By Adam Rubin
September 3, 2005

MIAMI--Unhappy with the production from their farm system, the Mets quietly conducted a purge of their organization over the past two days.

Gary LaRocque, a vice president who joined the organization in 1997 and oversaw the minor leagues and draft during his tenure, was the highest-ranking employee to take a hit, though he likely will remain in some scouting capacity, deputy general manager Jim Duquette said. The Mets have fired or demoted at least nine other members of the scouting department.

"It's still ongoing, so I don't have a number for you," Duquette said. "But there have been a fair amount of scouts fired or reassigned on the amateur side."

Paul Fryer and Terry Tripp, the organization's two national crosscheckers, were fired along with area scouts Dave Birecki (Arizona), Quincy Boyd (Illinois), Greg Morhardt (Connecticut) and Jon Bunnell (Florida), baseball officials said. Three regional crosscheckers, Bob Minor, Gene Kerns and Joe DelliCarri, were reassigned.

The Mets had been prepared to remove LaRocque a year ago, but Omar Minaya nixed the plan because he wanted to observe the situation for a year before making moves. Russ Bove took over major responsibilities for the draft in June.

Team insiders maintain the reshuffling was made at the highest levels of the organization, with special assistant Al Goldis having aggressively lobbied for a turnover since his arrival two years ago. Bove, the first-year director of amateur scouting, was said to be pleased with the job the scouts were doing and wasn't responsible for the purge. In fact, he will likely be reassigned as well.

Special assistant Sandy Johnson has pushed for Rudy Terrasas, the assistant director of amateur scouting who joined the organization from Texas in December, to assume LaRocque's role, but Duquette indicated the position may be eliminated.

The Mets have had some high-profile products of their system make an impact this season, chiefly Jose Reyes and David Wright. However, Heath Bell, Aaron Heilman, Mike Jacobs and Jae Seo are the only other homegrown products on the major league roster, and team brass generally hasn't felt like it could reach down into the system to promote major league-ready players in recent years.

Critics of the reshuffling counter that internal studies commissioned by Fred and Jeff Wilpon in recent years showed the Mets to be near the middle, and in the upper half, in producing talent.

One person intimately familiar with the team's inner workings pointed to the number of draft picks the Mets have forfeited in recent years in order to sign free agents. The Mets had no first-round pick in 1999 and no second- and third-round picks in 2002 (for signing David Weathers and Roger Cedeño), '03 (Cliff Floyd and Tom Glavine) and '05 (Pedro Martinez and Carlos Beltran).

In 2001, the year the Mets had a rare extra pick after Mike Hampton signed with the Rockies, they used it to draft Wright 38th overall.

Compounding the issue, Mets insiders said, is that the organization became tight with its pursestrings. One prime example: The Mets drafted pitcher Kyle McCulloch, a University of Texas signee, in the 18th round two years ago, knowing he would command big money to sign but figuring it was worthwhile because of the lack of early picks. After the draft, LaRocque was denied the money by superiors. McCulloch may go in the first round next June after his junior season at Texas and went 4-0, 1.44 for Team USA this summer.

Critics of the dismissals also note that New York teams are reluctant to trust their talent, and that elsewhere, upper-level prospects like pitcher Brian Bannister would be given the opportunity to succeed the way rookie Zach Duke has in Pittsburgh.

Tripp had been with the Mets for 20 years and was credited with signing 44th-round pick Jason Isringhausen. Minor signed the undrafted Bell and was responsible for Jacobs' 38th-round selection.

Adam Rubin covers the Mets for the New York Daily News.