Farm Tools: 2010
Once again, Baseball America has published their list of “Best Tools” across the spectrum of the affiliated minor leagues. As they’ve done in the past, BA has broken the list down by level from Triple-A to Double-A, High-A and, finally, Low-A (sorry, subscription required).
I can’t recall if they publish similar lists for the two rookie-level classifications (Gulf Coast League/New York-Penn League) but, in any case, let’s dive right in:
Triple-A (Scranton/Wilkes-Barre):
Best Relief Pitcher – Jonathan Albaladejo
Double-A (Trenton):
Best Power Prospect – Brandon Laird
High-A (Tampa):
Best Defensive 2B – Corban Joseph
Best Outfield Arm – Melky Mesa
Low-A (Charleston):
Best Changeup – Jose Ramirez
My one beef with these lists is how obsolete they are. For example, telling me on August 13th that Carlos Santana and Buster Posey are the best prospects in Triple-A seems pretty silly when both are already well into their third full month of MLB service time in 2010. Having said that, it’s still interesting to see one perspective on the tools currently residing in the Yankee organization.
(WW.com’s commentary on the 2008 and 2009 versions of this list, for your reading pleasure)
You mean that Kei Igawa isn’t the biggest tool in the Yankees minor league chain?
Steve Lombardi wrote:
He may be a tool, but I don’t think he has many tools, no.
I just wondering who in the International League is a better Batting Prospect than Jesus Montero at this point. I guess I’ll go take a look…
…Carlos Sanatana, who hit well the entire season before he got called up, but Montero’s hot streak is hotter and nearly as long now as Santana’s entire AAA.
Plus, he’s 4 years younger.
OK, I guess it’s tools at the moment, not projectable.
@ Evan3457:
That’s exactly my point. The list is obsolete, not only because it includes players like Santana that haven’t been at Triple-A in over three months but also because it probably didn’t take into account the smaller sample size they must’ve been judging Montero on when he started the season hitting .200.
LOL – another Melky in the Yankee system.
The Yankee radio casts can “go green” since Sterling can recycle his old ad-libbed “Melk-man” calls if Melky II ever makes it to the Bronx.
This Melky’s been in the system a couple of years now. It’s too soon to tell if he’ll ever make it up to where Sterling can recycle the Melk-man jokes (or if I can recycle my “Got Melky” t-shirt).