LAS VEGAS - The fascination with Brandon Nimmo began soon after the Mets drafted him 13th overall in 2011. He was the first pick of the Sandy Alderson era, a high school kid from Cheyenne, Wyoming, a place that is anything but a hotbed of future major-league talent.
After the draft, New York media members trekked to Nimmo's hometown, located in the southeastern corner of the country's least populated state. They told stories of a kid who overcame the long odds from a state without high school-sanctioned baseball, who made his bones playing American Legion ball and honed his skills inside a barn-like structure located on his parents' property.