Earth to Fred Wilpon: This is what a strict adherence to slot recommendations will buy you. Parsimony has its price.

– Keith Law, ESPN.com (insider only).

Obviously the Mets’ adherence to slot recommendations has cost their farm system; I wouldn’t dispute that. But I’ll add that it probably doesn’t help that they graduated Ike Davis, Josh Thole and Jon Niese to the pros in 2010 and that all look like viable Major League contributors.

The other bad news, for Mets fans, is that the Braves’ system is ranked third and the Phillies’ is fifth. The Braves, in particular, seem like they could be on the brink of another dynasty. Jason Heyward, Freddie Freeman, not-terribly old Bryan McCann, cousin-of-Hanson Tommy Hanson, and a bunch of young arms coming up the pike.

But there’s a small glimmer of sunshine peeking through the clouds that you can only see if you really stare and squint at it: The Mets, I’ve heard, secured the 2013 All-Star Game at Citi Field. If it was really ownership preventing the team from drafting over-slot and not simply mismanagement and misallocation of resources, then the upcoming Midsummer Classic presents hope it could change soon.

My understanding is that selection of the All-Star Game venue, for better or worse, is one of MLB’s best items of leverage to coerce big-market teams into drafting to slot. I don’t know how often it actually works — the Yankees got an All-Star Game despite frequently spending overslot — or if that really has anything to do with why the Mets would play nice with the league, but it should no longer be a concern either way.

Maybe that’s nonsense though. Not about the Mets securing the game — that part I’m almost positive is true and done and will be announced soon — but about MLB using it as leverage for the slot system and the Mets caring and all that. Seems vaguely like a conspiracy theory, and there are a lot of moving parts in play.