New York, NY (WFAN)  -- Even before the Mets acquired two-time Cy Young Award winner Johan Santana from the Twins for Carlos Gomez, Philip Humber, Kevin Mulvey and Deolis Guerra, the conventional wisdom was that the Mets farm system wasn’t exactly stockpiled with talent. So let’s take a look at what remains in the pipeline after the blockbuster deal.

The four players the Mets dealt to Minnesota were ranked 2nd (Guerra), 3rd (Gomez), 4th (Mulvey) and 7th (Humber) according to this past Fall’s Baseball America Top 10 prospects list. Interestingly, in 2006, those same four ranked three thru six in that publication’s list although in a slightly different order.

The only player to rank above those four in both years was Fernando Martinez, who moved up from number two in ’06 to number one this year and understandably, Martinez’ name did come up in the Santana deal rumors. Thru March 12th, Martinez has hit .300 in 11 Spring Training games with nine hits in his 30 at bats and won’t turn 20 years old until October. He did miss more than half of the 2007 season with a hand injury but is still ranked 17th overall among minor league prospects by MiLB.com which projects him with both plus power and average as a hitter who could end up at either corner outfield spot.

Eddie Kunz, the righthanded reliever from Oregon State was the Mets top choice in last year’s MLB Amateur Draft taken 42nd overall, is ranked 5th on Baseball America’s list. The 6 foot 5 Kunz is just 21 years old and possesses a 95 mph sinking fastball which should make him tough on righty hitters as well as a slider and change-up to deal with left handed batters.

Brant Rustich, the Mets 2nd round selection in the ’07 Draft, ranks 6th on the Baseball America list. The 6 foot 6 Rustich was converted from a starter to the closer’s role while playing his college baseball at UCLA but now the Mets are making him a starting pitcher once again, no doubt in part because of the depth that was dealt away in the Santana trade. Last year, the 23-year old righty had a 3-0 record, with a 1.57 ERA in 23 innings combine for Kingsport and Brooklyn.

Lefthanded pitcher Jon Niese took the 8th spot on the Baseball America list. Niese went 11-7 with just 31 walks in 134 1/3 innings at St. Lucie in 2007 after recording a Mets system-best 142 strikeouts in 2006. Niese, who has pitched four innings in Spring Training this year for the Mets and allowed just one run while picking up a win, may in fact have been born to be a Met, his birthdate is October 27th, 1986—the date of the Mets Game 7 World Series win over the Red Sox.

Another lefty, Nathan Vineyard, ranks 9th on the Baseball America list. Like Eddie Kunz, Vineyard was a “sandwich” pick by the Mets at the end of the first round—number 47 overall last June. Vineyard made the jump straight from High School in Georgia to the Gulf Coast Mets and struck out 33 in 27 1/3 innings of work.

Righthanded pitcher Robert Parnell rounds out Baseball America’s top 10 list for the Mets. Parnell was drafted in 2005 from Charleston Southern University. Although Parnell has been a starter since signing with the Mets, his power arm, which has delivered a fastball clocked as high as 97 mph, may seem best suited for the bullpen. Parnell threw a scoreless and hitless couple of innings in his lone outing with the big club this month at Port St. Lucie and should pitch at AA Binghamton in 2008.