Welcome to my Top 30 prospects for 2010 extravaganza. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and then you’ll tell me after I’m done that I’m an idiot, and that your favorite prospect is ranked too low, while a guy ranked above him is ranked too high. It should be a good time. Before I get started with this year’s list, I wanted to look back at last year’s list and compare it to the lists put out by Baseball America, Baseball Prospectus, and Keith Law at ESPN for comparison’s sake, just to see how great/poor my list was. After that, I’ll talk a bit about how I came up with this list, the various challenges, and my expectations for 2010. If you have already purchased the 2010 Phillies Annual, edited by Jason from beerleaguer, then you’ve already had a chance to see my Top 30. I’ll dig in a bit deeper here and cover some things that I wasn’t able to fit into the Annual. So it should be fun. Lets get started.
All posts by giventofly41
Prospect Q/A with Kevin Goldstein
Friend of phuturephillies Kevin Goldstein recently released his Top 15 Phillies prospects list, and he was kind enough to answer some questions for the site. As always, he provides some excellent insight into his rankings, as well as talking about a few guys who didn’t appear on the list. His answer on Phillippe Aumont gave me a bit more confidence in him, actually. So check below the fold for a Q/A with KG
Scheduling note
Just a heads up. Kevin Goldstein has agreed to do a little Q/A here to talk Phillies prospects and I’ve sent him a list of questions. Check for his replies sometime next week. Also, the target date for my writeup on the top 30 prospects is Monday. I’m about half way through, it will come complete with stats, graphics, and lots of insightful commentary. So check back Monday for that, and then look forward to the wisdom of KG.
Reader Top 30 Wrapup
The Reader Top 30 is complete, with Drew Carpenter taking the 30th and final spot on the list, edging out Kyrell Hudson and Kelly Dugan. Participation was excellent this year, especially for the first 15 or so spots, as we regularly cracked the 400 vote mark. Check below the fold for the details of the final list
SONAR takes on corner outfield prospects
The next installment of the SONAR series is going to focus on corner outfielders. I’ve decided to group the two positions (LF and RF) together, because its common for prospects in the minors to switch between the outfield spots, and in many cases, you’ll see a player with 70 games in RF and 55 in LF, his team obviously sees him in a corner, and his arm is probably borderline in right field, but they are giving him a chance there. The difference in LF and RF is small, but it is an important difference. Rightfielders are required to make the longest throw, from the right field corner to 3B, while the LF’s longest throw is to home plate. A corner outfielder is less valuable than a CF in terms of defense, and a right fielder is a tick or two more valuable than a leftfielder. Both positions are more valuable defensively than 1B, though the offensive expectation in LF is slightly higher than RF. If you’re new to the concept of SONAR, how it works, what it means, etc etc, then I suggest you read this, then check here for more scores and information. Check below the fold for more
Kevin Goldstein’s Phillies Top 15
Friend of the website Kevin Goldstein has his Phillies Top 15 prospects list up today, which you can check out here. Like everyone else, he’s bullish on Domonic Brown, and unsurprisingly, he likes Phillippe Aumont quite a bit. He’s not as high on some of our other prospects, dropping lots of 3 star ratings on guys who I might value a bit more, but his assessments seem quite fair. I’m going to attempt to work in another Q/A with him about his list, as its always a popular feature, but with his increased workload at Baseball Prospectus in 2010, I can’t make any promises. If you have any questions you’d specifically like to ask him, post them here and I’ll see if I can incorporate some of them if he’s able to do a quick Q/A.
Reader Top 30; Final Spot
What a long strange trip its been. We’ve finally reached the end of the Reader Top 30 for 2010. There has been lots of good (and bad) discussion about the prospects who made it, and some who won’t make it. Matt Way took the #29 spot, and that means there are 8 players left for one final slot in the Top 30. Look for my SONAR piece on corner outfielders later today, and then if all goes well, my personal Top 30 will be posted on Friday. As I mentioned before, I was asked to provide my Top 30 this year, as well as a minor league overview for the 2010 Phillies Annual which is prepared by Jason from Beerleaguer. You can order a copy here to see what I have to say. My order for this website will be the same as in the Annual, but with more detailed info/writeups. Finally, if you want to submit a personal top 30 list, which I will attempt to log into an Excel spreadsheet for later viewing, please send an email to phuturephillies at gmail dot com and put “Reader Top 30” in the subject line. Thank you. Check below for the last poll.
Reader Top 30; #29
Catcher turned pitcher Jesus Sanchez takes the #28 spot, leaving just two spots left to go in this year’s Reader Top 30. My current aim is to have my own Top 30 ready by Friday, but that is, as always, subject to change. No one received write-in support in the last round, which is probably just as well, since there are only 2 spots left. Kevin Goldstein’s Top 15 for the Phillies should be up either today (Monday) or Tuesday, and I’m going to see if he can squeeze in a brief Q/A for the site once his list is posted. Check below for more.
Reader Top 30; #28
Three spots remain, as Jonathon Villar just barely edges out Jesus Sanchez for #27. Anthony Hewitt got a mention as a write-in, so I’ll add him to the next round. Here’s the schedule for the coming week. We’ll finish #29 and 30 early next week, I hope to have my SONAR piece on corner outfielders done, and then hopefully by the end of next week my personal Top 30 list will be posted. When we wrap up the Reader Top 30, I’ll put together a collaboration of individual top 30’s from those that submit them, but don’t send them yet. So, check below for #28…
Reader Top 30; #27
Before we get to the Reader Top 30, I just wanted to link two different articles. The first comes from notable prospect evaluator Alex Eisenberg at Baseball Intellect, where he’s posted his Top 15 Phillies prospects. Some of the content is premium and available only for subscribers. The second link is to a site called Diamond Futures, which covers prospects. You can read the author’s take on 19 of our prospects here. I always try and link stuff from people who get in touch with me, so I’m doing my good deed for the day there. Onto the Reader Top 30. We’re almost done, and blogger extraordinaire Michael Schwimer takes home the #26 spot in comfortable fashion. Travis Mattair and Mike Cisco both got a write in vote, so I’ll try and add them both. Check below for more..
Phuture Phillies 