The Top 10 Prospects: AL East
Our six part Top 10 Prospects series ends today with the American League East division, which is loaded with some intriguing names. Even with the recent improvements to the big league team, the Rays organization has solid pitching depth in the minors – especially with top prospect David Price still in the minors. The club will also have to find room in the starting rotation for Wade Davis.
The Baltimore Orioles organization has enviable names amongst its Top 4 prospects. I am also a big fan of David Hernandez, who is an underrated pitcher. Boston has an interesting system, although a lot of its prospects are still quite raw. Pitcher Junichi Tazawa could turn out to be a valuable addition to the system.
The Yankees system is definitely less impressive than it has been in recent years – due mostly to lackluster drafts, as well as some trades – but there are still interesting names to be found. In Toronto’s system, many of the prospects appear to be one step away from a breakout… or, depending on how you look at it, ready to take one step back to being a disappointment. Rookie outfielder Travis Snider, though, looks really, really impressive.
The Tampa Bay Rays:
1. David Price, LHP, Durham (AAA)
2. Tim Beckham, SS, Bowling Green (A)
3. Wade Davis, RHP, Durham (AAA)
4. Jeff Niemann, RHP, Tampa Bay
5. Jacob McGee, LHP, Durham (AAA)
6. Reid Brignac, SS, Durham (AAA)
7. Nick Barnese, RHP, Extended Spring Training
8. Desmond Jennings, OF, Montgomery (AA)
9. Jeremy Hellickson, RHP, Montgomery (AA)
10. Matt Moore, LHP, Bowling Green (A)
Other Prospects of Note: Aneury Rodriguez, Eduardo Morlan, Kyle Lobstein, Albert Suarez, Mitch Talbot, Jake Jefferies, John Jaso, Mike Sheridan, Ty Morrison
The Baltimore Orioles
1. Matt Wieters, C, Norfolk (AAA)
2. Brian Matusz, LHP, Frederick (A+)
3. Chris Tillman, RHP, Norfolk (AAA)
4. Jake Arrieta, RHP, Bowie (AA)
5. Brandon Erbe, RHP, Bowie (AA)
6. Nolan Reimold, OF, Norfolk (AAA)
7. Billy Rowell, 3B, Frederick (A+)
8. Zach Britton, LHP, Frederick (A+)
9. L.J. Hoes, 2B, Delmarva (A)
10. David Hernandez, RHP, Norfolk (AAA)
Other Prospects of Note: Troy Patton, Kam Mikolio, Bobby Bundy, Brad Bergesen, Matt Angle, Tyler Henson, Xavier Avery, Brandon Snyder
The Boston Red Sox
1. Lars Anderson, 1B, Portland (AA)
2. Daniel Bard, RHP, Pawtucket (AAA)
3. Michael Bowden, RHP, Pawtucket (AAA)
4. Junichi Tazawa, RHP, Portland (AA)
5. Casey Kelly, RHP/SS, Greeneville (A)
6. Nick Hagadone, LHP, Injured
7. Josh Reddick, OF, Portland (AA)
8. Michael Almanzar, 3B, Greeneville (A)
9. Yamaico Navarro, SS, Salem (A+)
10. Stolmy Pimentel, RHP, Greeneville (A)
Other Prospects of Note: Kris Johnson, Kyle Weiland, Bryan Price, Ryan Westmoreland, Oscar Tejeda, Ryan Kalish, Argenis Diaz, Pete Hissey, Will Middlebrooks, Derrik Gibson
The New York Yankees
1. Jesus Montero, C, Tampa (A+)
2. Austin Jackson, OF, Scranton (AAA)
3. Dellin Betances, RHP, Tampa (A+)
4. Mark Melancon, RHP, Scranton (AAA)
5. Austin Romine, C, Tampa (A+)
6. Andrew Brackman, RHP, Charleston (A)
7. Zach McAllister, RHP, Trenton (AA)
8. Phil Coke, LHP, New York
9. Arodys Vizcaino, RHP, Extended Spring Training
10. Jeremy Bleich, LHP, Tampa (A+)
Other Prospects of Note:Alfredo Aceves, Jairo Heredia, Manny Banuelos, David Robertson, Mike Dunn, Ramiro Pena, Brad Suttle, Brett Gardner, Francisco Cervelli
The Toronto Blue Jays
1. Travis Snider, OF, Toronto
2. J.P. Arencibia, C, Las Vegas (AAA)
3. Brett Cecil, LHP, Las Vegas (AAA)
4. David Cooper, 1B, New Hampshire (AA)
5. Brad Emaus, 2B, New Hampshire (AA)
6. Justin Jackson, SS, Dunedin (A+)
7. Brad Mills, LHP, Las Vegas (AAA)
8. Kevin Ahrens, 3B, Dunedin (A+)
9. Ricky Romero, LHP, Toronto
10. Scott Campbell, 3B/2B, Las Vegas (AAA)
Other Prospects of Note: Marc Rzepczynski, Alan Farina, Robert Ray, Luis Perez, Henderson Alvarez, Tim Collins, Brian Jeroloman, John Tolisano, Eric Eiland, Tyler Pastornicky, Balbino Fuenmayor, Moises Sierra
The Other Links:
National League West
National League Central
National League East
American League West
American League Central
Marc Hulet has been writing at FanGraphs since 2008. His work focuses on prospects and fantasy. Follow him on Twitter @marchulet.
Anyone know why Lars Anderson is still in AA?
The big jump is usually considered A to AA, not AA to AAA; it shouldn’t be seen as a sign of unreadiness that he’s in AA right now. Also, while he hit for power and took a lot of walks last season, he also managed a 32% K rate in 42 games. That’s high enough to think that he needs to work on what he’s doing at the plate.
He’s got a .610 OPS at this point, so judging on that, it’s probably not a bad place for him.
Snider’s certainly living up to his billing. His .913 SLG so far is pretty nice.
Watch out for Melvin Croussett in the Yankees system.
Nik Turley is a very interesting name the Yankees plucked in the 50th round of the ’08 draft and convinced to not pursue a college career.
I don’t think you got the joke.
Why do you have Phil Coke listed, who is in the majors right now, but not Kennedy/Hughes, who are actually in the minors?
because Kennedy and Hughes are no longer prospects… too many IP’s
kennedy has 58ip, and hughes is under 100… what’s the cutoff here?
50 IP is the cutoff
130 ABs for a position player
These are the standards for eligibility for Rookie of the Year. There are also alternative cutoffs based on time on a major league roster, but most people ignore that for the purposes of prospects.
50 IP is when a pitcher loses his rookie eligibility.
Of course, nobody mentioned that to those BBWAA writers who voted Volquez for ROY.
What’s keeping Jeremy Hellickson’s ranking so low? Yeah, the walk rate went up a tiny bit and his strikeout rate went down in his first attempt at AA, but his K/BB ratio is still elite. Is there some scouting information I’m missing?
I was wondering the same thing. I love pitchers like him.
I would guess that lots of scouts aren’t sold on his stuff…
His HR/9 skyrocketed last year. Anyone know where we can get batted ball data for minor leaguers?
http://minorleaguesplits.com/ has batted ball data…
BUT you can NOT TRUST THE DATA. It is extremely unreliable and the scoring is handled very differently for each team and league. The average LD rate for the Cal league is typically in single digits IIRC. You just can’t trust them…
His stuff is kind of unimpressive. It sounds weird, too… but scouts complain he stays in the strikezone TOO much. The fear is he’s going to be very hittable at higher levels/MLB.
He’s still a very good prospect and you cant argue with his results. Personally, I like pitchers with great control who stay in the strikezone… but there is some validity to the criticisms made of him. The issue is his ceiling…
That sounds very Josh Towers-esque to me. Could be big trouble at the major-league level.
Towers could never seem to understand that he had to intentionally miss the plate every now and again, and he very quickly became extremely hittable.
Sure… Most experts agree it is a problem for Hellickson.
I dont think anyone thinks he’s going to be flop who can’t pitch at the MLB level or anything… The concern is entirely that of his ceiling. He may be one of those guys who can consistently dominate AAA hitters with great peripherals because they let him get away with his flaws, but cant make the adjustments necessary to be anything other than a back end of rotation kind of starter in MLB.
Think a better version of Ian Kennedy. Kennedy’s good but not great control and okay stuff will always destroy minor league hitters… but the control isnt quite good enough and the stuff isnt quite good enough for consistent success in MLB. So you end up with a guy who is striking out a lot of guys in the minors with great peripherals every time you send him down… but every time he comes up he gets hit around and no one can seem to figure out what happened.
As far as the O’s system goes. I think that Brandon Snyder is going to force some more people to take notice.
No joke. This kid gets no credit. He’s going to make them pay. Patton has the same thing in mind.
Well with Wieters, Reimold, Hernandez coming off the list (and Bergy in the noted section) his chances are pretty good. Not to mention Rowell is dropping. He is clearly the best hitter in the O’s minor league system now that Wieters/Reimold are up. Now if he can just prove his worth in the field…