The Baseball America archives go all the way back to 1983 for their annual Top 10 prospect lists and I thought it would be fun to take a look at what those players became. We will first look at the Mets Top 10 from 1983, seeing where BA missed and the ones they were right about.

Here is the Mets Top 6-10 Prospects from BA in 1983:

6.) Jose Oquendo – Signed by the Mets as a amatuer free agent in 1979 out of Puerto Rico when he was 15 years old. The switch-hitting infielder made his MLB debut at 19 years old (2nd youngest NL) in 1983 for the Mets hitting .213/.260/.244 in 120 games.

He was traded along with Mark Davis to the Cardinals for John Young and Angel Salazar in April of 1985. In 1988 he played at least one inning at all nine positions one year after playing every position but catcher. Jose had his best MLB season in 1989 when he hit .291/.375/.372 while setting career highs in hits, doubles, triples, walks, and wins above replacement at 5.4.

He was best known for his defense and set the record for fewest errors (3) by a second baseman in a 150+ game season in 1990. He has been the Cardinals third base coach since 2000 after one year of being the bench coach for St. Louis.

7.) Mark Carreon – The Mets drafted him in the 8th round of the 1981 draft from Salpointe High School in Tucson, Arizona. Made his MLB debut as a 23-year old outfielder in 1987 going 3 for 12 in his first big league experience.

Mark had his best season with the Mets in 1989 when he hit .308/.370/.489 in 68 while playing left and right field. He was traded by New York in 1992 with Tony Castillo to the Detroit Tigers for Randy Marshall and Paul Gibson.

As a Met he hit .272/.325/.421 with 21 homeruns in 596 at bats spanning five seasons. Carreon still holds the Mets record for most pinch hit homeruns with eight.

8.) Herm Winningham – He was drafted by the Mets 9th overall in 1981 of the January Draft Secondary Phase. Made his big league debut with Mets in 1984 going 5 for 11 with five RBI and that is how is career in New York would end.

The outfielder was a part of a very important trade that sent him, Hubie Brooks, Mike Fitzgerald, and Floyd Youmans to the Expos for Gary Carter. Herm went on to play nine MLB seasons hitting .239/.296/.334 in 1888 at bats.

9.) Terry Blocker – Taken by the Mets as the 4th overall player taken in the 1981 June draft out of Tennessee State University. Debuted for New York in 1985 going just 1 for 15 while playing all three outfield spots. That woud be it for his career in Flushing, he was traded to the Atlanta Braves in 1987 for Kevin Brown.

The left handed hitter and thrower ended up with only 244 big league at bats but did pitch one scoreless inning during his only mound appearance.

10.) Dave Cochrane – The Mets drafted him in the 4th round of the 1981 draft from Troy High School in Fullerton, California. Cochrane never played in the Majors for the Mets, they traded him to the White Sox in July of 1985 for veteran Tom Paciorek.

Dave made his Major League debut with the White Sox in 1986 going 12 for 62 while playing third base and shortstop. Two trades later he resurfaced back in the big leagues in 1989 for the Seattle Mariners having his best season as pro with a career high .716 OPS.

His last big league season was in 1992 with the Mariners when he played every position but catcher and center field. He also tried pitching in the minors for Seattle going 11.1 innings with a 7.15 ERA in AAA for the Hawaii Islanders.

As you can see the Mets didn’t get a lot of production from these five prospects outside of Carreon who ended up being an important bench player. However, Winningham was involved in one of the most important trades in Mets history helping to bring Hall of Fame catcher Gary Carter to the Mets.

Interesting to note that everyone on this list was traded by the Mets with Oquendo going on to have the best career of the group.

Notable names from other teams Top 10 lists include John Elway (#1, Yankees), David Cone (#6, Royals), Sid Fernandez (#3, Dodgers), Tim Teufel (#6, Twins), Kevin McReynolds (#1, Padres), and Ron Romanick (#5, Angels).