BA Pacific Coast League Top 20

by Brett Keith on Sep 26, 2008 1:09 PM EDT Comment 29 comments

Got the issue with all the lists in it the other day, so here ya go...

1 - Colby Rasmus
2 - Chade Headley
3 - Max Scherzer
4 - Brandon Wood
5 - Carlos Gonzalez
6 - Jeff Clement
7 - Ian Stewart
8 - Gio Gonzalez
9 - Andy LaRoche
10 - Wladimir Balentien
11 - Sean Rodriguez
12 - Chris Perez
13 - Nate Schierholtz
14 - Bryan Anderson
15 - Franklin Morales
16 - Jaime Garcia
17 - Mitchell Boggs
18 - Carlos Rosa
19 - Nick Adenhart
20 - Greg Reynolds

Now remember, these lists lean more towards performance than other BA lists, and rankings are in context of the league. NOW you can start whining.

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Nelson Cruz

If this list leans toward performance why is Cruz not on there. Not that I think he should due to his age and prior ML performance but if its strictly based on performance in the PCL then he should be in the top 20 at least

Bryan Smith (12:17:17 PM PT): Justin Smoak and Josh Hamilton. The AL West might just have found their Bash Brothers, v. 2.0.

by bigsteve on Sep 26, 2008 1:24 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Prospect status

Cruz isn’t a prospect in any sense of the word. He has spent much too much time on a MLB roster prior to this season to qualify.

"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 Sep 26, 2008 1:28 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Guys with too much MLB service time aren't eligible here

Travis Buck, Felix Pie, etc surely would have to be on the list too, if the MLB service time rule didn’t apply. For leagues under AAA, normally there aren’t any legitimate prospects who have major MLB service time, but that’s not true for AAA.

Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.

by PaulThomas on Sep 26, 2008 2:36 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

LaRoche...

has almost 200 career plate appearances in the Major Leagues. How is he still eligible? He has more career ML at bats than Tim Raines Jr, who had a great year in AAA. 311/346/530 with 30 doubles, 13 triples, 18 homers, and 28 stolen bases. I know why he didn’t make the list, I just wish lists would find one way to list players and stick to it. Either you go with Top 20 prospects and stick to prospects, or you go with Top 20 players and make everyone eligible.

"My mom always taught me it's better to laugh at yourself than to laugh at others. She was so wrong. ;)" -Pedrophile

by Boxkutter on Sep 26, 2008 4:44 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Simple answer

They are using prospect eligibility coming into the season.

by aCone419 on Sep 26, 2008 5:27 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Soto?

Then why no Geo Soto on the list? He was eligible before the season.

"My mom always taught me it's better to laugh at yourself than to laugh at others. She was so wrong. ;)" -Pedrophile

by Boxkutter on Sep 26, 2008 5:53 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Because..

He didn’t play in AAA this year. Sure, he was a prospect/rookie eligible before the season, but he didn’t play in AAA.

The Basil Fawlty Moderating Strategy:
"We could run a nice blog here if we didn't have all these members getting in the way."
How is my adopted son almost twice as old as I am? Nevermind...Go Omar! Warm the Bench!

by WalrusMan on Sep 26, 2008 6:21 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

So...

They use players who were eligible after 2007, but they use 2008 stats? Is BA run by a bunch of idiots? If they are going to use stats from the end of 2008, they should be using eligibility as well.

"My mom always taught me it's better to laugh at yourself than to laugh at others. She was so wrong. ;)" -Pedrophile

by Boxkutter on Sep 26, 2008 9:31 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Not that complicated

I don’t understand why you think this is outlandish. It is a list of guys who were prospects this year in this league, regardless of whether they exhausted their eligibility at some point this year.

by aCone419 on Sep 28, 2008 10:55 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

generally speaking

when the players in their respective leagues, and being observed by the scouts/coaches, they were almost all still prospects so if it makes perfect sense to view them as prospects if that is what they were when they were in the minors.

by nms on Sep 29, 2008 12:25 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

my offseason trade wet dream

Stewart
Morales or Reynolds

for

Street
Greg Smith or Dana Eveland

by Asfan4ever723 on Sep 26, 2008 1:32 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

or andy laroche

who is really struggling in pitt
apparently 6 teams asked for him from pitt after the trade

by Asfan4ever723 on Sep 26, 2008 1:34 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Andy LaRoche has now struggled...a lot

To the point where I’m not convinced he’ll ever live up to his potential. I know he’s young, but he’s had 355 PA and has been well below replacement.

by thejd44 on Sep 26, 2008 3:21 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

+1

“and has been well below replacement.”

That’s quite the understatement. If Mario Mendoza were “replacement level,” LaRoche would still be below it.

"My mom always taught me it's better to laugh at yourself than to laugh at others. She was so wrong. ;)" -Pedrophile

by Boxkutter on Sep 26, 2008 4:38 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Perhaps I'm being pedantic, but LaRoche actually does have a higher OPS+ than Mendoza did

He really was that bad a hitter. His CAREER OPS+ was 41.

Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.

by PaulThomas on Sep 26, 2008 7:54 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

isn't laroche injured?

Or recovering from an injury?

by wobatus on Sep 27, 2008 9:53 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Andy Laroche ..... Here is Dejan Kovacevic thoughts on the subject from PBC blog

Q: Looking forward to the next possible Pirates team that even achieves mediocrity, I started filling out my lineup card for April 4, 2011. But I ran into some hazy issues. Particularly, what can we make of Andy LaRoche?

Less than six months ago, he was seen as one of the top 15 prospects in baseball, somewhere between Jacoby Ellsbury and Matt Wieters. It sure would be nice to say we could get a .290 average with 25 home runs and 85 RBIs from him in 2011. Based on his minor league stats, that would seem well within the realm of possibility, but we all remember Chad Hermansen’s minor league stats, too. Can Andy develop into the real deal? Are scouts sour on him now that he has struggled in the majors?

Brian Leary of Clarion

KOVACEVIC: It is entirely possible, Brian, that all the scouts were wrong. It happens, even to those capable of “walking on water,” as was Woody Huyke’s infamous declaration regarding Hermansen all those years ago.

I look at LaRoche with my untrained eye, and I cannot begin to understand what the scouts saw. I do not see the excellent eye that has been described. I do not see the even, controlled stroke. I see the power only when a pitcher hangs some awful breaking pitch. And, above all, I do not see this above-average glove.

Where is it? Any of it?

(And this is to say nothing of more than one issue already involving effort.)

That said, when you bring this up with people who have trained eyes, they look at you as if you are nuts. They see all kinds of talent, all kinds of potential, but they see a player who is immensely struggling and fighting himself and, as a result, making his hole even deeper.

And, as Neal Huntington mentioned a week back when I raised the “scholarship” issue with him regarding why LaRoche seems immune to accountability, there apparently are teams eager and willing to take LaRoche off the Pirates’ hands.

Not seeing it.

By the way, Lloyd McClendon once said of Hermansen, “He doesn’t look defeated when he strikes out.” And he intended it as a positive. Buddy of mine used that as his scrolling screensaver.

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 Sep 27, 2008 9:57 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs