BA - NYM Top 10 Prospects

[Frayed Knot]

1. Lastings Milledge, of
2. Yusmeiro Petit, rhp
3. Gaby Hernandez, rhp
4. Mike Jacobs, 1b
5. Philip Humber, rhp
6. Carlos Gomez, of
7. Fernando Martinez, of
8. Anderson Hernandez, ss/2b
9. Brian Bannister, rhp
10. Alay Soler, rhp


#7 is the just-signed teenager right? Wow, talk about your wild speculation!!

The rest are fairly predictable I guess, although Humber, Martinez & Soler are almost totally potential over actual performance so far. The unsigned Mike Pelfrey will probably join them for the same reason if/when he signs.


#s 1, 2 & 3 are unchanged from last year.
Last year's #4 Ian Bladergroan was traded.
# 5 - Ambiorix Concepcion; #7 - Shawn Bowman; #9 - Jesus Flores; and #10 - Matt Lindstrom backslid and fell off the list.
#6 Alay Soler saw his stint in the witness protection program drop him to 10th, while #8 Victor Diaz "graduated" to the bigs.


Miscellaneous stuff:
Best Hitter for Average - Lastings Milledge
Best Power Hitter - Brett Harper
Best Strike-Zone Discipline - Grant Psomas
Fastest Baserunner - Carlos Gomez
Best Athlete - Lastings Milledge
Best Fastball - Matt Lindstrom
Best Curveball - Philip Humber
Best Slider - Alay Soler
Best Changeup - Evan MacLane
Best Control - Yusmeiro Petit
Best Defensive Catcher - Drew Butera
Best Defensive Infielder - Anderson Hernandez
Best Infield Arm - Corey Ragsdale
Best Defensive Outfielder - Lastings Milledge
Best Outfield Arm - Carlos Gomez



Unfortunately, to get the more detailed scouting reports on the top guys, or participate in the Friday afternoon on-line Q&A you need to be a paid-up subscriber (I let mine lapse a while back). The Q&A at least used to be open to all.

[Guest Edgy DC]

A lot of people --- and I'm sure its just the way consensus is created with all the individual thought of tumbling dominoes --- have described Joe Hietpas as the best or near-best defensive catcher in the minors. Butera must've done something impressive to displace him.

[MFS62]

I thought the same thing about Hieptas. But on some "tools" lists I read lastyear, Aaron Hathaway was rated as good defensively as Scarlett's kid, and projected as a better hitter.
Butera must be very good. Do we have any Witnesses*?

Later

*= obscure rock and roll reference

[smg58]

I was dismayed by the first round picks from 1996-2000. Wow, that's a bad record.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Not-yet-signed Mike Pelfrey isn't there. If he was signed, he might slot in ahead of or behind Humber, depending on your attitude toward's Humber's injury and the patttern of initial strugles he and his colleages have had coming out of Rice's program.

I think I'd put Pelfrey ahead of Humber, and Jojima (speculating here) behind.

It's nice to finally see three outfielders in the top ten.

[seawolf17]

This Soler kid had better be hot shit. It seems like they've spent a lot of energy on him, and he appears on all these prospect lists, but nobody's seen him pitch yet. Could be interesting.

[Guest KC]

I'll make a chart over the weekend outlining BA's comments, it would be
lame (and illegal) to just cut and paste them - if no one beats me to it. .

Fernando Martinez is indeed only 17. He signed for 1.4 million out of the
Domincan Republic and Minaya believes he's a match for any high school
outfielder taken in the draft.

[Guest Edgy DC]

A lot of people appear on all these prospect lists, and cost the team more energy than he has. A prospect is a prospect.

The Mets have way too much redundancy in pitching futures right now for me to get too worked over one of them.

[Theoldmole]

Lame, maybe. But illegal? Asking because I don't know the legality of this, for sure -- I know it would be illegal on a commercial website -- but just a discussion group among friends?

[Guest Rotblatt]

I saw Butera in a Cyclones game this season. He had a cannon for an arm although the opposition went 1 for 2 off him in SB, I think. Pelfry pitched that game as well and was impressive.

My report should be in the Cyclones thread, but to recap, Pelfry was dominant (I was thinking perfect game after 3) until an infield single, then he kind of fell apart. He seemed to have problems pitching from the stretch intially, although he settled down after giving up maybe 2 runs. I didn't find the radar gun reading until after he'd left, but he was throwing harder than anyone else in the game that night--maybe low 90's?

Pelfry also did nothing to hold runners on, which is how Butera was only 1-2. Guy had an enormous jump on him, but he managed to make it close. He nailed the other guy. I don't remember any passed balls. Kind of hard to tell how his game calling was. There were a lot of terrible swings from the opposition, but it seemed to me that they were all pretty much looking dead red and anything offspeed would've fooled them.

on edit: Oops. Not Pelfry. Parnell. And Butera didn't actually throw anyone out. Parnell looked gooood, though.

My bad. Here's the box score. http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/app/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=milb&gid=2005_08_05_verasx_broasx_1&cid=453&t=g_box&did=milb

[Frayed Knot]

Pelfrey is this past year's top draft pick and remains unsigned at this point. You're obviously thinking of a different pitcher here.

[Guest KC]

I guess illegal is a little strong. Disseminating information from a pay site
on a free site has to be wrong on some level. Maybe I'll get Healy to do
it, let him get the phone call up there in Holyoke.

[MFS62]

Since its a pay-for-view site, it might have something to do with "theft of services".

Later

[seawolf17]

The Crane Pool Forum has no regard for your laws! You can't tell us what to do, The Man!

[Guest Edgy DC]

We should take this to the Ethics Subforum.