Top 50 Pitching Prospects from 2004
by John Sickels on Jan 16, 2009 8:00 AM EST
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Here is a retrospective look at the Top 50 Pitching Prospects list from 2004.
1) Zack Greinke, RHP, Kansas City Royals, Grade A: One of the best young pitchers in the game.
2) Ryan Wagner, RHP, Cincinnati Reds, Grade A: Fumbling around due to command problems.
3) Edwin Jackson, RHP, Los Angeles Dodgers, Grade A: Progress has been slow but has had flashes of success.
4) Joe Blanton, RHP, Oakland Athletics, Grade A-: Developed into a solid inning-eater.
5) Scott Kazmir, LHP, New York Mets, Grade A-: Excellent when healthy.
6) Cole Hamels, LHP,
7) Dustin McGowan, RHP, Toronto Blue Jays, Grade A-: Effective when healthy.
8) Adam Wainwright, RHP, Atlanta Braves, Grade A-: Effective when healthy.
9) Gavin Floyd, RHP, Philadelphia Phillies, Grade A-: Looked like a bust until 2008. Can he sustain this?
10) Kris Honel, RHP, Chicago White Sox, Grade A-: Ruined by injuries.
11) Greg Miller, LHP, Los Angeles Dodgers, Grade A-: Injuries and control problems.
12) Jimmy Gobble, LHP, Kansas City Royals, Grade B+: Failed as a starter, has had some success in bullpen.
13) Ervin Santana, RHP, Anaheim Angels, Grade B+: Very very good pitcher.
14) Joel Hanrahan, RHP, Los Angeles Dodgers, Grade B+: Looked like a bust for awhile, but had a good year in 2008.
15) Merkin Valdez, RHP,
16) Blake Hawksworth, RHP,
17) Jesse Crain, RHP, Minnesota Twins, Grade B+: Solid middle reliever.
18) John Maine, RHP, Baltimore Orioles, Grade B+: Effective when healthy.
19) Angel Guzman, RHP,
20) Chadd Blasko, RHP,
21) Macay McBride, LHP, Atlanta Braves, Grade B+: Mediocre reliever, injuries.
22) Taylor Buchholz, RHP, Houston Astros, Grade B+: A nice solid bullpen arm.
23) Manny Parra, LHP, Milwaukee Brewers, Grade B+: Still putting it together, decent in 2008.
24) David Bush, RHP, Toronto Blue Jays, Grade B+: A decent control artist starter.
25) Chad Gaudin, RHP,
26) Brian Bruney, RHP, Arizona Diamondbacks, Grade B+: Average bullpen arm.
27) Bobby Jenks, RHP, Anaheim Angels, Grade B+: Successful closer.
28) Andy Sisco, LHP, Chicago Cubs, Grade B+: Good year in 2005, fell apart in ’06, command and health issues.
29) Francisco Cruceta, RHP, Cleveland Indians, Grade B+: Hanging around Triple-A, as received just 26 major league innings.
30) Felix Hernandez, RHP, Seattle Mariners, Grade B+: Looks good so far, can arm hold up?
31) Joel Zumaya, RHP, Detroit Tigers, Grade B+: Has been successful when healthy.
32) Dan Meyer, LHP,
33) Denny Bautista, RHP, Baltimore Orioles, Grade B+: Control problems, never harnessed stuff.
34) Jason Young, RHP,
35) Sean Burnett, LHP,
36) Chin-hui Tsao, RHP, Colorado Rockies, Grade B+: Injuries.
37) Travis Blackley, LHP,
38) Jeff Francis, LHP, Colorado Rockies, Grade B+: Successful when healthy.
39) Clint Nageotte, RHP, Seattle Mariners, Grade B+: Injuries and control problems.
40) Josh Banks, RHP, Toronto Blue Jays, Grade B+: Quadruple-A type, good control but lack of stuff holds him back.
41) Jon VanBenschoten, RHP,
42) Boof Bonser, RHP, Minnesota Twins, Grade B+: Good rookie year in 2006, has struggled since.
43) Ricky Nolasco, RHP, Chicago Cubs, Grade B+: Very impressive 2008 season.
44) Ian Oquendo, RHP,
45) Chad Cordero, RHP, Montreal Expos, Grade B: Pitched great 2004-2007, then hurt in ’08.
46) Kevin Correia, RHP, San Francisco Giants, Grade B: Good seasons in ’06 and ’07, useful utility pitcher.
47) Ryan Madson, RHP, Philadelphia Phillies, Grade B: A very good relief arm.
48) Dustin Nippert, RHP, Arizona Diamondbacks, Grade B: Injuries have rendered him a below average pitcher.
49) Dustin Moseley, RHP, Cincinnati Reds, Grade B: Below average pitcher. 50) Grant Balfour, RHP, Minnesota Twins, Grade B: Solid bullpen arm when healthy.
I’m very happy with this list. Most of the failures were due to injuries.
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Overall very good list,
Two top ten names stand out as a chance to learn something:
Blanton: Seems out of place, I think the lesson is that no matter how close to the bigs, or how much of a sure thing a pitcher is, if they don’t have ‘great’ skills they’re overrated at the top end of prospect lists.
Wagner: Starters are better picks that relievers. I think he’s the only reliever in the top of that list so I don’t thinks that’s a harshly critical or controversial statement or anything. I think a good lesson is learned by looking at counter-example Joel Hanrahan. A failed starter can always move to an easier job in the pen and have a shot at success where some flaws (walk rate) are less impeding.
Go Jays
by providence bruins on Jan 16, 2009 8:30 AM EST reply actions
Hmm
Blanton had/has awesome skills. It’s just that his stuff has leveled off considerably from his prospect days.
In some cases with closers, sure. But man, the reports on Wagner were just freaking awesome. He threw very hard AND had a plus-plus slider that some scouts graded a true 80. There hasn’t been a guy with a scouting report as good as Wagner’s to come out since him.
Greinke
One of the best young pitchers in the game? I get the point, but that may be overstating it. The guy has thrown 200 innings once. The only other time he threw over 150 innings, he had a 5.80 ERA. He’s obviously still young, but I guess I just remember the hype. He’s obviously very young and could theoretically become a Hall of Famer still, but I guess I haven’t seen enough to be convinced that the performance has equaled the hype.
I love these retrospective lists, though, John. Great work.
by richieabernathy on Jan 16, 2009 9:28 AM EST reply actions
Zack Attack
QUESTION: You’ve said that Bret Saberhagen is the closest you’ve come to seeing a pitcher achieve perfection. Which active pitcher would you say comes the closest?
BILL JAMES: Another Royal. . .Zack Greinke. At the end of the season he had that same look that Saberhagen did in the 1980s and Catfish Hunter did in the 1970s—that he was doing effortlessly the things that everybody else struggles to do.
http://firebrandal.com/2008/12/08/fire-brand-interviews-bill-james.html
+1
I dont think greinke is one of the best young pitchers in the game, hes good but not one of the best. Also there were quite a few more busts than given credit for
Hmm...
“Also there were quite a few more busts than given credit for”
Care to elaborate a little here?
"So's your mom"-David Sloane
I think...
Greinke is one of the best young pitchers in the game. Excluding prospects, there are very few young pitchers I would put ahead of him.
yeesh...tough crowd
I realize he’s had a rather odd start to his career, but I find it hard to argue against the statement that John makes, that ZG is one of the best young pitchers in the game. He just finished his age 24 season, so the fact that he hasn’t thrown over 200 innings more than once shouldn’t be a surprise. How many starters are there with multiple seasons of 200IP under the age of 25? His K rate has improved each year, his BB rate has dropped, and he just posted back to back season of 3.69 and 3.47 ERA’s.
As an aside, I’d probably rank him 3rd on that list behind Cole and King, with Ervin just behind.
ProspectTube.com
You Video. You Scout.
by ProspectTube.com on Jan 16, 2009 2:17 PM EST up reply actions
wasn't even drafted yet
Top pitcher lists are always interesting and instructive. And this is a good list, but you can see how much the grading has evolved over the years.
by AgitationStation on Jan 16, 2009 1:10 PM EST up reply actions
Might be interesting
To look at some guys you missed low on from that year, who either others had higher or went on to prove their value in the following season. I’m not sure how you would go about figuring out who to comment on, but this info seems just as important from an educational standpoint as those you got right or were busts.
What would a bad list look like
If this is a good one?
Much, much worse
People on these boards tend to vastly overestimate the probability of any given prospect making it. There’s no such thing as a sure thing, and 99% of prospects would never be referred to as a sure thing in the first place. There are a lot of excellent players on this list, and not a ton of non-injury burnouts. I’d agree it’s a pretty impressive lists, but it was also just an impressive class of prospects.
I know
And I think he has unrealistic expectations for what a list like this looks like five years down the road.
Agree/disagree
I agree that he may have an unrealistic expectation for what the list should look like 5 years down the road. However, since people are paying for John’s book they should expect him to have a fairly high success rate.
"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 Jan 16, 2009 3:02 PM EST up reply actions
I think he does have a fairly high success rate.
It's not the results, it's how you look going about those results -- Tim McCarver
by WaddellCanseco on Jan 16, 2009 7:41 PM EST up reply actions
Agreed
I am not saying that he doesn’t. I am just saying that people have a right to expect that.
"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 Jan 16, 2009 11:44 PM EST up reply actions
If we're going to talk about paying for things, I'd also want John to tell us what
he does that makes him different from BA. BA says they speak to scouts, managers, coaches and team officials. If John does that plus some statistical analysis or something else, it might help his book sales if people knew that.
It's not the results, it's how you look going about those results -- Tim McCarver
by WaddellCanseco on Jan 17, 2009 12:21 AM EST up reply actions
BA's list
RHP
4. Edwin Jackson, Dodgers
14. Zack Greinke, Royals
18. Dustin McGowan, Blue Jays
23. Gavin Floyd, Phillies
24. Chin-Hui Tsao, Rockies
26. Angel Guzman, Cubs
29. Ervin Santana, Angels
30. Felix Hernandez, Mariners
36. Kyle Sleeth, Tigers
38. John VanBenschoten, Pirates
40. Merkin Valdez, Giants
43. Joe Blanton, Athletics
44. Jeff Allison, Marlins
45. Clint Nageotte, Mariners
46. Ryan Wagner, Reds
47. Blake Hawksworth, Cardinals
49. Adam Wainwright, Cardinals
50. Taylor Buchholz, Astros
53. Jeremy Guthrie, Indians
54. John Maine, Orioles
55. Kris Honel, White Sox
58. Clint Everts, Expos
59. Denny Bautista, Orioles
62. Bobby Jenks, Angels
66. J.D. Durbin, Twins
75. Bubba Nelson, Braves
76. Fausto Carmona, Indians
83. Dustin Nippert, Diamondbacks
84. Mike Jones, Brewers
87. Francisco Rosario, Blue Jays
88. Matt Peterson, Mets
89. Jesse Crain, Twins
91. Matt Cain, Giants
92. Bobby Brownlie, Cubs
97. Bryan Bullington, Pirates
99. Jake Dittler, Indians
LHP
8. Greg Miller, Dodgers
12. Scott Kazmir, Mets
13. Adam Loewen, Orioles
17. Cole Hamels, Phillies
56. Justin Jones, Cubs
60. Mike Hinckley, Expos
63. Travis Blackley, Mariners
64. Sean Burnett, Pirates
67. Scott Olsen, Marlins
69. Manny Parra, Brewers
77. Andy Sisco, Cubs
80. John Danks, Rangers
82. Dan Meyer, Braves
93. Jeff Francis, Rockies
I don’t know, this seems like a stronger list, especially getting Cain, Carmona, Francis, Jenks, Olsen, Danks on there. Wagner is not so ridiculously high (he have had to have become Mariano Rivera 2.0 to justify John’s ranking). Sometimes I feel that John could go 1 for 40 and commenters will slap each other around to be first to congratulate on the 1.
my bad
John had Jenks & Francis as well. I still find BA’s list to be stronger.
It always seems the other way to me
On this site, whether it’s John or somebody else, if someone goes 39 for 40, I always feel like everyone is bending over backwards to complain about the one. I could care less about rankings for the most part, because I think there’s so much we can never know in advance or predict. I like the discussion aspect, the part where someone says “Here’s a list of guys I like.” And any time any one of us does that, we fail a huge percentage of the time. Our community list has a zillion first basemen on it, and a lot of those guys are going to end up like Sean Casey or Dave McCarty. Five years from now, that doesn’t mean the whole community will have been stupid (though I think there are too many first basemen on the list). What’s more predictable than anything is that this stuff is hard, and a great deal of prospects fail, even if they never raised red flags early in their careers. And to the optimistic prospect hound, almost every top prospect will end up disappointing.
What about more busts?
Ok, so they were on some John wasn’t? But you didn’t comment about the major busts on this list that were not on John’s – Mike Hinckley, Justin Jones, Mike Jones, Bubba Nelson, Chris Everts… probably more. Both have their strength and weaknesses
Taylor Buchholz
There used to be a frequent poster here who was obsessed with him. Funny Stuff.
It’s odd seeing King Felix at #30. I guess this was the year before he made his leap.
Not bad
Most of the success were in the top 15. Looks like a good job of ranking anyway. It is amazing though just how many injuries and busts there are with pitching prospects. TINSTAAPP at work. After seeing this, I guess I’m going to be very skeptical of any pitching prospects not in the top 20.
What about guys who didn’t make the list? Chad Billingsley, John Danks, and Paul Maholm were all first round picks in 2003, is there a reason they didn’t make it? Matt Cain, Joe Saunders, and Jeremey Guthrie would be other interesting guys from 2002.
2009
Don’t underestimate Kyle Drabek for this year.
by HumboldtThunderbolt on Jan 16, 2009 10:26 AM EST reply actions
So many injuries
Do you think that having young pitchers throw more to condition their arm, i.e. what Nolan Ryan wants to do, is a way to prevent or would it cause more injuries at this point.
Japanese pitchers throw way more than the pitchers here and it doesn’t harm them. It is all about mechanics and building arm strength.
Wait 'til the year after next
Wainwright
I would say the comment is a little harsh. He is more than effective when healthy as he is definitely a #2 starter and could become a #1 IMO. Also, he has really only had one major injury during his big league service and it was a freak finger injury. No shoulder or elbow problems….knock on wood.
I like
Wainwright, too. He’s a one or two for the Cards, but wouldn’t be a one on most other teams. He is one of those guys that can really get in a groove, though, and look terriffic multiple times out in a row.
Matt Cain
I have to say, John, I’m a little surprised that you could go 50 deep in pitchers in winter 2004 and not mention Matt Cain. He had been shut down in the second half of the ’03 season, but it seemed more conservative/precautionary than anything else. Otherwise his full-season debut in the Sally certainly delivered on the promise of his 1st round draft pick status and in ’04 he would pretty much destroy the Cal League right out of the shoot.
Get the hell out the way Bengie, Pablito's hit the show!
Matt Cain:
Matt Cain was a Grade B….I had him at B+ but lowered him to Grade B due to concerns about his elbow. He would have been in the 51-55 range.
by John Sickels on Jan 17, 2009 1:57 PM EST up reply actions
Floyd
Can he sustain it? Maybe… he made some nice gains as the season progressed:
In Floyd’s first 95 innings, his K rate was 5.4, BB rate 3.3, HR rate 1.33 (and ERA 3.39).
In his last 110 innings his K rate was 7.2, BB rate 2.9, HR rate 1.30 (and ERA 4.23).
He was probably lucky to have a 3.39 ERA at that time, but I think he settles in as a high 3’s/low 4’s guy. That’s a decent #3.
Agree?
Cubs Pitchers
This list depresses me thanks to them. Blech.
Look at the Dodgers
We had Edwin Jackson, Greg Miller, and Joel Hanrahan all in the top 15 and none of them did anything for the Dodgers. Pretty sad.
by Brendan Scolari on Jan 16, 2009 12:29 PM EST up reply actions
+1
i agree with you. In 04 having 4 guys on the top 50 list gives a guy some hope for the future. Now look, the guy they traded away is the only one that has lived up to his expectations. I suppose we can still hope for Guzman to get it going this year. He won’t ever match the production of Nolasco though in my opinion.
Guys that DID make it
That looks like a pretty solid list, considering the little TINSTAAPP problem. It might be almost as much fun to look at the ones John mulled, then cut late in the going. I bet you’d find a few more productive ML pitchers.
Here are some age 25-29 guys that were in the minors in 2003. Not all studs, but they’re in the majors now.
Jon Lester: A ball, age 20, in his second pro season. ERA of 3.65 in 106 IP with 71 K.
Josh Johnson: A ball, age 20, in his second pro season. 3.62 ERA in 82 IP with 59 K.
Scott Baker: A ball, age 22, in his first pro season. 2.47, 51 IP, 47 K.
Nick Blackburn: A ball, age 22, in his second pro season. 4.86, 76 IP, 40 K.
Paul Maholm: A ball, age 21, in his first pro season. 1.84, 34 IP, 32 K.
Scott Olsen: A ball, age 20, in his second pro season. 2.81, 128 IP, 129 K. Olsen was the only pitcher in this group with a textbook career path through the minors: one full season at each level. Doesn’t seem to have hurt him.
Shaun Marcum: A- ball, age 22, in his first pro season. ERA of 1.32 in 34 IP with 47 K. Marcum was a RP in his first year and became a starter the following year.
Ubaldo Jimenez: A,A+ ball, age 20, in his second pro season. 3.34, 159 IP, 145 K.
James Shields: A+ ball, age 22, in his second pro season. 4.45, 144 IP, 119 K.
Francisco Liriano: A+,R ball, age 20, in his third pro season. Posted an 8.00 ERA in only 9 IP with 9 K. The previous year he had a 3.49 ERA in 80 ip with 85K in level A.
Chien-Ming Wang: AA ball, age 23, in his third pro season. 4.65, 122 IP, 84 K.
Joe Saunders: DNP at age 22, in his second pro season. Posted a 2.80 ERA in 61 IP with 48 K in Rookie and A ball in 2002.
Edinson Volquez: Rookie ball, age 20, in his first pro season. 4.00, 27 IP with 28 K in 2002.
And a few RP:
Jonathan Papelbon: A ball, age 23, in his first pro season. 6.27, 33 IP with 36 K. Nuke Laloosh?
Ryan Rowland-Smith: A,A+ ball, age 21, in his third pro season. ERA of 1.90 in 52 IP with 52 K. Probably projected as a late-inning setup guy at the time.
CJ Wilson: AA ball, age 23, in his third pro season. ERA of 5.05 in 123 IP with 89 K. He’s come a long way.
Carlos Marmol: Rookie ball, age 21, in his first pro season. ERA of 4.21 in 62 IP with 74 K. He had the stuff back then; let’s see what he does as a closer in ’09.
I’d suggest that Olsen is the only one that would make a guy wonder what he was thinking, although I’d bet a few others were late cuts.
Chad Billingsley, Fausto Carmona and Justin Duchscherer are some others
It's not the results, it's how you look going about those results -- Tim McCarver
by WaddellCanseco on Jan 16, 2009 12:52 PM EST up reply actions
others
Billingsley: I gave him a Grade B but didn’t rank on list since pro track record was minimal…he had just been drafted>
Carmona: I gave him a Grade B.
Duch: I gave him a Grade C…his scouting reports were poor but his Triple-A numbers were solid. I wrote he could be a good number four starter if everything worked out.
by John Sickels on Jan 17, 2009 2:06 PM EST up reply actions
Papelbon...
was a starter for most of his minor league career. At one point many thought he would become the Red Sox’s ace.
Blake Hawksworth
I’m not sure if it was injuries that did Hawksworth in. In 2004 and 2005, injuries hit him hard. But he came back very strong in 2006 and looked like he was back on track. But in 2007, he made 25 starts and was just terrible. Then he was awful to start 2008 before injuries got him.
His talent just kinda disappeared from 2006 to 2007. Maybe a history of injury problems finally caught up to him in 2007 but he still did make 25 starts, which is pretty much a full year in the minors.
I've heard
that his stuff has never been the same since the injuries. He’s had to try to sort of reinvent himself as more of a control pitcher.
It seems like you used to give out more A grades
I counted 9 with both lists combined here while there cannot be more than 5 this year that I can remember. Granted, the strength of a group of prospects does very year by year, and I assume your ranking method has changed to be more effective. Ryan Wagner is the easy example of a player who I think would not get a straight A based simply on potential(150+ medium/high leverage innings is better than 70+ high leverage innings).
Also, I just want to say on Blackley, he is still relatively young at 25 and could become a decnt 4th or 5th starter in the NL if given the chance. Expectation where too high for him in the first place when he came up do to dominating lower level batters with what he had. His repetoire was never really impressive, just good, with a knowledge of how to use it.
by tdot mariner fan on Jan 16, 2009 1:19 PM EST reply actions
injuries
how many of the guys who didn’t pan out due to injuries had injury problems at the time (that may or may not have been overlooked) and/or had motions that were predicted to be injury risks?
Proud adopted parent of future big league slugger Thomas Neal
by nostocksjustbonds on Jan 16, 2009 2:46 PM EST reply actions
I like...
that he had guys like Ian Snell and Jeff Francis. Other places underrated these guys and they have done pretty decent in the majors.
Comparing John's list to BA and BP's 2004 list saw no one rank the #1 pitcher.
As I did for the hitters in the tread below, I looked to see which of John, Baseball America and Baseball Prospectus (Rany Jazayerli) did the best job of identifying the pitching prospects from 2004 who have turned out the best so far. You could argue that BP isn’t applicable since they’ve changed their system under Kevin Goldstein, but it doesn’t hurt to include them here, and they’re still the same company.
I identified the Top 12 prospects by Total WAR through 2008 in Fangraphs plus projected WAR in 2009 by CHONE. Here they are with their ranking by John, Baseball America and Baseball Prospectus:
1) Erik Bedard — 20.3 WAR — John NR, BA NR, BP NR; Winner None
2) Felix Hernandez — 18.2 — John 30, BA 12, BP NR; Winner BA
3) Joe Blanton — 16.8 — John 4, BA 16, BP 11; Winner John
4) Ervin Santana — 16.2 — John 13, BA 11 (#29 overall), BP 11 (#38 overall) ; Winner BA
5) Matt Cain — 15.6 — John NR, BA 45, BP NR; Winner BA
6) Zack Greinke — 15.1 — John 1, BA 5, BP 2; Winner John
6) Cole Hamels — 15.1 — John 6, BA 6, BP 5; Winner BP
8) Wang Chien-ming — 14.9 — John NR, BA NR, BP NR; Winner None
9) James Shields — 14.8 — John NR, BA NR, BP NR; Winner None
10) Jeff Francis — 14.6 — John 38, BA 47, BP NR; Winner John
11) Jonathan Papelbon — 13.1 — John NR, BA NR, BP NR; Winner None
12) David Bush — 12.6 — John 24, BA NR, BP 12; Winner BP
After this there are about 22 more guys in the 7-11 WAR range. I did this quickly so there may be errors. Since BA and BP ranked pitchers with hitters, their rankings here are with the hitters taken out.
Again several of the Top 12 weren’t ranked by anyone. Notably the #1 pitcher, Erik Bedard, wasn’t ranked by anyone.
After doing these two exercises, my suggestion to all the analysts would be to consider doing a Top 200 rather than Top 100, just because there are a lot of prospects below the Top 100 that aren’t appreciably worse than the ones even at the top of the list.
If we consider that the analyst who liked the prospect the best would have most likely acquired that player, then we have:
John’s Team — Blanton, Greinke, Francis 46.5 WAR
BA Team — Felix, Ervin, Cain 50.0
BP Team — Bush, Hamels 27.7
Of these I’d guess that Felix (Age 23), Greinke (25) and Cain (24) have more potential years after 2009 than does Bedard (30), but with pitchers who really has any idea?
Again, BA’s scouting-based approach seems to have been somewhat vindicated, and with Goldstein taking over at BP, I’m not sure there’s a lot of disagreement on the value of scouting anymore. BP’s decision to stop after the Top 50 seems to have hurt them.
Another thing to note is that the pitchers had substantially lower WAR than the top position players. I’m not sure what that says about the wisdom of picking pitchers early in drafts or ranking them highly on lists. BP only ranked 18 pitchers in their Top 50, and that couldn’t have helped them here, but they didn’t outperform BA on the hitters either.
Of the guys no one ranked, I see two unflashy guys — Shields and Wang — a strikeout artist — Bedard — and an elite reliever — Papelbon. Not sure what to make of that, except that a deeper list might have been helpful.
It's not the results, it's how you look going about those results -- Tim McCarver
by WaddellCanseco on Jan 17, 2009 12:16 AM EST reply actions 1 recs
Really interesting stuff and a good read
The discussion of how much scouting goes into the various services would be one I’d like to see. Right now, it seems as if the three here and others “talk to scouts.” That could mean just about anything. As for BA, I’ve read great stuff that clearly shows the influence of scouting reports and other stuff in lead articles that makes me wonder if they had ever seen the guy at all.
Going forward, I’d take the BA team as well.
pitchers
Shields: wasn’t in the book.
Bedard: Grade B, concerned about injury.
Papelbon: Grade C, liked his college track record, did not like poor NY-P performance, but I did write that he had more potential than his stats indicated.
Wang: Grade C+ after mediocre Double-A season, but I wrote that he had a good chance to rebound.
by John Sickels on Jan 17, 2009 2:03 PM EST up reply actions
Gaudin.
I think he can be a very good #3 if he has a full, healthy season as a starter. He was my favorite player when he was with the A’s. What a nasty slider.
BTW, Chadd Blasko is an incredibly awesome name.
Never, Never, NEVER give up
2003
it was mentioned the lists from previous years were discussed last year sometime. Does anyone have a link to those lists? Pitchers and Batters?
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