The fact that the Mets are winning games (and at home) is great, but it may be doing more harm than good. The reality is the Mets are eliminated from postseason contention, but there is something else that is still left to be decided – next June’s amateur draft order. Currently the Mets have the tenth worst record (2 games ahead of the Kansas City Royals) which any other year would be fine. Under the Collective Bargaining Agreement the top 10 pick are protected:

“A Club that signs one Qualified Free Agent who is subject to compensation shall forfeit its highest available selection in the next Rule 4 Draft. Notwithstanding the above, a Club shall not be required to forfeit a selection in the top ten of the first round.”

That means if the Mets were to sign a top free agent (I snickered too) they wouldn’t lose their first draft pick to the free agents previous team – much like what happened with Jose Reyes last year.

However, because Mark Appel did not sign with the Pirates after this past year’s draft, one of the picks will go to Pittsburgh. That leaves only nine unprotected picks in this year’s draft. The Mets could not only end up screwing themselves from drafting better talent, but could lose to pick altogether because of a few lousy meaningless late September wins.