Well, time for a quick bit of housekeeping before my 2011 List gets underway. Below is my 2010 Top Prospect list for the archive and posterity sake. And, while I'm at it, I may as well take a quick spin through it with the benefit of hindsight.
All in all, I'm pretty pleased with my list this year. I don't see any glaring mistakes and my faith was rewarded on a few of these guys.
Aroldis was undeniably the top guy in the system and showed why in his limited MLB performance. An ungodly fastball and a video game slider. He just needs polish. Yonder finished strong to justify the ranking. There isn't much to separate the polished Leake and Wood, so I'm happy with where I had them pegged.
Neftali Soto's career seems to be sliding away after a strong start and Maloney is withering on the vine. If I missed the mark, it was probably on J.C. Sulbaran, whose feel for pitching simply hasn't caught up to his stuff. Wiley's 2010 season was a waste, but I still like what he brings to table. I suspect he'll do some nice things in the D-Back system. Whether he'll do enough to ever see the majors certainly remains to be seen. He has a long way to go, but he does a couple of nice things to generate value. Josh Ravin stumbled his way into a promotion, then surprisingly took his performance up a notch against tougher competition. He remains an intriguing enigma. Good stuff, clean mechanics, but simply can't find sufficient control. Time is running out.
As for Mesoraco, he obviously outperformed the ranking, but 16 was as high as I could justify ranking him based on his strong peripherals. Still, nice to see him make good.
As much as I like Fellhauer's swing, well-rounded game, and instincts, I wasn't sold on his upside and so far I'm comfortable with his ranking.
Anyway, here was the 2010 list:
0. Aroldis Chapman, lhp
1. Yonder Alonso, 1b
2. Todd Frazier, inf/of
3. Mike Leake, rhp
4. Travis Wood, lhp
5. Chris Heisey, of
6. Juan Francisco, 3b
7. Yorman Rodriguez, of
8. Zach Cozart, ss
9. Neftali Soto, inf
10. Matt Maloney, lhp
11. Billy Hamilton, ss
12. J.C. Sulbaran, rhp
13. Brad Boxberger, rhp
14. Chris Valaika, ss/2b
15. Matt Klinker, rhp
16. Devin Mesoraco, c
17. Danny Dorn, 1b/lf
18. Juan Silva, of
19. Donnie Joseph, lhp
20. Byron Wiley, of
21. Daniel Tuttle, rhp
22. Miguel Rojas, ss
23. Logan Ondrusek, rhp
24. Josh Fellhauer, of
25. Josh Ravin, rhp
xx. "Other Notables"
yea id say it was a pretty good list, no one is ever going to produce a perfect list. cant wait for the new one!
ReplyDeleteHey I tried to tell ya about Mes. ;o)~
ReplyDeleteSmitty,
ReplyDeleteThanks. I'm cranking away on the research as we speak, so I should have the first one up pretty soon.
Best,
Lark
Will,
ReplyDeleteYeah, I remember you were high on Mesoraco. His peripherals were far too strong to count him out, but I'm not going to pretend I saw this type of breakout coming. His 2010 season was ridiculous and will be a huge boost to the Reds if he can maintain his new performance level.
Best,
Lark