Reviewing the Minor Reviews

This past week, we wrapped up our 2009 Minor Reviews for each organization in Major League Baseball. The posts took a look at a few prospects for each organization that failed to make the Top 10 lists, for a variety of reasons.

The Top 10 lists will begin posting this coming week, beginning with the Kansas City Royals. We will spend two days looking at each organization; the first day will be a review of the last four amateur drafts for each club, while the second day will break down the Top 10 lists, complete with commentary on each player.

One difference with our Top 10 lists from most other publications is that they will not include 2009 draft picks. To be honest, it’s very difficult to effectively rank most same-year draft picks (not including the likes of Stephen Strasburg, of course) because of the small sample sizes offered in their debut seasons. As well, many top-ranked draft picks have been signing late each year with many of them not making their debuts until the following year. Key ’09 draft picks will be highlighted during the four-year amateur draft reviews that precede the Top 10 lists for each team.

If you missed your team’s Minor Review series, the links are posted below for your convenience, along with the five players reviewed for each club. In some instances you’ll notice some top prospects were reviewed (and will be showing up again on their teams’ Top 10 lists) because they were highlighted during the ’08 Minor Review series as their teams’ sleeper prospects for 2009.

The National League East

Philadelphia Phillies: J.A. Happ, Anthony Hewitt, Drew Naylor, Trevor May, Yohan Flande

New York Mets: Bobby Parnell, Eddie Kunz, Jefry Marte, Jeurys Familia, Kirk Nieuwenhuis

Florida Marlins: Chris Coghlan, Brad Hand, Daniel Jennings, Jeff Allison, Kyle Skipworth

Atlanta Braves: Jordan Schafer, Adam Milligan, Cole Rohrbaugh, Dimaster Delgado, Erik Cordier

Washington Nationals: Jordan Zimmermann, Adrian Nieto, Carlos Alvarez, Derek Norris, Eury Perez

The American League East

Baltimore Orioles: Matt Wieters, Brandon Erbe, Billy Rowell, Caleb Joseph, Brandon Waring

New York Yankees: Brett Gardner, Austin Romine, Brett Marshall, D.J. Mitchell, Dellin Betances

Toronto Blue Jays: Ricky Romero, Brad Emaus, Tim Collins, Carlos Pina, Kevin Ahrens

Boston Red Sox: Daniel Bard, Derrik Gibson, Dustin Richardson, Michael Almanzar, Nick Hagadone

Tampa Bay Rays: Jeff Niemann, Fernando Perez, Matthew Sweeney, Wilking Rodriguez, Nick Barnese

The National League Central

Milwaukee Brewers: Mark Difelice, Efrain Nieves, Josh Butler, Logan Schafer, Lorenzo Cain

St. Louis Cardinals: Colby Rasmus, Adam Ottavino, Adron Chambers, Nick Additon, Tyler Henley

Pittsburgh Pirates: Andrew McCutchen, Bryan Morris, Chase D’Arnaud, Hunter Strickland, Robinzon Diaz

Houston Astros: Felipe Paulino, Koby Clemens, Brad James, Leandro Cespedes, T.J. Steele

Chicago Cubs: Jake Fox, Welington Castillo, Chris Archer, Chris Huseby, Steve Clevenger

Cincinnati Reds: Daniel Herrera, Devin Mesoraco, Juan Carlos Sulbaran, Kyle Lotzkar, Matt Maloney

The American League Central

Chicago White Sox: Gordon Beckham, Brent Morel, John Shelby Jr., Santos Rodriguez, Aaron Poreda

Detroit Tigers: Rick Porcello, Brandon Hamilton, Cale Iorg, Like Putkonen, Melvin Mercedes

Kansas City Royals: Mitch Maier, Johnny Giavotella, Jordan Parraz, Tim Smith, Jose Bonilla

Minnesota Twins: Brian Duensing, Angel Morales, Loek Van Mil, Shooter Hunt, Wilson Ramos

Cleveland Indians: David Huff, Hector Rondon, Eric Berger, T.J. McFarland, Nick Weglarz

The National League West

Los Angeles Dodgers: Ronald Belisario, Tony Delmonico, Justin Miller, Austin Gallagher, Andrew Lambo

Arizona Diamondbacks: Gerardo Parra, Collin Cowgill, Evan Frey, Josh Collmenter, Reynaldo Navarro

San Francisco Giants: Dan Runzler, Clayton Tanner, Hector Sanchez, Merkin Valdez, Nick Noonan

San Diego Padres: Everth Cabrera, Sawyer Carroll, Allan Dykstra, Nick Schmidt, Eric Sogard

Colorado Rockies: Seth Smith, Juan Nicasio, Joseph Tyler Massey, Radames Nazario, Eric Young Jr.

The American League West

Seattle Mariners: Rob Johnson, Gabriel Noriega, Maikel Cleto, Michael Pineda, Tug Hulett

Los Angeles Angels: Kevin Jepsen, Chris Pettit, Manuarys Correa, Mason Tobin, P.J. Phillips

Texas Rangers: Taylor Teagarden, Michael Main, Mitch Moreland, Tommy Hunter, Wilmer Font

Oakland Athletics: Andrew Bailey, Andrew Carignan, Brett Hunter, Jeremy Barfield, Sam Demel