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Each winter, the baseball publishers from the Scout.com network
get together and hash out the top prospects in the game. Not only do they
analyze their respective team's prospects, but they consider just how their
team's prospects rank against the best from other clubs. After all, the
Scout.com publishers are at games all over the country, watching not just
their players, but keeping an eye on the competition. That knowledge goes
into building the most comprehensive list of prospects that baseball fans
will find: The Scout.com Top 300 Prospects list.
So, who made the elite part of the rankings this year? Who's in the Top
100?
Check out the top 100
|
Prospects by League
|
|
National League |
51 |
|
American League |
49 |
|
Prospects by Division
|
|
AL East |
18 |
|
AL West |
18 |
|
NL East |
18 |
|
NL Central |
17 |
|
NL West |
16 |
|
AL Central |
13 |
|
Prospects by Team
|
|
Oakland A's |
6 |
|
Texas Rangers |
5 |
|
Atlanta Braves |
5 |
|
Baltimore Orioles |
4 |
|
Cleveland Indians |
4 |
|
Florida Marlins |
4 |
|
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim |
4 |
|
Milwaukee Brewers |
4 |
|
New York Yankees |
4 |
|
San Diego Padres |
4 |
|
San Francisco Giants |
4 |
|
St. Louis Cardinals |
4 |
|
Tampa Bay Rays |
4 |
|
Washington Nationals |
4 |
|
Boston Red Sox |
3 |
|
Chicago Cubs |
3 |
|
Colorado Rockies |
3 |
|
Kansas City Royals |
3 |
|
Los Angeles Dodgers |
3 |
|
Philadelphia Phillies |
3 |
|
Pittsburgh Pirates |
3 |
|
Seattle Mariners |
3 |
|
Toronto Blue Jays |
3 |
|
Arizona Diamondbacks |
2 |
|
Chicago White Sox |
2 |
|
Cincinnati Reds |
2 |
|
Detroit Tigers |
2 |
|
Minnesota Twins |
2 |
|
New York Mets |
2 |
|
Houston Astros |
1 |
|
Prospects by Position
|
|
RHP |
31 |
|
OF |
20 |
|
LHP |
13 |
|
C |
11 |
|
1B |
10 |
|
SS |
8 |
|
3B |
6 |
|
2B |
1 |
At the top, there are few surprises. While the big prospect name during
the winter was Baltimore's Matt Wieters, Tampa Bay's David Price came out on
top. "Fresh off a sterling postseason performance, Price is a lock to crack
the Rays rotation in spring training," said RaysDigest.com's Tyler
Hissey. The big left-hander made his major league debut last season, but
still qualifies for Rookie of the Year honors and will likely fight it out
with Baltimore's Wieters, who is set to take over behind the plate for the
Orioles.
Price and Wieters finished just ahead of the Detroit Tigers' Rick Porcello, who went from being a high school pitcher to Detroit's High-A team
in Lakeland and wound up leading the Florida State League with a 2.66 ERA.
The highest ranked National League prospect is Tommy Hanson from the Atlanta
Braves, who will be battling for a spot on the club's rotation.
While the American League took six of the top seven prospect spots, the
overall ranking between the two leagues came out pretty close, with 49 of
the prospects coming from the American League and 51 coming from National
League clubs.
With teams always looking for pitching, the good news is that there are
44 young pitchers (13 left-handed, 31 right-handed) among the top 100
prospects. As for position players, outfielders, of course, led the way with
20 prospects, while there was just one second base prospect - Oakland's
Adrian Cardenas - among the top 300.
As for new arrivals, the highest ranking arrival was 14th ranked Orioles
left-hander Brian Matusz, who the Orioles drafted with the fourth overall
pick in last year's draft. Also from last year's draft, first overall pick
Tim Beckham (Tampa Bay) ranked 21st, second pick Pedro Alvarez (Pittsburgh)
ranked 19th, third overall pick Eric Hosmer (Kansas City) ranked 43rd and
fifth overall pick Buster Posey (San Francisco) ranked 26th.
And finally, while there is no "Mr. Irrelevant" on this list, the
distinction of being the final name on the list goes to the Phillies J.A. Happ. The right-hander is the third ranked prospect in the Phillies
organization coming into 2009 and has himself squarely in position to win
the battle for the fifth spot in the Phillies rotation.
If you want to find out more about the Top 100 players on the list, be
sure to take advantage of our Top 100 Database, where you'll find a complete
list of the Top 100 prospects and more information on each of the players.
And for the full list of the Top 300 Prospects, look for the Scout.com
Prospect Guide. The guide not only presents the rest of the list, but also
gives readers insight about the top players, sleepers and players in each of
the 30 major league clubs' organizations. Plus, this year's Prospect Guide
also includes the FOXSports.com Fantasy Guide, ranked by many as the best
fantasy baseball publication around.
You can find the Scout.com Prospect Guide at various newsstands and book
stores in the magazine section. And if you want to be among the first to
receive your copy of the 2010 Prospect Guide next year, sign up for an annual subscription and not only will you get the Prospect Guide free, but
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prospects. You'll also have full access to all of the other major league
team sites so you can keep up with their prospects and find out about
players that your team may be battling in the not-too-distant future. And if
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all of the Scout.com NFL, college and high school sites.Look for the
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