The biggest story this spring seems to be the arrival of Japanese ace Daisuke Matsuzaka. So not surprisingly, he’s also the biggest story of the Red Sox BAPR Plus.

Who’s Hot: Daisuke Matsuzaka came into spring training with nearly unobtainable expectations. [...] Continue Reading »

You probably don’t even have to know what a baseball is to have heard of Philip Hughes at this point, but Hughes isn’t the only prospect who got noticed with the Yankees this spring.

Who’s Hot: Japanese import Kei Igawa started slow this spring, which at one point had fans and the media wondering if he could lose his rotation spot to Jeff Karstens. [...] Continue Reading »

If Toronto has a veteran lineup with few prospects seeing serious time this spring, the Devil Rays are a prospect-watcher’s delight with a multitude of future stars getting regular at-bats.

Who’s Hot: With Rocco Baldelli battling a balky hamstring, Elijah Dukes is playing his way onto the major league roster as a backup outfielder. [...] Continue Reading »

The Blue Jays are another team where the prospects in camp were outnumbers by the prospects in minor league camp. A veteran lineup and rotation meant few jobs were up for grabs.

Who’s Hot: With the signing of Frank Thomas, Adam Lind knew that his chances of beginning the season in Toronto were slim, and that proved to be true. [...] Continue Reading »

WINTER HAVEN, Fla.—Alan Zinter has been all around this world.

Well, at least the baseball parts of it.

The 24th overall pick in 1989 out of Arizona never lived up to those first-round expectations with the Mets, and didn’t sniff the big leagues until 2002 with the Astros—after he’d toiled in the minors for 14 seasons. [...] Continue Reading »

VERO BEACH, Fla.—Baseball America’s reigning Organization of the Year, the Dodgers fell to No. 6 in our annual organizational talent rankings this season—primarily because they graduated so many players to the big leagues.

The system still boasts two of the top lefthanded pitching prospects in the game in Scott Elbert and Clayton Kershaw, an impact third baseman in Andy LaRoche, and an intriguing situation developing at shortstop as well. [...] Continue Reading »

Few teams had more interesting names at big league camp than the White Sox, who saw their No. 1 (Ryan Sweeney), No. 2 (Josh Fields), No. 3 (Gio Gonzalez), No. 4 (Lance Broadway) and No. 6 (Charlie Haeger) get significant playing time, while recent trade acquisition John Danks also got a chance to shine.

Who’s Hot: John Danks, picked up in a trade when the Rangers decided they preferred a more major league ready prospect in pitcher Brandon McCarthy, has sped up his own timetable by earning the White Sox No. 5 starter job. [...] Continue Reading »

By a quirk of scheduling, there’s been a lot of Indians news on the Blog over the past two days. Chris Kline’s trip to Winter Haven happened to coincide with the Indians’ turn for BAPR Plus. And now, there’s news that the Indians have received back both of the Rule 5 picks they had lost in the December draft. [...] Continue Reading »

Our latest BAPR Plus looks at how the prospects with the Cleveland Indians have done this spring.

Who’s Hot: Adam Miller won’t begin the season in the Indians rotation, but he did everything he could to show that he’s nearly ready to join the Indians rotation. [...] Continue Reading »

The Royals have given their fans few things to cheer about over the past decade, so the arrival of Alex Gordon is understandably being treated as a hopeful sign for fans that are much more used to depressing news. But the Royals have other prospects on the cusp of the big leagues as well.

Who’s Hot: It was hard to imagine that Gordon wouldn’t make the roster–especially after the Royals moved incumbent third baseman Mark Teahen to right field during spring training. [...] Continue Reading »

BAPR Plus moves on to the defending AL Champs, who bring back most everyone from last year’s club while also adding Gary Sheffield. Because they had most of their lineup back, as you would expect, not a lot of prospects are making the Opening Day roster for Detroit.

Who’s Hot: Cameron Maybin did nothing to lower the lofty expectations scouts and Tigers fans have for the center fielder. [...] Continue Reading »

Our BAPR Plus tour of which prospects have impressed and which ones are depressed moves on to the AL Central with a look at the Minnesota Twins.

Who’s Hot: Matt Garza’s spring got out to a slow start because of a neck injury, but he’s bounced back to have a 1.50 ERA in 12 innings (9 hits, 5 BB, 7 Ks). [...] Continue Reading »

WINTER HAVEN, Fla.–Max Ramirez is still slated to break camp with high Class A Kinston at the end of the week despite missing the bulk of the spring since leaving big league camp with elbow soreness.

Ramirez, who came over to Cleveland in the Bob Wickman deal last year, batted .307 with four homers in 127 at-bats at low Class A Lake County after the deal last season. [...] Continue Reading »

JUPITER, Fla.—Jeff Luhnow joined the Cardinals’ organization in 2003 as vice president of baseball development. After three seasons in that role, St. Louis promoted him to vice president of amateur scouting and player development—overseeing both departments, as well as the club’s international scouting efforts.

But unlike many others in his position, Luhnow isn’t a baseball lifer. [...] Continue Reading »

Stop the presses: Indians righthander Adam Miller hit 100 mph on Saturday, but reaching that mark has little to do with whether or not the 22-year-old phenom is back from the elbow strain that sidelined him early in 2005.

“Am I back? I feel like I’ve been back for a while now,” Miller said. “When they told me I hit a hundred, it wasn’t a big deal or anything. I know I was up to 97 or 98 (in the spring), so it wasn’t that much of a surprise. I didn’t know it until afterwards.” [...] Continue Reading »

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla.–In case you might have been asking yourself, “So has the Braves’ plan changed at all to move Jarrod Saltalamacchia from behind the plate now that Brian McCann just signed a six-year deal?”

We’re here to help.

Here is what Braves first-year farm director Kurt Kemp had to say on the Salty subject on Saturday [...] Continue Reading »

JUPITER, Fla.–While several of the Marlins’ organization’s top arms will be grouped together in high Class A to start the season, that’s not to say Double-A Carolina will be lacking.

With a rotation that will include righthanders Gaby Hernandez, Rick Vanden Hurk, and Jesus Delgado, the Mudcats will be slightly more interesting to watch this season than last year—a year that righthanded Anibal Sanchez graduated to the big leagues and threw the game’s sole no-hitter in 2007. [...] Continue Reading »

JUPITER, Fla.—The Marlins’ top young arms spent all last season at low Class A Greensboro, and the group of pitchers that includes righthanders Chris Volstad, Ryan Tucker and lefty Aaron Thompson won’t be traveling very far when camp breaks.

All three will begin the season here at high Class A Jupiter. [...] Continue Reading »

We wrap up are BAPR Plus look at the AL West with a look at the Los Angeles Angeles. The Angels have a slew of recent prospects in the lineup, led by Howie Kendrick, Jered Weaver, Joe Saunders, Mike Napoli and Kendry Morales, but there still are some talented prospects left to try to crack the Angels’ lineup. [...] Continue Reading »

As the season gets closer, we’re going around the league taking a look at which prospects have stood out during spring training and which have found they need some more seasoning. The next stop is the Oakland Athletics, which came into spring training knowing that few rookies had much of a chance to make an impact. In fact, one of the first columns of spring training in the Oakland Tribune highlighted the fact that the prospect pipeline in Oakland has slowed a bit with the next wave, led by Travis Barton, Kurt Suzuki and Travis Buck still about a year away. [...] Continue Reading »