then the World Series. Have a great day.