More Rankings and Other Tidbits

Written by Greg Fertel | 12 March 2010

FanGraphs' Marc Hulet posted his Top 50 American League Prospects. Jesus Montero comes in at fourth, behind Desmond Jennings, Neftali Feliz, and Carlos Santana. Hulet also lists him as a C/1B even though Montero has yet to play the field at a position other than catcher throughout his career. I would personally rank him the second best prospect in the AL, behind Desmond Jennings. Austin Romine and Zach McAllister also make the list, respectively coming in at 26th and 31st. That's about as high as I've seen either of then. Former Yankees' "CF of the Future" Austin Jackson comes in at 28th on the list.

I stumbled across this list of the top 100 MiLB pitchers and liked what I saw... at first. I was surprised to see Mark Melancon ranked as the 51st best pitching prospect in baseball, but then I read what they had to say about Melancon.

Posts excellent K/BB ratios every single year and is ready for a crack at an MLB rotation right now. Problem is, the Yankees have enormous depth in front of him so barring a trade, Melancon is a fill in / long reliever for the time being.

What? There goes this list's credibility. All it takes is a quick look at Melancon's statistics to see that he has never started a game in the minor leagues.

Look, I know it's hard to keep track of every prospect, but calling a guy who has never started a game a starting pitcher is pretty bad. If you're going to be ranking prospects, it's best to get your facts straight. If you still care about the list, Manny Banuelos(38), Zach McAllister(53), and DJ Mitchell(100) all made the cut. They love Arodys Vizcaino and ranked him 10th overall.

While we're on the subject of top prospects, Mike Ashmore put together a very nice profile on Jesus Montero. I always enjoy reading Ashmore's work, as it gives us a much more direct look at the player than what I do. Go read it for yourself.

Troy Patterson of RotoSavants put together a brief profile on Montero as well, concluding that, "We're talking about someone who should be hitting at least .300 with 30 homers, but the OBP might not be everything we would like."

Joel Sherman tweeted, "Ryan Pope, a 3d-rd '07 pick, has #Yankees excited with uptick in velocity this spring to 91-94mph. Ticketed for AA Trenton rotation." I've never been much of a Pope fan, as he's a pretty generic pitcher, but an uptick in velocity can make all the difference. If the Yankees are excited about him, it might be worth keeping an eye on how he starts out this season.