For a prospect who has spent the past four seasons steadily ranked between numbers 29 and 46 on Baseball America’s top-100, the discussion surrounding Arizona Diamondbacks pitching prospect Jarrod Parker has varied wildly. From Tommy John surgery, to questions surrounding his recovery, the past couple of years has brought more questions than answers about the young right-hander.

In mid-July, I had the opportunity to scout Jarrod Parker in Chattanooga against recent Dodgers call-up Nathan Eovaldi in a battle of mid-90s hurlers. And while Eovaldi burst back onto the prospect scene this season as one of the best starters in the Southern League, Parker was better. Using predominantly fastballs and changeups, Parker dominated the Lookouts allowing only one earned run and two hits over five innings pitched. The outing was impressive enough for me to rank him in the top-15 amongst players I’ve ever had the opportunity to scout.

Video after the jump.

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With a starting rotation that already boasts the likes of Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, Madison Bumgarner, and Jonathan Sanchez, the San Francisco Giants organization debuted yet another impressive starting pitcher over the weekend. Southpaw Eric Surkamp made a one-and-done appearance against he hapless Houston Astros but there is no doubt that he’ll be back after being optioned back to the minors after this start. Prior to the season, I ranked as the 11th best prospect in the Giants system.

Surkamp allowed just one run in six innings of work. He showed outstanding poise with 52 of his 87 pitches going for strikes (60%). He walked three batters but also struck out four. In his career, Surkamp has shown a tendency to induce fly-ball outs but six of his 10 in-play outs were recorded on the ground.

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From Clayton Kershaw to Chad Billingsley to Rubby de la Rosa (a recent victim of Tommy John surgery), the Los Angeles Dodgers have displayed a knack for developing top-flight pitching talent. The newest hurler to emerge is Nate Eovaldi, but he’s just the tip of the iceberg in what should be LA’s strong wave of young, cost-controllable talent. Other names to tuck away for future reference include Allen Webster, Zach Lee, Garrett Gould — and recent first-round pick, Chris Reed.

Eovaldi is probably the least-heralded prospect of the group. A former 11th-round selection in 2008 out of high school in Texas, he would have gone much higher if he hadn’t been slowed by Tommy John surgery in his junior year. He received an over-slot deal and has not had any major issues with his elbow in pro ball. Breaking out in 2011 at double-A, Eovaldi did a nice job of keeping runners off base (6.64 H/9) and struck out his fair share of batters (8.65 K/9). On the downside, the 21-year-old is a fly-ball pitcher and has struggled with his control (4.02 BB/9). Eovaldi is probably in the majors a little early, but his mid-90s fastball has a lot of promise; he just needs to learn to better-control his secondary pitches and learn the value of changing speeds.

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Due to a back injury to veteran Kevin Youkilis, the Boston Red Sox club has promoted catcher/designated hitter Ryan Lavarnway to the Major Leagues. He made his debut Thursday night against the Kansas City Royals and went 0-for-4 with a strikeout. Lavarnway, 24, is not going to step into the Red Sox lineup and immediate produce at the star level that Youkilis has (4.1 WAR in ’11), but he should be slightly-above replacement level in the short term.

I’ve been eagerly anticipating Lavarnway’s arrival in the Majors. Out of the five pre-season Top 10 prospect lists for Boston [Baseball America, Kevin Goldstein, Keith Law, John Sickels], the scribe from minorleagueball.com and I were the only ones to place him on the Boston lists (Law earns mega points, though, for placing both Will Middlebrooks and Xander Bogaerts on his list).

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Although the Toronto Blue Jays and Pittsburgh Pirates come close, no organization in Major League Baseball has improved its minor league system more in the last two years than the Washington Nationals. The team has made huge strides in distancing itself from “The Dark Years” when it was controlled by Major League Baseball on a shoestring budget, and under the questionable guidance of then-GM Jim Bowden.

The Nationals, headed by savy third-year General Manager Mike Rizzo, likely did not begin the 2011 draft expecting to be quite so aggressive when trying to build upon the momentum from 2010’s draft – and set yet another draft spending record. But that’s just what they did by locking up three first round talents (when healthy) and a fringe first rounder. In fact, both third baseman Anthony Rendon and left-hander Matt Purke entered the 2011 college season with the chance to be chosen first overall. Both slipped due to injuries, although Rendon’s was considered far less serious in terms of long-term damage.

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With today being the deadline (at midnight) to get amateur draftees to sign on the dotted line, we’ve been building up to the occasion with a look back at the big draft spenders during the past three seasons. If you’ve missed the past two articles, you can find them here: Boston and Pittsburgh. There is bound to be a lot of draft news today as Major League Baseball finally lifts the gag order on big-money contract agreements.

After the 2009 amateur draft debacle that helped send former GM J.P. Ricciardi out of town, the Jays organization took a much different – and much more aggressive – approach to the 2010 draft. Under the guidance of new GM Alex Anthopoulos and scouting director Andrew Tinnish, the club exploited its massive scouting department and focused on high-ceiling talent.

Putting faith in its scouts, the club handed out a whopping 17 contracts that met or exceeded $200,000. Of those picks, 11 were pitchers, and the hitters were mostly of the up-the-middle variety — save for corner outfielder Marcus Knecht and third baseman Kellen Sweeney (who was a shortstop in college). The results – so far – have been rather impressive, which has made Toronto into a top-three organization in terms of overall talent.

College Picks
1st – Deck McGuire, RHP
1st – Asher Wojciechowski, RHP
4th – Sam Dyson, RHP

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As we saw earlier this week, a number of teams have developed a reputation for using the annual amateur draft as a means of infusing their organizations with talent. With an eye to the future, these clubs see the cost benefit to developing future stars in-house, rather than seeking out established, and quite likely more expensive, talent through trades and/or free agency.

Over the past three seasons (2008-10), the Pittsburgh Pirates organization has spent more cash on the amateur draft than any other club in Major League Baseball. The small-market organization sees the benefit of spending to acquire and develop amateur talent, rather than competing with The Big Boys for high-end free agents. Whereas the Boston Red Sox organization spent a whack of dough on 10 players in the ’10 draft, the Pirates spent a lot in the upper level of the draft, in part because it chose second overall and had to secure the best prep arm in the draft (if not the Top 2); the club used its hefty bankroll for seven players.

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The Boston Red Sox organization is known for flexing its financial muscle with an eye to sustainable development by signing numerous draft picks to above-slot deals each season. In fact, over the past three years the organization has handed out more draft bonus money than any other organization in baseball other than the Pittsburgh Pirates. In 2010, the Red Sox club handed out 10 contracts for more than $200,000 each.

College Picks
1st – Kolbrin Vitek, 2B
1S – Bryce Brentz, OF
1S – Anthony Ranaudo, RHP
2nd – Brandon Workman, RHP
7th – Chris Hernandez, LHP
8th – Matthew Price, RHP
11th – Lucas LeBlanc, OF (Junior College)

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This article wraps up a look back at the pre-season Top 10 prospect lists here at FanGraphs. You can read the other reviews: NL West | NL Central | NL East | AL West | AL Central.

Tampa Bay Rays
1. Jeremy Hellickson, RHP
2. Matt Moore, LHP
3. Desmond Jennings, OF
4. Chris Archer, RHP
5. Jake McGee, LHP
6. Josh Sale, OF
7. Alex Colome, RHP
8. Alex Torres, LHP
9. Justin O’Conner, C
10. Hak-Ju Lee, SS

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Our review of the FanGraphs 2011 Top 10 prospect lists continues with the American League Central.

Detroit Tigers
1. Jacob Turner, RHP
2. Nick Castellanos, 3B
3. Andy Oliver, LHP
4. Daniel Fields, OF
5. Daniel Schlereth, LHP
6. Chance Ruffin, RHP
7. Wade Gaynor, 3B
8. Josue Carreno, RHP
9. Bruce Rondon, RHP
10. Dixon Machado, SS

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