Pretty much every relevant prospect outlet has their top-10 for each system up, and their organizational rankings as well.
What I put together below is a combination of all of them to kind of come up with a “consensus” top prospects for the season.
BA = Baseball America
KL = Keith Law
FG = FanGraphs
BP = Baseball Prospectus
PP = Phuture Phillies
RGM = ReclinerGM (yes, I know I’m only on #7, but the top 6 aren’t a surprise)
Some notes…
- Interesting to see where people landed on the Colvin / Cosart debate. It gives you an idea of whether people value upside (Cosart) or reliability (Colvin) more. I took Colvin because a hard thrower like Cosart who has an injury history is too risky for me.
- Aaron Altherr is obviously someone who I missed on (didn’t have him in my top-20). His numbers aren’t all that impressive, but his scouting reports must be.
- I personally think that those that have us in the top-5 for systems are too optimistic. I like our system, but there is so much risk in it, that it could be in the 20′s next year w/o us even trading anyone.
- After Domonic Brown, there isn’t an impact player on here I would expect to see in the majors anytime soon.
I probably should start out by wishing everyone a Happy Opening Day in case Opening Day slips by and I forget about it. I’m using tonight’s spring forward drill as my spring training to remember when semi important events occur rather than reading about them in the history section. April 1, April 1, April 1. Maybe it won’t slip by me now after that little drill, but in case it does, Happy Opening Day.
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It’d be interesting if these prospect lists were more flavor of the week like college sports polls than more annual. A guy like Dom Brown probably wouldn’t lose significant points off his pre hand spring training. College teams drop ioff losses, but the teams with good reputations get cut some slack to live off their reputations. They drop, but not as quickly as a surprise team that voters have to vote for with an I told you so watch in play as the expected fall is a play away. So it seems, anyway.
The reason I mention that is if the prospects were ranked let’s say monthly since weekly would be totally absurd, it’d be interesting to see where Mike Stutes would rank on this month’s survey. And how quickly he’d drop if he ever walked a hitter.
His absence from this post’s list now looks criminal. So did Chamanade at one point, at least on a different list.
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The World Wide Leader does a fine job on it’s website of teasing their readership. They write a few compellinmg sentences, then hit you up to register as an Insider to read the rest of the story. Taking that mandate to become an Insider for granted can be a mistake.
Take the good entertainment that comes from a Bryce Harper story this week. The lead sentences are followed by this…
<<To read why it’s likely not a good idea to bring Bryce Harper up from the minors this season, you must be an ESPN Insider.>>
I get their point, but it’s humorous to think that they make it sound like it’s impossible to not know that he should not make the club with that must word.
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Wonder what MLB, maybe in cnjunction with MILB will do to help Japan when it comes time to focus on recovery. Since we’ve used so many of their players to internationalize our game, let alone deplete theirsto the point where at least 1 article I read taslked about it being a potential killer of Japanese baseball, I guess it adds to the moral obligation, for lack of a better word of assistance.
Nothing tangible seems doable for this season, and I don’t know that this is such a great idea, but maybe add a day to the all star break, and play a Japanese all star game of Japanese MLB players or something with proceeds to Japan. Or day night doubleheader the day of Home Run Derby. Just a thought. We should kinda sorta be doing that anyway, as much talent as we’ve absorbed from their fertile training grounds.
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Cliff Lee apparently enjoyed the free agent routine he did this winter. So much so that he applied it to interest as a radio interview yesterday. He hooked up with WIP yesterday morning, evidently scorning Da Fanatic much like the New York Yankees this winter. Here’s the link if you wanna hear it, and for the mentally impaired, I will mention that audio be required. The mentally impaired wrote this post, so the mentally impaired gots to be reading it.
http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2011/03/10/phillies-players-staff-interviewed-by-wip-in-clearwater/
This contract extension that Mr. Amaro got is a little deceptive to the public eye. What even casual observors realize is that he got both Doc and Cliff, we’ve won a lot in his post Gillick tenure, and pretty apparent things like that. And the case to extend him is readily apparent based on that.
And I’m not suggesting for a second he doesn’t deserve it.
But the real tell tale of a GM’s work is so much wider than that. The structure of the organization in scouting and player development maybe heading a list of behind the scenes type stuff that constitutes a fairer evaluation.
I’d say I have little idea how Ruben stacks up in those under the headline areas. I mean, who has time to follow everything? But I’d be curious as to what his levels of accomplishment in the various facets have been. The ways he’s improved, or maybe not improved the Gillick era, and how he stacks up to his peers in similar venues.
On the surface, particularly since he got Cliff back, he seems to have done a top notch job, and that’s good enough for me. But it kinda strikes my curiousity as to how good he is in a wider perspective. I suppose even the headline aspect of it is still to be answered since we know we can compete now, but Boston and Atlanta have competed pretty well, and are seemingly real nicely set up for the future. With our club so old, maybe Ruben’s worth of a 4 year extension will be deemed the right move by if the 2016 Phillies are contenders.
But for today, the proof is in that there is life after batboy. Cherish the moment.
I kinda like this 3 stars tradition they have in the NHL. Or hockey. Whatever.
And if I like it, we’re doing it, dammit.
Here are my 3 stars for Saturday, March 12, 2011.
But this is not in any particular order.order.
1/ The Philadphia Flyers
2/ The Philadelphia 76ers
3/ Kyle Bleeping Kendrick
And that don’t even touch St. Joe’s and Temple.
What a day.