Montero, Posey and Santana are all excellent prospects, but I think we’ve encountered some prospectors groupthink. Montero has a higher offensive ceiling than Santana, but I think he’ll be a 1B/DH instead of C. Posey is a better defender than Santana right now, but Santana has the tools to narrow the gap or become Posey’s equal defensively. Santana already has a cannon for an arm and is a good blocker, but he just moved to catcher two years ago and needs to improve his English to become a better game caller. Additionally Santana has much greater power potential than Posey. All things considered I’m a little confused why Santana seems to be the consensus number 3 and not right up there with Montero and Posey.

so PROFOUND to the point where you have to go with Montero.

Unless you think Stanton’s a good bet to hit 50 home runs a year.

advantage to Stanton , big-time

I would say that Montero has the better hit tool that is going to lead to both a higher average and OBP as a result of needing fewer walks to reach a higher OBP, while still having plenty of power to boot.

The biggest thing for me though is pretty simple. Montero has a much, much higher floor with a very high, although less than Stanton type ceiling. Just seems to be a much safer pick without much downgrade in upside if he were on a team where he had a chance to actually play 1B.

Stanton has a skill that no other minor league player has? I get that his raw power is what it is, incredible….. but when you say skill that says current power. He slugged .455 in 341 PA at AA with an iso of .224. Jesus Montero slugged .539 at the same level at the same age, albeit in half as much time with an iso of .222, or basically the exact same power currently.

As for the floor with Stanton…. I just want to toss a name out there that fits pretty well for age/body size and power. Adam Dunn. When Dunn was 20/21 he was the same size as Stanton is now, considered a strong defender, had better speed than Stanton and better numbers (of course Dunn was a year older too) and as we know has power than can match up with what Stanton may do one day. Time hasn’t exactly been the best friend to his body, and for a while now he has been slow and a very negative defender.

Just suggesting that well, Stanton may be all athletic currently, but he is going to get bigger and when he does is his defense going to hold up? If not, is his floor really all that high considering he does have problems making contact?

…except for Jason Heyward…an elite power/contact combo.