Community Prospect List: #81 RUNOFF!

by the pinstripes on Dec 1, 2008 9:10 AM EST Comment 29 comments

After 349 votes we move to a runoff as we have a 3 way tie between Nick Weglarz, James Simmons & Julio Borbon. The vote can be called after the 200th vote is cast depending on when either of kingbilly or myself logs back in.

1. MATT WIETERS - C (Baltimore)
2. DAVID PRICE - SP (Tampa Bay)
3. JASON HEYWARD - OF (Atlanta)
4. TRAVIS SNIDER - OF (Toronto)
5. MADISON BUMGARNER - SP (San Francisco)
6. COLBY RASMUS - OF (St. Louis)
7. CAMERON MAYBIN - OF (Florida)
8. TREVOR CAHILL - SP (Oakland)
9. NEFTALI FELIZ - SP (Texas)
10. MATT LAPORTA - 1B/OF/DH (Cleveland)
11. MIKE MOUSTAKAS - 3B (Kansas City)
12. TIM ALDERSON - SP (San Francisco)
13. PEDRO ALVAREZ - 3B (Pittsburgh)
14. RICK PORCELLO - SP (Detroit)
15. DEXTER FOWLER - OF (Colorado)
16. BRETT ANDERSON - SP (Oakland)*
17. DEREK HOLLAND - SP (Texas)
18. ANDREW McCUTCHEN - OF (Pittsburgh)
19. BUSTER POSEY - C (San Francisco)
20. CHRIS TILLMAN - SP (Baltimore)
21. LARS ANDERSON - 1B (Boston)
22. JUSTIN SMOAK - 1B (Texas)
23. THOMAS HANSON - SP (Atlanta)
24. ELVIS ANDRUS - SS (Texas)
25. ANGEL VILLALONA - 1B (San Francisco)
26. JHOULYS CHACIN - SP (Colorado)
27. BRIAN MATUSZ - SP (Baltimore)
28. ERIC HOSMER - 1B (Kansas City)
29. TIM BECKHAM - SS (Tampa Bay)
30. MAX RAMIREZ - C/1B (Texas)
31. JARROD PARKER - SP (Arizona)
32. MICHAEL STANTON - OF (Florida)
33. MAT GAMEL - 3B (Milwaukee)
34. JESUS MONTERO - C (New York-AL)
35. BRETT WALLACE - 3B (St. Louis)
36. JORDAN SCHAFER - OF (Atlanta)
37. WADE DAVIS - SP (Tampa Bay)
38. LOGAN MORRISON - 1B (Florida)
39. CARLOS SANTANA - C (Cleveland)
40. FERNANDO MARTINEZ - OF (New York-NL)
41. JAMES McDONALD - SP (Los Angeles-NL)
42. JEREMY HELLICKSON - SP (Tampa Bay)
43. JOSH VITTERS - 3B (Chicago-NL)
44. YONDER ALONSO - 1B (Cincinnati)
45. TAYLOR TEAGARDEN - C (Texas)
46. FREDDIE FREEMAN - 1B (Atlanta)
47. GORDON BECKHAM - SS (Chicago-AL)
48. BRETT CECIL - SP (Toronto)
49. ALCIDES ESCOBAR - SS (Milwaukee)
50. JORDAN ZIMMERMANN - SP (Washington)

51. CHRIS CARTER - 1B/DH (Oakland)
52. CARLOS TRIUNFEL - SS (Seattle)
53. AUSTIN JACKSON - OF (New York-AL)
54. BEN REVERE - OF (Minnesota)
55. MICHAEL BOWDEN - SP (Boston)
56. TYLER FLOWERS - C (Atlanta)
57. ADRIAN CARDENAS - SS (Oakland)
58. REID BRIGNAC - SS (Tampa Bay)
59. JAKE ARRIETA - SP (Baltimore)
60. JORDAN WALDEN - SP (Los Angeles-AL)
61. MICHAEL MAIN - SP (Texas)
62. WILMER FLORES - SS (New York-NL)
63. MATT DOMINGUEZ - 3B (Florida)
64. MICHAEL SAUNDERS - OF (Seattle)
65. DESMOND JENNINGS - OF (Tampa Bay)
66. CARLOS CARRASCO - SP (Philadelphia)
67. AARON CUNNINGHAM - OF (Oakland)
68. J.P. ARENCIBIA - C (Toronto)
69. GIO GONZALEZ - SP (Oakland)
70. PHILLIPPE AUMONT - SP (Seattle)
71. JEFF SAMARDZIJA - SP/RP (Chicago-NL)
72. MICHAEL INOA - SP (Oakland)
73. AARON HICKS - OF (Minnesota)
74. JEREMY JEFFRESS - SP (Milwaukee)
75. ANGEL SALOME - C (Milwaukee)
76. DANIEL CORTES - SP (Kansas City)
77. GREG HALMAN - OF (Seattle)
78. JACOB McGEE - SP/RP (Tampa Bay)
79. KYLE BLANKS - 1B (San Diego)
80. MARTIN PEREZ - SP (Texas)

CANDIDATES - Jose Tabata, Gorkys Hernandez, Daryl Jones, Jason Donald, Nick Weglarz, Chris Perez, James Simmons, Jeff Niemann, Nick Noonan , Julio Borbon, Aaron Poreda, Chris Coghlan

TESTERS - David Cooper (76-2%), Michael Burgess (77-6), Neftali Soto (77-5), Christopher Marrero (77-3), and Adam Miller (77-5) , Dellin Betances (77-5), Kila Ka'aihue (77-5), Michael Taylor(77-1) and Andrew Lambo (77-2), Ivan DeJesus (79-4), Jonathan Niese (79-5), Matt Moore (79-2), Brad Holt (79-1), Todd Frazier (80-3), Beau Mills (80-4), Scott Elbert (80-2), Vincent Mazzaro (80-3)

NOTE: I have listed by each tester the last time they were on a poll and the percentage of votes they obtained. This should help us with selecting who should be placed back on the poll etc

Poll

Who is Community Prospect #81?

Julio Borbon

111 votes

Nicholas Weglarz

104 votes

James Simmons

61 votes

276 votes | Poll has closed

0 recs | Comment 29 comments

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

Weglarz

I heard Tim Lincecum will win 1 Cy Young & 11 Tim Lincecums. Question is, how many Cole Hamels will he win?

by the pinstripes on Dec 1, 2008 9:11 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

+1

Weglarz is head and shoulders above the other two. Simmons will be an effective innings eater in the bigs, but I don’t see much more from him. Meanwhile, I’m not sure what to make of Borbon. He’d be a really nice leadoff hitter… if he could take a walk. Problem with him is that he still hasn’t figured out what is a strike and what is a ball.

by guru4u on Dec 1, 2008 10:29 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

err

The LF OPSing .832 in an age-appropriate league?

Seriously, where’s the upside with this kid? Not a lot of power production, not much defensive value, not a fount of stolen bases…. He walks. What else does he do?

I went with Simmons.

by mraver on Dec 1, 2008 11:08 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Power

He’s shown power in the past. Power is the last thing to develop typically. I’ll take a lefty bat with an excellent plate approach over a good, yet nothing special AA pitcher with flyball tendencies that is headed for Arlington.

by slurve on Dec 1, 2008 11:21 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

You've got your

teams mixed up slurve. Simmons will be pitching in McAfee Coliseum(or whatever the hell it’s called) for the A’s. And I think you’re wrong about Simmons, unless you think that Kevin Slowey is good but nothing special too.

"So's your mom"-David Sloane

by gatling on Dec 1, 2008 11:25 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I'll see your Slowey

and raise you a Jim Thome. Simmons is no Slowey – the numbers just aren’t there – not even close.

Did have my teams mixed up – even so, it doesn’t mean much.

by slurve on Dec 1, 2008 11:48 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Scouting reports

Some bits from Kevin Goldstein this last July:

“In a recent conversation with a scouting official, I was told that he believed Weglarz was on the brink of really taking off. He saw an exaggerated trigger in Weglarz’ swing early in the year, and that trigger has slowly been reduced of late. Over the weekend, his tremendous raw power made some in-game appearances, when he hit his eighth home run of the year on Saturday, and went into double-digits with two more yesterday. Now at .270/.396/.448 as a 20-year-old in High-A, Weglarz remains well ahead of schedule, with more than enough time to continue making adjustments.”

I think I’ve abstained from fan boying anyone but Weglarz for this list, but there’s a limit to what you can read into a single season’s production, especially when you have a kid who is developing his plate discipline and rewiring a trigger in his swing. It’s not like Weglarz suddenly shrank from being a 6’3", 245 pound linebacker type of dude. Every scouting report says he has mammoth raw power.

And he was 20 years old in Hi-A — his production is just fine.

by gogotabata on Dec 1, 2008 11:39 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Just to add

He’s also Canadian. Canadian bats (a la Morneu, Walker) generally have a much longer development curve (probably due to lack of PT with the cold weather). Given his production at 20, he’s well ahead.

The Dodgers won't win a playoff series until the Cool-a-Coo returns.

by mckeeno on Dec 1, 2008 12:57 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Unbelievable

that Aaron Poreda is not ranked ahead of some of these guys on this list. Incredible.

Behind Blanks, Cunningham, Cortes?

by NLaloosh on Dec 1, 2008 9:17 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Borbon

At this point I would rather have the superior defender over the 1B.

I would say SP over CF, but Simmons lack of a true breaking pitch and his change up being his best pitch makes me reconsider.

If he has developed a consistent breaking pitch hes my man, until then he just a potential 2 pitch fastball/change up reliever to me.

by laxtonto on Dec 1, 2008 9:27 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

After 54 votes

50% Julio Borbon 26 votes
34% Nicholas Weglarz 18 votes
15% James Simmons 8 votes

"When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him."
-Jonathan Swift

by King Billy Royal on Dec 1, 2008 10:06 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

My math says

that’s 52 votes not 54. Anyway, as of my vote at 64 total votes, the numbers are:

54% Julio Borbon 35 votes

31% Nick Weglarz 20 votes

14% James Simmons 9 votes

"So's your mom"-David Sloane

by gatling on Dec 1, 2008 10:13 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

abstain

none of the above

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting different results.

by biggentleben on Dec 1, 2008 10:18 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

agreed

by larry on Dec 1, 2008 10:53 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Why don't we just

take all remaining Rangers prospects and put them on now so we can eliminate ballot stuffing.

by slurve on Dec 1, 2008 10:40 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Beltre is probably the last plausible choice for the Rangers

While I think he probably doesn’t belong on the list (and am not even suggesting him as a tester, althoug others might) given that his main positive attributes to this point are tools and age and I’d like to see a bit more on the performance side first, especially strike zone control, I would say that there is at least a 50-50 chance of itt being a foregone conclusion this time next year that he belongs on this list by next year and it wouldn’t shock me if he made the Baseball America list this year given how tools oriented they often are in making these sorts of lists.

Although there are a number of other Rangers prospects, particularly pitchers, that I believe have a significant chance of enjoying some major league success and which I think compare very favorably to the next best prospects from other teams that will end up not making this list, such as Beavan, Font, Arias, Diamond, Ross, Ramirez, Hurley and Kiker, I don’t think even the most rabid Rangers fans would argue that they belong on a top 100 list this year.

by Dalman on Dec 1, 2008 11:50 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

its a fucking internet poll

did you ever think that there is a remote possiblity that people actually LIKE borbon over the other guys?

Scout: He was a first-round pick right? Got a huge bonus?
KG: Oh yeah.
Scout: Well, he spent a lot of it on milkshakes.

by knockoutking on Dec 1, 2008 12:56 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

sure

And rangers fans also like Martin Perez and Michael Main more than Christy Mathewson, and Elvis Andrus more than life its own self.

I think these 3 are close. I wouldn’t have voted any of them here, but now that we are in a runoff i went with weglarz. But It’s close. Borbon makes more sense to me here though than Perez at 80.

by wobatus on Dec 1, 2008 1:45 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

its a fucking joke

yes – I though of it. I also though a little deeper and found clues from past votes. I could give two shits about stuffing at this point.

by slurve on Dec 1, 2008 2:06 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

At 120 votes

42% Julio Borbon 51 votes

42% Nick Weglarz 51 votes

15% James Simmons 18 votes

Is this an anti-Rangers push to keep Weglarz up there, or have 31 of the last 56 people really preferred Weglarz? Hard to say either way, could just be normalization since Borbon got such a huge early lead.

"So's your mom"-David Sloane

by gatling on Dec 1, 2008 11:20 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

I voted recently...

for Weglarz.

by slamcactus on Dec 1, 2008 12:30 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I probably

worded that post wrong. I don’t think there is necessarily stuffing going on for Weglarz, but I can honestly see people voting for Weglarz to keep Borbon off the list, since he’s likely the beneficiary of stuffing here. Borbon got a huge jump, but he’s leveled off a bit. If I’d have known the results were going to be like this, I’d have voted for Weglarz instead of Simmons, because I don’t really have much separation between the two of them. I don’t really have a problem believing that this many people like Weglarz, I’m just curious if the votes are really for him, or against Borbon.

"So's your mom"-David Sloane

by gatling on Dec 1, 2008 1:15 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs