I like the fact that Oakland and the Angels rank near the bottom of the organizational list. Long term teams that are at the bottom of those lists trend very poorly
It's deceiving because both teams graduated a lot of talent recently. Texas too will drop way down the list next year because Profar and Olt will be called up/traded. It's gonna be an uphill battle against those clubs.
WTHB: Happy trails. LHP Scott Zuloaga and SS/2B Alex Todd have decided to retire from professional baseball. A 16th-round draft choice in 2011 from Scottsdale Community College, Zuloaga, 23, spent 2012 in the bullpens of Lexington, Tri-City, and Greeneville, with the bulk of his season in Greeneville. In 33 appearances (all in relief), he went 0-1 with a 3.80 ERA. Todd, also 23, was also a 2011 draftee; he was picked in the 27th round out of Sonoma State. Todd played at both A stops (Lex and Lancaster), with the majority of his playing time coming in Lancaster after Jio Mier's hamstring injury. In 76 total games, he hit .293/.382/.407 with 4 homers and 34 RBI. I wish them all the best in their lives after baseball.
Also.... <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Your 2013 @<a href="https://twitter.com/gvilleastros">gvilleastros</a>! <a href="http://t.co/rdfmFbFU" title="http://twitter.com/GvilleAstros/status/296311798028697601/photo/1">twitter.com/GvilleAstros/s…</a></p>— Greeneville Astros (@GvilleAstros) <a href="https://twitter.com/GvilleAstros/status/296311798028697601">January 29, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
MLB.com Top 100 Prospects 89. Jarred Cosart 57. George Springer 30. Carlos Correa 27. Jonathan Singleton
Interesting how Cosart keeps his top prospect status year after year of mediocre showings while DDJ can't sniff the top 100 after a monster season.
Here's a Top 150 list. The author of this list is not an expert, nor does he claim to be one. The list was compiled based on his researching and personal opinion. 8. Carlos Correa 23. Jonathan Singleton 40. George Springer 67. Lance McCullers 85. Delino DeShields 101. Mike Foltynewicz HM. Rio Ruiz HM. Jarred Cosart
John Sickel's did an "All Questions Answered" post on his SB Nation MinorLeagueBall.com site. Here's Sickels Astros related answers. http://www.minorleagueball.com/2013/1/29/3926888/all-questions-answered-sickels Q: C. Correa or A. Russell -If they were both available, which would you pick as your future building-block SS. A: Oh that is a tough one. I will go with Correa but it is damn close. I have Correa at 11 and Russell at 13 on my Top 50 list Q: Is Lance McCullers, Jr. still a starting pitcher five years from now? A: Yes Q: Hamilton v. DeShields - Who’s going to be the better player, long-term? A: I am a huge Hamilton supporter and I like DeShields too. Hamilton as you know has 100 speed on the 20-80 scale. DeShields is more like 85, lol. I do think Billy uses his speed better than anyone I have EVER seen. Delino is still learning in that department. Q: Biggest surprise from last year? A guy you really didn’t think was that great going into the season, who you now believe in — anyone stand out? A: Deshields is a good one. I was pretty skeptical about him. Wilmer Flores is another one that I am more confident in now
No doubt that getting those guys to the big leagues will drop you in the rankings. But dropping to the middle of the pack is one thing, dropping to the bottom of the pack, when you have some very large long term contracts you recently signed that might be ok now, but won't end well, is a sign of long term problems . . .
How uncommital between Hamilton & DeShields. I think Hamilton would be the easy call, even though DeShields could be a 20-50 guy in the future, while Hamilton has no chance of being that, but you have to love the OBP for Hamilton.
Article on Asher Wojciechowski from his hometown paper Here's what I found the most interesting from the piece.
Wow, Keith Law ranks the Astros 4th in his 2013 Farm System rankings. http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/stor...ead-keith-law-ranking-all-30-farm-systems-mlb
Flattering, but he like Mayo typically has bad rankings. BA and Sickels have the org somewhere in the 8-12 range. That's more reasonable for a club that might not have a meaningful rookie this year.
I have not looked at his rankings but I have heard him compliment the Cubs system, which is really not that great.... so take it with a grain of salt.
I can't say that I agree with you. Baez, Almora, and Soler are all ridiculously talented and highly rated. I also like Villanueva, Blackburn, Maples, Johnson, Vizcaino, Szczur, Underwood, Lake, Loux, and Vogelbach.
Updated MLB.com list http://houston.astros.mlb.com/mlb/prospects/watch/y2012/#list=hou I'll be curious to see how they assign/play their catchers. I'm guessing Morales stays in A ball going to Quad Cities. Perez stays in Lancaster (A+). Stassi will go to Corpus (AA) and Wallace will be back in OKC (AAA). I think Stassi would platoon well with Castro.
Seems like the end of the road for Genoves, who probably won't do a third year of LoA. There's definitely a SS-like glut of catchers at the LoA/HiA/AA levels. You also gotta factor in Heineman who will either start at QC or Lancaster. Odds are they're going to have to double up two decent catching prospects at some level.
