Top Ten Prospects

1. Alcides Escobar, ss

2. Brett Lawrie, 2b

3. Mat Gamel, 3b

4. Eric Arnett, rhp

5. Jonathan Lucroy, c

6. Kentrail Davis, of

7. Zach Braddock, lhp

8. Lorenzo Cain, of

9. Jake Odorizzi, rhp

10. Kyle Heckathorn, rhp

 

BEST TOOLS

Best Hitter for Average Brett Lawrie

Best Power Hitter Brett Lawrie

Best Strike-Zone Discipline Jonathan Lucroy

Fastest Baserunner Lee Haydel

Best Athlete D'Vontrey Richardson

Best Fastball Jeremy Jeffress

Best Curveball Cody Scarpetta

Best Slider Zach Braddock

Best Changeup Amaury Rivas

Best Control Amaury Rivas

Best Defensive Catcher Carlos Corporan

Best Defensive Infielder Alcides Escobar

Best Infield Arm Alcides Escobar

Best Defensive Outfielder Logan Schafer

Best Outfield Arm Brendan Katin

 

http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/prospects/rankings/organization-top-10-prospects/2010/269178.html

In a close four way vote, Dexter Fowler emerges as #11 among last year's rookies.  Tillman, Latos and Holland each had within a few votes of each other in a virtual tie for second at 18%-19% so it will be interesting to see which of those (or possibly a dark horse) emerges next round.  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

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What players did your team not protect that may be a decent pick in the Rule V draft on December 10?

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The highest remaining ranked player from last year's community list, Travis Snider, with 25% of the vote is named the 11th ranked player among last year's rookies, beating out several other players in the 15% range.  It will be interesting to say who wins this round, as it is not at all clear cut from last round's results. 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 

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Didn't see a thread on this, new news right? Interesting strategy here, understandable with Franklin-G already manning the CF position and Ackley's experience at 2nd. Little to no harm done by simply starting him there...

Mariners first-round draft pick Dustin Ackley will begin working out at second base in a move that could become permanent if all goes well.

The decision was announced Friday by Mariners general manager Jack Zduriencik in a conference call with writers who cover the team. Zduriencik termed the move "an experiment" for now and says it's always been his philosophy to work minor-leaguers out at multiple positions to give the club flexibility going forward.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/mariners/2010320833_mari21.html

A's GM Billy Beane made an interesting comment the other day.

We're going to look at young players to fill spots, first and foremost," Beane said. "If those players we'd like to acquire aren't obtainable, we'll consider bringing in guys who can hold the positions down.

Link.

So the A's aren't interested in chasing down free agents but they are going to be talking to teams about making trades. I don't care how you feel about Oakland's current crop of young pitching (maybe you think they're the greatest thing since Hudson/Mulder/Zito... maybe you think all but Anderson are way over-rated) at the very least the responsible thing to do if you were the GM of a major league baseball team would be to kick the tires a bit and see what the sticker price is for Johnson.

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Here's a general thread for discussing any insights that you can gather by watching the AFL Championship, currently airing on the MLB Network and I think mlb.com. Strasburg was scratched, but there are some interesting prospects playing. The lineups are the following:

Phoenix Desert Dogs:

Angle CF
Espinosa SS
Brown, C RF
Marrero 1B
Desme LF
Bell 3B
Ashley C
Weeks 2B
O'Malley DH
Talbot P

Peoria Javelinas:

Ackley LF
Danks, Jor CF
Mitchell, R 1B
Morel 3B
Lambo DH
Wells, C RF
Lucroy C
Retherford 2B
Iorg SS
Varvaro P

I've uploaded video to Vimeo.com and also embedded links in this site's FanShots.

I was in Phoenix for 8 days and took in 6 games and the Grand Canyon.

I'll update this message as I upload more (names below are links):

As of 2009-11-21 9:35am EDT:

Brandon Erbe

Brandon Snyder

Brandon Waring

As of 2009-11-20 11:28pm EDT:

Josh Bell

Corey Brown

Grant Desme

Justin Friend

Eddie Gamboa

Josh Perrault

Jemile Weeks

As of 2009-11-20 12:11am EDT:

Brandon Hicks

Vinnie Pestano

Josh Rodriguez

As of 2009-11-19 1:59pm EDT:

Tim Fedroff

Josh Judy

Matt McBride 

Jose Vallejo

As of 2009-11-18 11:47pm EDT:

Jonathan Gaston

Cedric Hunter

Daniel Meszaros

Lance Zawadzki

As of 2009-11-18 7:17pm EDT:

Bradley Boxberger

Mitch Canham

Mike DeMark

Logan Ondrusek

Sean Watson

As of 2009-11-18 11:03am EDT:

Yonder Alonso

Kenley Jansen

Andrew Lambo

Lucas May

Russ Mitchell

Justin Sellers

As of 2009-11-18 7:02am EDT:

Scot Drucker

C.J. Retherford

Robbie Weinhardt 

Caspar Wells

As of 2009-11-17 9:02pm EDT:

Jordan Danks

Nick Hill

Brent Morel

Carlos Triunfel

As of 2009-11-17- 3:31pm EDT:

Dustin Ackley

Phillippe Aumont

Lorenzo Cain

Jonathan Lucroy

Josh Vitters

As of 2009-11-17 11:39am EDT:

Starlin Castro

Luis Exposito

Casey Kelly

Bryan Petersen

P.J. Phillips

As of 2009-11-16 11:57pm EDT:

Aaron Crow

Ryan Mount

Mike Moustakas (last three clips are Moustakas fielding)

Scott Moviel

As of 2009-11-16 7:44pm EDT:

Jeff Bianchi

Jarrod Dyson

Josh Stinson

As of 2009-11-16 1:38pm EDT:

Gary Daley

Daniel Descalso

Nick Evans

Doug Hogan

Daryl Jones

Zach Kroenke

Marcus Lemon 

Mitch Moreland

Enjoy!

 

With David Price's clear cut win this past round with 37% of the vote, as #2 on lat year's community prospect list he finally joins last year's #1 Matt Wieters.  Given Price's total and that the rest of the guys remaining on the list were tightly bunced between 8% and 14% it might be said that Price represents the last player in a tier. Anyway, 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

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With the offseason boring full speed ahead, I'm just curious if anyone had thoughts on what their respective teams did today in regards to guys to protect.  Any surprises?  Any disappointments?  Any big time targets out there?

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