If you told me last spring that when we did this poll after the season, that Laporta would have gotten enough at bats to use up his rookie eligibility but wouldn't be picked until #18, I would have guessed that he would have really screwed up this year.  But, he actually did very well in AAA, and in limited playing time in the majors did reasonably well also.  There is certainly nothing about last year that should cause anyone to downgrade him seriously.  As others have mentioned, there was a very deep rookie class.

Anyway, compared to round 17, Blanks dropped about 3% while Laporta's vote total soared, so that Laporta wins round 18 easily with 37% of the vote, more than 2 to 1 over Blanks.  Here is where we are so far:

1. Matt Wieters, C Baltimore

2. Tommy Hanson, P Atlanta

3. Andrew McCutchen, of Pittsburgh

4. Brett Anderson P Oakland

5 Gordon Beckham, 3b CHW

6. Rick Porcello, P Detroit.

7.Elvis Andrus, SS Texas

8. Colby Rasmus, of St. Louis

9. David Price, P Tampa Bay

10. Travis Sinder, of Toronto 

11.  Dexter Fowler, of Colorado

12. Chris Tillman, p Baltimore

13t. Matt Latos, p San Diego

13t  Derek Holland, p Texas

15. Cameron Maybin, of Florida

16t Chris Coghlan, of Florida

16t Trevor Cahill, P Oakland

 
18t Matt Laporta of/1b Cleveland

Tommy Hunter, Brad Bergesen, Casey McGehee, and Randy Wells all drew less than 5% last round and are temporarily dropped from the poll.  All will return in a later poll, although beginning with the results of this round (going into round 20), players who have extremely low support (initially the bar is set at 0%) will not be returned to any subsequent poll in order that players with the best support can be considered during the final rounds.

J.A. Happ, Daniel Bard, Ricky Romero and Drew Stubbs are returned for another chance this round and we will give Cliff Pennington his first shot.

temporarily dropped from the poll (percentage and round in parens) Marc Rzepcynski 2% (15), Jeff Neimann, 2% (16), Luis Valbuena, 0% (16), Gerardo Parra 0% (16), Julio Borbon 1% (16), Tommy Hunter 2% (18), Brad Bergesen 1% (18), Casey MGehee 1% (18), Randy Wells 0% (18).

With just 6 rounds left after this one I am going to list players who I am considering adding before this poll ends in hopes that this will generate some discussion.   Among hitters I am thinking of Garret Jones, Brett Gardner, and Taylor Teagarden.  Among pitchers, a longer list including Clayton Richard, Scott Richmond, Gio Gonzalez, David Hernandez, Brett Cecil and Brian Duensing among starters, and Aceves, Sipp and Mijares among relievers.  I am probably going to have room to add about 8-10 players the rest of the way, so if you like someone on  this list, and especially if you like someone not on this list, please mention them below.