Written by Greg Fertel
|
24 September 2008
Here's the
link. 2 Yankee prospects are on the list.
Jesus Montero checks in at #7, just behind his rival, Giants 1b Angel Villalona.
Austin Romine is right behind Montero at #8.
I think Montero should have been a little higher, but given that this league was so stacked this season, I can't really complain. He did put up better numbers than Villalona at a tougher position, but Big V is 9 months younger, and we know that BA has a collective man-crush on Villalona anyway. Romine at #8 surprised me a little, I didn't expect him to be that high, but when I looked at his final stats (.300/.344/.437) and knowing that Romine is likely to stay at catcher, I understood the top 10 ranking.
What I did not understand was the exclusion of 2 Yankee pitching prospects,
Dellin Betances and
Jairo Heredia, who were both very impressive this season. BA probably had reservations about Betances because of his injuries and early season control woes. However, Betances' high strikeout rate, impressive present stuff, improving control, and high ceiling make me think he should be on the list. While Heredia did not blow batters away, he combined a very good groundball rate (almost 2 GO:AO) while striking out about a batter/inning and posting a 3.25 ERA, all at age 18. The final 2 pitchers on the list (Jeff Locke of the Braves and Alex Cobb of the Rays) put up similar numbers to Heredia (worse in the case of Locke), but both were 2 years older than Jairo.
Once again BA, I tip my dunce cap to you.
