Developed Teams 2015: New York Mets

While the New York Mets did not win the World Series for the first time in 29 years, they were one of the two teams who played in the last game of the season, and that's much better than most pundits predicted for this team, so 2015 can definitely be counted as several steps in the right direction for this franchise. Let's see how the Mets would look if they had somehow kept all the players that were developed in their minor league system:

If they chose to do so, this team could field the same infield that they used for the World Series, with old iron gloves Lucas Duda and Daniel Murphy on the right side, and shortstop of the future Wilmer Flores and "Captain America" David Wright continuing around the horn. But that's not accounting for the return of former face of the franchise Jose Reyes, who immediately slots in at the top of the order and the middle of the infield. Not only that, but he pushes Flores over to second base, allowing either Duda or Murphy to DH (while the other one plays first base), significantly improving the team's overall defense. Speaking of defense, it is also a strength of this outfield, two thirds of which has the defensive chops to play center field - while Carlos Gomez also has the offensive chops to anchor a batting order. I'm assuming Michael Conforto's performance in game 4 of the World Series alone earns him a spot in this lineup, but if you prefer experience and glovework, there's also defensive wiz Juan Lagares on the bench.

But the strength of this team, as with the real life National League Champion version, is its dominating young pitching. The entire playoff rotation of Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, and Steven Matz is present here, except I have Matz in long relief due to his small career sample size of only six starts. Syndergaard is a tough case because he was initially drafted by the Blue Jays and spent three years in their system before being traded to New York in the deal for R.A. Dickey, but he never advanced above Class A ball in Toronto and pitched more games in the Mets system. These four phenoms are joined by two 2015 Houston Astros teammates who helped their team make the playoffs, righty Collin McHugh and lefty Scott Kazmir, the former of which made his debut with the Mets while the latter was traded while still a prospect. In fact, this team could field a six-man rotation while still having plenty of long relief depth with both Jonathon Niese and Mike Pelfrey available out of the pen.

For the save opportunities, the developed Mets can trot out their real life closer in Jeurys Familia, who stepped up in a big way when projected closer Jenrry Mejia was hit with a pair of season-ending suspensions, and who should be able to bounce back after a couple of tough breaks in the playoffs. Joe Smith has been a good setup man for the Angels and Yusmeiro Petit has flourished as both a swingman and a dedicated reliever (despite never pitching for the big league version of the Mets). Overall this team features a solid if unspectacular and injury prone lineup supporting a historically dominant pitching staff. Tune in next time for the World Champion Kansas City Royals and then we can speculate on whether a developed World Series rematch might have gone differently than the actual version.