Category Archives: Prospect Rankings

Reader Top 30; #5

2009 Reader Top 30

The voting thread for spot #4 confirmed to me my decision to stop participating in the discussions here. Its done wonders for my sanity. Kyle Drabek won a close vote for the #4 spot over Michael Taylor, with 10 different prospects getting votes. Complete breakdown:

Drabek — 52
Taylor — 45
Happ — 15
Brown — 6
Mayberry — 3
D’Arnaud — 2
Mathieson, Collier, Savery, Knapp — 1

Today we round out the top 5.

01. Carlos Carrasco, RHP
02. Lou Marson, C
03. Jason Donald, SS
04. Kyle Drabek, RHP
05.

Reader Top 30; #4

2009 Reader Top 30

As expected, Jason Donald won the #3 spot handily after falling short on Day 1 and Day 2. The voting should now get quite interesting, with a number of intriguing guys in the 4-10 range. The final breakdown for #3 was

Donald, 63
Taylor, 17
Drabek, 17
Happ, 13
Brown, 2
Savery, 1
D’Arnaud, 1
Knapp, 1

01. Carlos Carrasco, RHP
02. Lou Marson, C
03. Jason Donald, SS
04.

Reader Top 30; #3

2009 Reader Top 30

Lou Marson rolled over the field in round 2, claiming 81 votes. The breakdown was as follows

Marson, 81
Donald, 16
Drabek, 8
Taylor, 3
Happ, 3

So now we move on to #3, which should prove a very interesting vote.

01. Carlos Carrasco, RHP
02. Lou Marson, C
03.

Reader Top 30; #2

2009 Reader Top 30

Lots of participation for #1, I hope that it continues as we move through the Top 30. There were 117 votes cast, and the breakdown was

Carrasco: 52
Marson: 47
Donald: 11
Drabek: 4
Happ: 2
Taylor: 1

So then, Carlos Carrasco is the Readers’ #1 pick. He obviously cannot be selected in future polls. When voting for #2, you can vote for any eligible player, the same process as day one.

01. Carlos Carrasco, RHP
02.

Reader Top 30; #1

2009 Reader Top 30

So I’ve decided that we’ll start the Reader Top 30 this week. I’ll start #1 today, #2 on Wednesday, and then #3 either on Friday or next Monday, and then we’ll do one a day until we’re done. If you’re new to the site and missed last year’s version, you can go here and see how it works. This year, instead of excluding anyone like I did last year, we’ll just use the MLB rookie requiremets. No more than 130AB or 50 IP. I don’t have all of the service days, so ignore that aspect of it. Basically, anyone with less than 130 AB or 50 IP is eligible. At the end of each voting period, I add up the votes and the player with the most votes gets selected for that day. When we start a new round, every player but the players already voted into the Top 30 are again eligible. We do this until we get to #30. At the end of the process, I’ll solicit people’s personal Top 30 lists and put them into a spreadsheet again just like last year.

Ok, have at it. Please only vote once.

Michael Taylor in BA Top 20 for FSL

Top Prospect Lists

Coming in at 10th.

Nothing really new in the scouting report. Impressive tools, breakout performance, etc etc. Keeping things up to date.

GCL

4. Jason Knapp
7. Sebastian Valle
8. Zach Collier
13. Anthony Hewitt

NYPL

5. Travis D’Arnaud

SAL

15. Michael Taylor

FSL

10. Michael Taylor

And the nail in the coffin, Adrian Cardenas came in at #5. This was the most damaging part

The biggest question with Cardenas centers around his best defensive position. His struggles turning the double play limit his potential at second base, and his lateral movement and footwork probably won’t allow him to play shortstop. His arm is strong enough for his third base, and his bat would fit there as well.

bah.

Michael Taylor makes the SAL Top 20

Top Prospect Lists

Taylor comes in at #15 in the SAL, and was the only Phillie to crack the list. The SAL is a huge league (16 teams), so its not really a travesty to only have one guy on the list. This is also the most talent I’ve seen in the SAL in a long time.

So far, the Phillies to make league top 20’s are

GCL

4. Jason Knapp
7. Sebastian Valle
8. Zach Collier
13. Anthony Hewitt

NYPL

5. Travis D’Arnaud

SAL

15. Michael Taylor

D’Arnaud makes NYPL Top 20

Top Prospect Lists

…and hes the only one.

He came in at #5 behind Jason Castro (Houston), David Cooper (Toronto), Adam Reifer (Cardinals) and Derek Norris (Nationals)

Full info here. Basically praised his defense, said he’s getting even better there, and that he’s got good contact skills and can drive the ball to right field.

4 Phillies make the GCL Top 20

Collier, Zach, Hewitt, Anthony, Top Prospect Lists, Valle, Sebastian

I’ll be doing something similar to what BA does, highlighting the 20 best prospects in each league, but they beat me to the punch on the GCL list. Which is ok, because mine is likely to look much different. Anyway, today is the GCL, and the Phillies are well represented.

4. Jason Knapp
7. Sebastian Valle
8. Zach Collier
13. Anthony Hewitt

Prospect Matrix

2008 Reader Top 30, Top Prospect Lists

As the season is coming to a close, I thought it would be entertaining to take a look back at predictions heading into the 2008 season. I compiled my Top 30, the consensus Top 30 done by you guys, the Top 30 from Baseball America, and Kevin Goldstein’s Top 11 plus honorable mentions (in yellow) to see who looks smart and who doesn’t look so smart. Or who got lucky. Note, I instructed everyone to ignore Mathieson and Zagurski in their rankings, I think maybe because of the amount of MLB time they had and that I didn’t consider them pure prospects or whatever. Well, that was probably dumb, but it looks like both guys have dropped off the radar, for similar/different reasons. Anyway, here is the chart.

If that image doesn’t properly fit your screen, click here.

Talk amongst yourselves. I gave you a topic.