And as far as he goes, while I like him, he seems to have some sever K issues which cropped up in the majors. He’s had some decent seasons, and this year at AAA may have been his best, but nothing screams star here to me. BA had him in mid-season top 25 at 25, and he is 15 on Project prospects list of position players they put out 9/1, so people obviously like him.

It’s tough to get a read on both Alex Liddi and Tyson Gillies. Here are their neutralized (luck and park) lines:

Liddi: .275/.351/.475 10.8% LD% 58 BB/128 K 21 YO
Gillies: .287/.384/.407 12.2% LD% 65 BB/84 K 20 YO

Gillies is two months younger than Liddi but Liddi is probably a bit more raw. To me, Gillies is a much, MUCH safer bet to reach his ceiling, which is an OBP heavy basestealing threat who gives you plus-plus range at a premium position and controls the strike zone well. Doesn’t hurt that he’s left-handed, either.

If you want to bet on upside, Liddi’s probably your guy, though with a low LD% (granted the lower minors are kind of unreliable), high strikeout rate, park, defensive questions and average I’d probably lean Gillies.

IMO, the difference between the ceilings on Liddi and Gillies is not nearly as extreme as the difference in floors between the two, and that’s why I lean GIllies. His skillset already makes him an average major-leaguer, even if no power comes, IMO.

There is no way anyone can reasonably project that kind of performance from a pitcher in A-ball.

You’re preaching to a card-carrying choirboy in the Church of the Valuable League Average Draftee, but the reason why average everyday players are valuable is because they play a lot. Bullpen pitchers just don’t.

I am less persuaded by your misuse of adjectives than I am by overwhelming statistical evidence AND scouting reports that Halman has been awful. Never mind that he struck out twice as often per at-bat than the second most strikeout-prone player in the Southern League. Here a scouting report:

""Sometimes he looks like a deer in headlights," said one scout. “Other times he looks confident as if he has a plan and feels good up there, but the results don’t vary much.” (http://prospectinsider.com/view/scouting-high-desert-and-west-tennesee/)

Here’s what Dave Cameron, whom I respect a great deal, wrote about Halman BEFORE this year: “His complete inability to recognize a breaking ball, or hit anything that’s not just straight and down the middle, makes him something like the most flawed "top prospect" in recent history.”

There’s no doubt Halman is a superior athlete – fast, a strong, and when he squares the ball every 30 or so at-bats, he hits it a long way. But he is a disaster as a baseball player — this is his second season at AA and he will be getting a third audition next year.

Perhaps you could link or paste those drooling scouting reports that have been made later in the 2009 season . . .

I guess Ichiro is a 4th OF as well.

Prove to me why Gillies can’t be an Ellsbury sort of player. And how was Ellsbury a consensus top 50 prospect a few years ago while Gillies can’t even make a weak top 5? High Desert is overrated in this case, because people assume any big numbers are based off the park. It actually isn’t as big a difference as you thinjk. Park/Luck adjusted still has him hitting 290. He has great contact and patience rates along with great defense in CF. Who says he can’t be the next Mariners leadoff hitter? Plus, he’s obviously a hard worker due to the fact that he’s partially deaf.

There are two really really good prospects in this system, Ackley and Gillies. The other good athletes in this system are mostly guys who struck out over 150 times. Beyond that, you’ve got some arms who throw hard but not much else.

Gillies possibly got a bit over exposed based on a good showing in the futures game, but there’s really nothing not to like there. Triunfel and Aumont by comparison are more over hyped prospects. In Aumont’s case, the stuff was there, but his hip condition basically makes him now a closer prospect. In Triunfel’s case, tremendous raw potential, and plenty of time to develop it, but really he’s only 16 months younger than Gillies, and at this point less accomplished. I like Triunfel, I think he’ll be a hitter, and he profiles well as a 3B. But he’s not a SS. And, really, Gillies has better tools.

I also think you are making too much of High Desert. High Desert really has an extreme park factor only for HR. I might be wary of a guy who hit 25 HR there, and didn’t show much else. But the park can’t be blamed for Gillies outstanding speed, contact ability, or ability to draw walks. He hit .332/.411/.422 on the road this year. Only the HRs fell away from that park. His park adjusted line per minor league splits was .321/.413/.452. And this from one of the younger players in that league, who also is a potential plus defender in CF, and who also swiped 44 bases. I would like to see him learn to drive the ball a bit more often, but I expect that will improve in the future.

Honestly, I have to ask whether you would rank Jemille Weeks in Oakland’s top 10; I’d take Gillies over him easily. I also wonder if you were one of those guys around here who didn’t like Cameron Maybin last year, because he hit too many ground balls. You are making Gillies sound similar to Ezequiel Carrera. I don’t want to put him in the same class as Maybin either, his potential ceiling isn’t as high. But the gap from Carrera to Gillies is about as big as the gap from Gillies to Maybin.

In the discussion above you mention how Aumont could become a 2 WAR player in the bullpen as sort of a “best case” scenario. Meanwhile there are a handful of CFers this year that have been at ~2 WAR (or better) players based mostly on their defensive contributions, many of whom I’d guess would be considered similar-to-worse players than what Gillies’ ceiling represents: Ryan Sweeney, Tony Gwynn Jr, Brett Gardner, Angel Pagan, Chris Dickerson.

Even Rasmus was considered a liability with the bat this year, but his defense put him over 2 WAR — I’m not suggesting that Gillies compares at all to Rasmus as a prospect, but if Gilles ends up giving back a few runs with the bat and saving some runs with the glove like Rasmus did this season, that’s still a good MLB regular.

I don’t know whether Gillies is considered a plus defender now, but given his tools/speed it seems plausible that he could be a similar player to the 2009 version of these guys.

prior to the poll.

The day of the poll he went 3-3 with a triple, stolen base and 2 runs scored. Evidently he liked the rest.