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2008 Preseason Top 30 Prospects

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No fancy intro today, I gave you the schpeel yesterday. The Yanks have a pretty obvious top 4 prospects, and an even more obvious #1. After that though, opinions vary because everybody has their own preferences, and that’s perfectly fine. I’m hear to tell you what mine are. One thing we can all agree on is that it’s a great time to be fan of the farm system, because the system hasn’t been this stacked since the law firm of Johnson, Soriano & Henson roamed the upper levels.

Yesterday I gave you the guys who just missed the cut, today you get the rest of the list. I find the last 8 guys on the list (plus the 5 just misses) to be very interchangeable, which is a good thing because they’re all #23 caliber prospects, not #30 types. Lemme know what you think in the comments. The good stuff is comes after the jump.

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2008 Preseason Top 30 Prospects: The Just Misses

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It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Pitchers and catchers will soon officially be in Tampa strutting their stuff with the hopes and promises of a new season filling the air. Times like this make us wonder how we ever managed to dread the dog days of summer. Just like the big league squad, the minor league affiliates are full of optimism with the new season on the horizon.

Overall, the farm system is in pretty good shape. There’s high end talent mixed with high probability talent, and the pitching crop at the upper levels is starting to be complimented by the position player crop at the lower levels. There’s an alarming lack of lefthanded pitchers, ditto power hitting prospects. The Yanks have surplus from which to make trades, and a good amount of guys that could be cheap injury fill-ins at the Major League level this year. Gone are days of Aaron Small, Matt Childers, Donovan Osborne and Terrence Long. There’s also a bright new crop of kids set to come up from Latin America this year, led by SS Jose Pirela and OF Kelvin DeLeon.

Unfortunately the Yanks didn’t pull off any neat trades this winter like last year (unless you count that Tyler Clippard-Jon Albaladejo blockbuster), so this year’s prospect list doesn’t include any new and fancy names. As always, the delicate balance between ceiling and probability are the main criteria for the rankings, but other stuff like performance, track record, position and handedness (tie goes to the lefty) also play a role. I had some trouble trimming the fat at the end of the list, so I decided to write-up a few extra players that just missed the cut.

The real Top 30 comes out tomorrow, but for now here’s five guys on the outside looking in. Fun starts after the jump.

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Keith Law’s Top 100 Prospects

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RAB fave Keith Law posted his Top 100 Prospects list over at the Worldwide Leader. Five Yankee farmshands made the list, led by Joba at #3, who was also the top ranked pitcher. Jose Tabata (#21), Austin Jackson (#24), IPK (#45) and Andrew Brackman (#100) followed suit. Check it out, if for no other reason than to learn about guys named Weglarz, Gorkys and Chorye.

BA’s Top Ten Yanks prospects hits the Internets

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While Mike gave us the Baseball America top ten list of Yankees prospects two weeks ago, BA finally got around to posting it online. Most of the content – including scouting reports for all of the prospects – is behind the BA subscription wall, but you can check out the team’s best tools (Edwar’s change-up, Kennedy’s control, and Joba’s everything) and the idealized 2011 lineup of internal options and current Yankees. If Derek Jeter is still the Yanks’ starting short stop in 2011, something is wrong.

BA’s Top 10 Yankee Prospects

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The list won’t hit the website until January 7th, but the good ol’ print edition of BA’s magazine showed up in the mailbox today. Here’s who they got for the Yanks’ top 10:

  1. Joba
  2. Austin Jackson
  3. Jose Tabata
  4. IPK
  5. Alan Horne
  6. Jesus! (montero)
  7. Jeff Marquez
  8. Brett Gardner
  9. Rock ‘n Rohlendorf
  10. Andrew Brackman

Personally, I wouldn’t have Marquez or Gardner in the Top 10, and I wouldn’t have Ajax ahead of Tabata, at least not until Tabata stops hitting .300 as a teenager. I’m stunned at how far Dellin Betances has fallen, the dude was ranked #3 last year, one spot ahead of Joba. Overall, it’s solid list, and I suspect the pundits at BA find numbers 2-6 pretty interchangeable. So what do you think? Did they get it right?

Sickels’ Top 20 Yankee Prospects

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Here’s John’s list:

  1. Joba Chamberlain, RHP, Grade A
  2. Jose Tabata, OF, Grade B+
  3. Ian Kennedy, RHP, Grade B+
  4. Alan Horne, RHP, Grade B
  5. Austin Jackson, OF, Grade B-
  6. Bradley Suttle, 3B, Grade B-
  7. Dellin Betances, RHP, Grade B-
  8. Austin Romine, C, Grade B- (hate grading guys who haven’t played yet, could be C+)
  9. Jesus Montero, C, Grade C+ (borderline B-)
  10. Dan McCutchen, RHP, Grade C+
  11. Brett Gardner, OF, Grade C+
  12. Damon Sublett, 2B, Grade C+ (love this guy)
  13. Andrew Brackman, RHP, Grade C+ (could slot anywhere from 9 to 20 depending on what you want to emphasize)
  14. Jeffrey Marquez, RHP, Grade C+
  15. George Kontos, RHP, Grade C+
  16. Kevin Whelan, RHP, Grade C+ (check those K/IP and H/IP, but command?)
  17. Frank Cervelli, C, Grade C+ (great glove, bat?)
  18. David Robertson, RHP, Grade C+ (stunning numbers)
  19. Jairo Heredia, RHP, Grade C+
  20. Zach McAllister, RHP, Grade C+

It’s a good list and it’s reasonably ordered. Suttle and Romine may be a bit too high, Brackman and Whelan a bit too low, but it’s all a matter of preference. I do however think that Ajax is better than a B- prospect, and Montero is definitely better than a C+. Sickels also posted an excerpt from his book about Alan Horne; check it out here.