The first round of the First Annual Baseball Blogger Mock Draft has just been completed. Here are the results:

1. Tampa Bay Rays- Buster Posey, C, Florida State (Keith Law)
2. Pittsburgh Pirates- Pedro Alvarez, 3B, Vanderbilt (Bucco Blog)
3. Kansas City Royals- Tim Beckham, SS, Griffin GA HS (Royals Authority)
4. Baltimore Orioles-Brian Matusz, LHP, San Diego
5. San Francisco Giants - Justin Smoak, 1B, South Carolina (El Lefty Malo)
6. Florida Marlins-Kyle Skipworth, C, Patriot HS, Calif. (Future Fish)
7. Cincinnati Reds- Gordon Beckham, SS, Georgia (Reds Minor Leagues)
8. Chicago White Sox- Brett Wallace, 3B/1B, ASU (Zoner Sports)
9. Washington Nationals - Yonder Alonso, 1B, Miami (Nationals Farm Authority)
10. Houston Astros - Aaron Crow, RHP, Missouri (Kiley of Saber-Scouting)
11. Texas Rangers - Eric Hosmer, 1b, American Heritage HS, Fla. (Rangers Farm Authority)
12. Oakland Athletics - Ethan Martin, 3B/RHP, Stephens County HS, Ga. (Taj of Athletics Nation)
13. St. Louis Cardinals - Christian Friedrich, LHP, Eastern Kentucky (Erik of Future Redbirds)
14. Minnesota Twins - Jemile Weeks, 2B, Miami (SethSpeaks)
15. Los Angeles Dodgers - Tim Melville, RHP, Holt HS, Wentzville, MO
16. Milwaukee Brewers - Brett Lawrie, 3B/C, Brookwood SS, Langley, B.C. (Patrick Ebert of Brewerfan.net)
17. Toronto Blue Jays - Shooter Hunt, P, Tulane (Pistol of Batters Box)
18. New York Mets - Jason Castro, C, Stanford (Andrew of Hot Foot)
19. Chicago Cubs - Casey Kelly, SS, Sarsota Florida (HS) (Joe from View from the Bleachers)
20. Seattle Mariners - Aaron Hicks, RHP/OF, Wilson HS, Long Beach, CA (David Cameron from USS Mariner)
21. Detroit Tigers–Joshua Fields, RHP, Georgia (Erik of Future Redbirds)
22. New York Mets- Ike Davis, 1B/OF, Arizona State (Hot Foot)
23. San Diego Padres- Andrew Cashner, RHP, TCU (Geoff Young of Ducksnorts)
24. Philadelphia Phillies- Tanner Scheppers, RHP, Fresno St. (Phuture Phillies)
25. Colorado Rockies- Zach Collier, OF, Chino Hills HS, Chino Hills, Calif. (Tom of Up in the Rockies)
26. Arizona Diamondbacks-Allan Dykstra, 1B, Wake Forest (From RJ of Beyond the Boxscore)
27. Minnesota Twins-Conor Gillaspie, 3B, Wichita St. (SethSpeaks)
28. New York Yankees-Gerrit Cole, RHP, Lutheran HS, Calif. (River Ave. Blues)
29. Cleveland Indians-Tyson Ross, RHP, California (Bryan Smith, Baseball Prospectus)
30. Boston Red Sox-Reese Havens, SS, South Carolina (The College Baseball Blog

The Mets are in a very interesting position with their two first round picks. Our organizational depth has been ranked as low as 29th in the major leagues. So, that would tell you that we need to draft the best available talent to try and revamp our depleted system. But, we are also aging at Catcher, 1B, 2B, and SP with not too many minor league options to use as fillers on the major league roster, so that would tell you that we need to select more MLB-ready college players.

Castro is a 6′3″, 210 lb. junior catcher for Stanford. Castro, a left-handed hitter currently leads the Cardinal this season with a .373 batting average and 56 RBI. He is second on the club with 11 home runs. More impressively, he has thrown out 27 of 68 attempted base stealers.

I was not looking to take Castro at 18, but Minaya may be worried that the Tigers will snag him with the 21st pick. Being a former catcher himself, I can see Minaya leaning towards Castro with his first pick, and being a Stanford man, you can deduce that he will get along well with Rick Peterson in game planning.

Davis is a 6′4″ 205 lb. junior first baseman/outfielder for Arizona St. Also a lefty, he has drawn comparisons to Shawn Green. He is the son of former Yankees and Twins closer Ron Davis, who earned 130 saves over his 11-year career.  Currently, Davis is batting .381 with 16 homers, 69 RBI, and a .455 OBP. He is second on the team in all of those categories to 3B Brett Wallace, who we projected to go 8th overall to the Chicago White Sox.

Again, there were several very talented high school players available in Collier and Cole, but Davis is very advanced and could be playing first base at Citi Field by mid-2009. We are going to continue with the sandwich round and I will post who I select with the 33rd overall pick later today.

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Congrats to Shannon Forde, director of Mets media relations, and her family. She gave birth to baby Nicholas this morning. Adam Rubin on his blog for The Daily News reports that the baby weighed in at 9 1/2 pounds.

Barring a rain out (which doesn’t seem likely as my friends at the Shea tell me), LHP Johan Santana (5-3, 3.36) will face off against LHP Andrew Miller (4-3, 5.33). The Marlins currently sit atop the NL East while the Mets are struggling to stay out of last. Which brings us to…

Keys to the game:

• Run support, run support and oh yea, run support: With Johan Santana giving up 11 home runs in 7 of his 10 starts this year, run support will be needed tonight, and all season long, when he takes the mound. While he is lights out most of the time, he does not fair well with the long ball.
• Take an early lead: Because the Mets seem unable to score runs in the late innings, it will be important to score a lot of runs early on. I know this seems obvious, but I will take a win any way I can. Please guys, I’m begging you!
• Rookies wanting to earn a spot: With key players coming off the disabled list soon, Tatis and Evans will need to step up their games if that want to see the light of Shea again. I mean, come on, did no one see what happened to Figgy after 2 bad starts?
• Easley handling 1st with ease: With Delgado struggling I’m glad he’s taking a day off, but once again, due to the number of HR’s Santana gives up, not letting the runners take to the basepads will be important tonight.

Game time is set for 7:05pm and can be seen on SNY and heard on WFAN. For lineups, check out David Lennon with Newsday. As always, head on over to the Hot Foot Bleachers to watch tonight’s Mets games with the writers and fellow fans.

Metstradamus points out a new flourish Lastings Milledge has added to his home run trot. He motions like he’s receiving a football in a hand off from third base coach Tim Tolman as he turns third base and heads home.

Some things never change. I gotta admit, I love seeing players have fun out there. Some people might say he’s showing up the other team, but as long as he’s getting the job done, he should go ahead and enjoy it.

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Interesting cover on this week’s Sports Illustrated.

Hat tip to Lunchfood.

Pedro Martinez was scheduled to throw a bullpen session in Atlanta today but was given word that his father was not doing well and has left to be with him in the Dominican Republic.

Steve Popper on his blog for Newsday has more regarding the situation.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Pedro, his father, and his family.