Comments on: John Manuel’s Early Take On The Talent Rankings

By: John Manuel

John Manuel — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 05:01:17 +0000

We’ll actually do our org rankings in the Handbook, which goes to press at the end of the week, so you’ll find out soon. Austin Jackson is the only player who counts as a “prospect” though, and he doesn’t revitalize a system singlehandedly.

By: Nick

Nick — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:39:56 +0000

Do the Tigers additions in the Granderson-Jackson blockbuster improve them on this list?

By: Phil Case

Phil Case — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:57:44 +0000

In regards to the Pirates, every time they make a trade, most BA readers know they got little or nothing in return. They simply have no clue how to evaluate and acquire talent.

The Reds and Mariners also had to be close to joining the worst five in baseball. Ten years of poor farm system management puts them in the same class as the hapless Pirates and hopeless Astros.

But don’t blame the Nationals for being ranked where they are. We can still blame Bud Selig for that. He should still be thrown out of office for allowing the trading of players like Grady Sizemore, Cliff Lee, and Brandon Phillips while the Expos were under his care.

I think Jesse Ventura should investigate Selig on his new conspiracy theory show.

By: Isaac

Isaac — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 12:40:20 +0000

How can you honestly rank the Indians ahead of the padres? Much less have the padres ranked 22nd? Castro, Decker,Tate, Darnell, Forsythe, Liriano, Williams, Luebke, Rincon, Poreada, Carter, Pelzer, Portillo, Sampson, Sullivan, Sogard, Kullbaki, Cumberland, Durango, Galvez, and Zadwazski give the padres a deep pool to select from. With so much talent I would expect them to be higher.

By: Joe

Joe — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 03:35:45 +0000

What are your thoughts on Zach Stewert for the Jays? We have heard they made out well in the Rolen deal, but not much about the arms. Also what about youngster Gustavo Pierre SS, he showed well in the GCL with some tools and he was only 17?

By: Dan McMillen

Dan McMillen — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 18:33:40 +0000

How about the Pirates? They traded virtually everyone on their roster, they gotta be in the top 10 at least.

By: Matt

Matt — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 16:34:59 +0000

Gotta agree with A’s being too low… Carter, Wallace, Cardenas and Green are clearly top 100 guys and factor in Desme, Weeks, Figerosa and Stassi and just seems odd… Now could just be quibbling as you could be saying they are 16 and me 11 or 12 and guess their is not much difference in the rankings.

By: John Manuel

John Manuel — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 02:09:36 +0000

Mr. Parkinson, maybe I’m selling the A’s a bit short. Ynoa, Rodriguez and de los Santos are not assets for me; Rodriguez walked nearly a guy an inning in ’09; the other two guys threw a combined 12 IP in ’09, none by Ynoa. It sounds like you’re an A’s fan; you’re going to be more bullish on their system than most people. But it’s certainly possible I sold the organization short, too. I like Stassi, and I like Green, not to mention Grant Desme and Pedro Figueroa. We’ll see what the rest of the staff thinks when we decide on this for the Prospect Handbook. Thanks for reading.

By: John Manuel

John Manuel — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 01:57:09 +0000

Abedin, I’ll grant you that point, though I will say Banuelos especially and Vizcaino do not have the upside of Hagadone or Knapp. Two different scouts have told me Hagadone and Knapp rank among the small handful of the best arms in the minors, and both have true star potential, with three plus pitches. Injury concerns are the red flags, obviously. Banuelos in particular is not in the same league as those guys in terms of stuff; Vizcaino has a chance to have three plus pitches but it’s early and he hasn’t shown much of a changeup.

By: Abedin Emini

Abedin Emini — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 00:53:49 +0000

John, it doesn’t make much sense when you say that New York’s best pitching is at low levels when Knapp pitched all of last year in Low-A and Hagadone pitched a grand total of 5.1 innings in High-A. New York’s 2 best pitching prospects, Banuelos(Low-A) and Vizcaino(SS), pitched at or close to those levels.

By: Dougald Parkinson

Dougald Parkinson — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 22:27:51 +0000

Oakland A’s in the ranked between 16-25th with Carter, Cardenas, Weeks, Wallace, Cunningham, Green, Stassi for hitters and the potental of Inoa, Rodriguez and De Los Santos for pitchers. Last year the A’s were ranked 3th in Prospect Hanbook, and while they promoted Anderson, Cahill, Gio, Mazzaro and Bailey they have added Green, Stassi and the rest of their 2009 draft and added by trade the Cards, 2nd ranked prospect, Wallace, and Mortensen at #6. Seems you are being very hard on the A’s or there are 16 amazing other minor league systems.

By: JSerb

JSerb — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 18:54:51 +0000

How on earth do the Mets (whose depth through the 8 spot is good, but no one stands out as a top tier prospect) trump the Nats? Desmond was a spark this year for the big league club and 1-6 are all solid (with #1 more than that). I just don’t see the Mets 1 through 6 matching up with the Nats at all. The Mets farm system this year was atrocious, and the failure that is Buffalo and the Bernazard firing should have some indication about the state of their system, no?

By: Brandon

Brandon — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 03:42:38 +0000

Where does it look like turner fields and Oliver will rank in the tigers top ten?

By: John Manuel

John Manuel — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 03:36:59 +0000

MJ, Cleveland has two impact pitchers it brought in this year in Nick Hagadone and Jason Knapp, to go with two impact bats in Carlos Santana and Lonnie Chisenhall and solid future regulars like Hector Rondon and Alex White. The Tribe also has some solid depth behind those top-level guys. On the Nats, I’m not on Marrero or Burgess, and Norris is a low A catcher (albeit a great-hitting one) and Drew Storen’s a solid reliever, but a reliever nonetheless. Atlanta, Florida and the Yanks don’t match up to Cleveland in my mind in that they have no pitchers who match Knapp and Hagadone, especially the Marlins, who have little pitching to speak of. New York’s best pitching is all at low levels, as is Atlanta’s. I think you’re selling Cleveland short.

By: John Manuel

John Manuel — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 03:29:40 +0000

Not much going on after that, HeavyHitter. Not much at all.

By: HeavyHitter

HeavyHitter — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 01:34:43 +0000

I don’t see how Washington can be in the bottom 5 with Strasbourg, Norris & Storen.

By: MJ

MJ — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 23:15:22 +0000

very surprised to see CLE at #5??????!!!!!??????
I just don’t see it, especially ahead of ATL, FLA, and NYY!
And Washington at #27??? WOW–how bad would they be w/o Strasburg? I thought Marrero and Burgess would surely bump them up!