This past draft year, the Mets took a different approach for players, and grabbed one or two more athletes. One of the better known athletes selected by the Mets was college outfielder Ross Adolph, the 12th rounder out of the University of Toledo. The main standout at Toledo, Adolph hit a gorgeous .322/.445/.654 with 15 homers, and stealing 12 bases in 16 attempts, providing the notion that he’s not some lumbering gentleman we are so used to blessing Mets Minor League uniforms with.

Adolph’s late round status despite the nice statistics pertain to the fact that he was part of the smaller Division 1 MAC league, which doesn’t hold the same prestige as somewhere like the SEC. No matter, Adolph was the top hitter in the circuit, and First Team All-Star for the league.

Baseball America wrote a short description of

Adolph is a productive, grinding outfielder who has a chance to play all three outfield spots and plays with all-out abandon. He has long shown the ability to put ball on ball with above-average raw power.

MLB Draft Countdown gave him grades of:

Hit: 45, Power:55, Run: 55, Arm:50 Fielding:50

Carrying over to his MAC Player of the year honors, Adolph was selected in the 12th round, and was sent to Brooklyn where he didn’t skip a beat, with a .276/.348/.509 stat line with nine doubles, 12 triples, seven homers, and stole 14 out of 17 bases with a 21/52 K/BB ratio in 61 games. He played all three positions, mainly Center Field, but had to defer to Anthony Dirocie midway through the season, due to his promotion from Kingsport.

Clearly a standout, Adolph has a nice short swing and above-average speed and power, and plays with tenacity. While he has shown he can hit, the question will be his position moving forward, and whether or not he will actually hit enough power for a corner in the future.

Nevertheless, in the 12th round, this seems like a nice scouting hit for the Mets, and a nice stroke of luck. We’ll likely see him share the outfield with Jarred Kelenic in Columbia next year.