The long dormant Top Prospect Alert has posted their list of the Top 10 Yankee prospects. The top 6 or 7 make perfect sense, but it gets kinda sketchy after that. Check it out after the jump.
MiLB.com ranks Joba 5th
MiLB.com finished up its Minor League prospect rankings today, and Joba took the 5th spot. The Yanks ended up with three of the top 50 prospects, and Jose Tabata didn’t even make the list. Not bad for a team that didn’t have much of a farm system a few years ago.
BP unveils Top 11 Yankees prospects
Kevin Goldstein is duly impressed with the Yankees’ organization. He feels they have the arms to compete for a very long time. We know this, but it’s nice to hear an unbiased outsider offer up the same prospect love that we feel.
Goldstein’s piece is subscription-only, but I’ll run down the list for you. Go subscribe to BP, if you haven’t already.
Five-Star Prospects
1. Joba Chamberlain, RHP
Four-Star Prospects
2. Ian Kennedy, RHP
3. Austin Jackson, OF
4. Jose Tabata, OF
5. Alan Horne, RHP
Three-Star Prospects
6. Dellin Betances, RHP
7. Jesus Montero, C
8. Andrew Brackman, RHP
9. Edwar Ramirez, RHP
10. Kelvin DeLeon, OF
Two-Star Prospects
11. Humberto Sanchez, RHP
Under the Under-25 list, Phil Hughes takes the top slot, further proving that the Yanks just should not trade him. Melky Cabrera sits at 9 on that list, but Goldstein admits that the Yanks’ erstwhile center fielder is “a liability offensively when you play him every day.”
Ajax named 49th best prospect in baseball
Milb.com starting counting down its annual list of the Top 50 Prospects in the baseball today with numbers 41-50. As the title implies, Austin Jackson was named #49, sandwiched between Dexter Fowler and Carlos Triunfel. Milb’s brass grossly under-rated Triunfel (should be top 15 in my opinion), but Fowler is rather impressive company for the former hoops standout. The Yanks should have at least three more players on the list, and I suppose there’s an outside chance Jesus Montero’s name pops up along the way, making it four more.
Top GCL Prospects
Baseball America released the first of their top 20 lists for each league in organized baseball today, starting with the Rookie level Gulf Coast League. Two Yankee prospects made the list: Jesus Montero at number 2 (behind Michael Burgess of the Nats), and my newest prospect crush, Jairo Heredia comes in at number 15.
I can’t wait to see how many members of Trenton’s pitching staff makes the Eastern League Top 20.
Post Draft Signing Period Top 30 Prospects
(Yes, James, that is totally your photo from flickr)
A couple of weeks ago I put together a midseason list of what I believed to be the Yanks’ top 30 prospects, but to be honest with you, I kinda half-assed that one and didn’t spend as much time on it as I should have. So not only did I want to update the list to include all the new additions from the 2007 draft, I also wanted to rectify the previous list by putting more thought into it. I feel this effort is much more representative of the Yanks’ farm system, and puts each prospect where they belong in the pecking order.
Right at the top you’ll notice that I didn’t include Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain, even though they are technically still prospects. I feel both have done a nice job of establishing themselves as legit big leaguers, and won’t see the minors again (barring an injury rehab assignment) in the foreseeable future. Obviously, I would have them ranked 1-2, respectively. I also chose not include the “Tommy John Quartet” of Humberto Sanchez, JB Cox, Mark Melancon and Christian Garcia. When healthy, all of those guys are top 15 prospects for me, but I decided to leave them off because they’ll be out until next year. But make no mistake about it, they’re all still very much prospects.
Trying to put these lists together always seems like a piece of cake at first, but after a while it gives you a headache and before you know it, your ranking “philosophy” doesn’t seem to make as much sense as it did 15 minutes ago. As I’ve said many times before, I prefer tools and upside over actual performance, but I try my best to balance the two, as well as other factors like age, level, bloodlines (you’re fooling yourself if you don’t think bloodlines make a difference), handedness (tie goes to the lefty), and makeup. Simple rule of thumb: if you can’t decide between 2 players, ask yourself if you’d trade Player A straight up for Player B. Nine times out of ten, it’ll bail you out.
Enough already, here’s the list (name followed by age as of today, position & level played at this year):
2007 Midseason Top 30 Prospects
I wasn’t planning on putting together a midseason list, but once I saw that everyone else doing it, I figured I might as well join the party. You can catch Fabian’s Top 30 List here and EJ’s here. I’m not going to go into too much detail because not all that much has changed as far as individual scouting reports and stuff like that. You can find my Preseason Top 30 list here, for comparisons sake. List after the jump.