BA NY-Penn League Top 20 Prospects

His college coverage is extremely solid and he’s one of the friendlier (read: not crotchety) pundits over at BA. Thompson was a big sleeper for me from this year’s draft – especially as he’s overshadowed by an already excellent Rays haul – and I’d attribute his high ranking to Fitt’s familiarity with his career at LBSU as much as performance. A lot of people lazily tabbed Thompson a closer, but I think Fitt nailed exactly why Thompson has MoR potential. Three pitch guy with a good FB, excellent build and a good approach to his craft.

I suspect some of his improvement was under the eye of Tony Gwynn. People talk about his college performance being disappointing, but he went on a real tear and ultimately finished with some decent numbers this season, 5th best wOBA in the Mountain West. That’s only disappointing if you think the talent is there where he really should be a stand out top prospect. And if you worry about the peripherals; he struck out in 25% of PA.

And at least some people saw him as a potential first round talent heading into the year. John Klima loved him when he saw him in Cape Cod:

Vaughn, the son of the Greg Vaughn, has a leaner and more athletic body than his father had when he first came to the major leagues. Cory Vaughn hits from a wide stance and has a short trigger. He has fast hands and keeps the firm front side even when he is fooled. He’s going to have the power to play a corner and I think he’s going to be athletic enough to steal some bases if he wants to. He’s a first-round talent in 2010. His numbers weren’t much to look at on the Cape, but I’m not scouting results. You can’t hide the power and you can’t hide this guy’s body and athleticism. If I were looking for a comparison at this stage, Matt Kemp might work.

But he was more doubtful after seeing him struggle in the spring.

Last summer, I felt he was moving closer to the Matt Kemp mold, but this spring I felt he was morphing into his father’s body type, with a strong low center of gravity. Vaughn’s best tool is raw power, but the concern I have right now is the ability to consistently recognize breaking balls. He’s playing center field in college, but his range is limited and he needs to improve pursuit routes. His arm and speed do not profile as major league weapons. Overall, Vaughn is worth the draft but at this stage I cannot say for certain that this is a major leaguer.

Apparently they saw more of the good Cory Vaughn in the NYPL.

The one area where I think the Mets have actually had some success lately is in developing some of these big athletic power bats. It seems they take a lot of these guys who have flaws in their swings and have been able to get results in having them make adjustments and hit for enough average.

Ike Davis was one to some degree, though he didn’t strike out as much, there were at least some doubts about his swing, and he struggled initially with the adjustment to wood bats. Lucas Duda and Kirk Nieuwenhuis are others, and now Sean Ratliff who stuck out as much as Vaughn in college seems to be breaking out some this year in AA (with numbers similar to Davis a year ago).

Essentially it comes down to how much you believe in his bat. Speed and arm are solid for a corner OF spot, but not really special. But the power could be something special, if he makes enough consistent contact to utilize it.

I’d say he probably has a higher ceiling than Ceciliani, because of the power, while Ceciliani is a guy with some speed, but hitting line drives and a lot of ground balls.