Odds and Ends: Prospects, Alfonzo, Zimmerman

Hey Tom what are the Cub's rated at?

Just wait braves fans, come 2011, we could have one of the games best pitchers in Tommy Hanson and hitters in Jason Heyward.

Combine those 2 guys with our young stars already in the majors like Mccann, Escobar and Johnson, along with our top prospects like Freedie Freemans (1B), Shafer (CF), and pitchers Cole Rohbrough, Jeff Locke and Jurrjens and we could be looking at a hell of a run.

GO BRAVES.

WELCOME TO THE TEAM D.J. !!!!!!

I'd have to disagree, Tough. If I were to choose between Youkilis or Zimmerman to start a team, it would have to be Zimmerman. He's got gold glove defense at 3rd, not to mention he's considered as a franchise player. Zimmerman is 5 years younger than Youkilis.
Zimmerman's strikeout rate is .67 Ks a game, while Youkilis is .745.
Their career batting averages are similar: Zimmerman's is .282 while Youkilis' is .289.
SLG% is also closely similar: Zimmerman's at .462, Youkilis' at .472.

Zimmerman's still improving, and when he reaches his potential, he'll definitely be a much better player than Youkilis.

So you've greatly exaggerated Youkilis' value over Zimmermans.

Wouldn't be too much to ask for someone to list the full organizational prospect rankings, would it?

Sweet Pat Burrell is his 11th best prospect, ESPN failures.

AROD,

ya you need to go to the archive and then re-route yourself through there to see the list. I only got to 51-75 before i threw my computer out the window.

PhilsWS could you paraphrase Law's Phils org writeup here?

Where'd we rank out in terms of top 100 guys as well?

Thanks

Bah, they took down the top 100, saying check back Thursday.

Fernando martinez is ranked 10 out of 100 pretty exiting for the mets.

actually Fernando is ranked 16th but that's only because KLAW has always had a thing for him. Two years in AA speaks for itself. He also references that he may still stay at AA.

He's 20 years old dude. The fact that he's in AA at that age is impressive.

Zimmerman/Youk is actually a decent comparable. Read the article, Tough.

BleedinBlue

Youk has gold glove defense at 3rd and 1st. So I believe the defense is a moot point.

However, over the last 2 seasons Youkilis has been the better player. Opposite of Zimmerman, as Youkilis's average raised so did his HR numbers. Youkilis has had 60 points higher OBP the last 2 years. I feel as if Youkilis is improving and a better rate than Zimmerman.

The age difference is definitely a plus for Zimmerman, but Youk would be the guy I chose first.

he has been injuried for some part to two years ago and this year theyve said he will start in AAA and maybe make a debut.

Wern't the nationals in the top ten last year what happend?

On behalf of all Angel fans I would like to thank Reagins for apparently passing on Pat Burrell, Adam Dunn, and now Ben Sheets.

I'm sure that GMJ with his 3/33 remaining contract will contribute so much more than Adam Dunn. And while Dustin Mosely and Nick Adenhart (at this time) are decent fillers for the #5 role, it pisses me off that we might be passing on Ben Sheets when his price tag might be as low as $9m.

The Cubs are 27th.

Yeah, so could someone be a dear and post the Organizational Rankings?

Yeah Keith Law is pretty far down the list of guys I care about hearing from when it comes to farm systems. I'll stick with BA/BP/Sickels.

"I'd have to disagree, Tough. If I were to choose between Youkilis or Zimmerman to start a team, it would have to be Zimmerman. He's got gold glove defense at 3rd, not to mention he's considered as a franchise player. Zimmerman is 5 years younger than Youkilis.
Zimmerman's strikeout rate is .67 Ks a game, while Youkilis is .745.
Their career batting averages are similar: Zimmerman's is .282 while Youkilis' is .289.
SLG% is also closely similar: Zimmerman's at .462, Youkilis' at .472.

Zimmerman's still improving, and when he reaches his potential, he'll definitely be a much better player than Youkilis.

So you've greatly exaggerated Youkilis' value over Zimmermans."

That may all be true. But he never said anything about starting a team. He said Youk is better then Zimmerman. And right now, today, Youk is much, much better then Zimmerman.

How the heck is the Nats farm system rated near bottom?? They were 9th last year!

And I agree with xjoe, Zim's still maturing, when he reaches his max potential at the plate, he'll be close, if not better.

The Angels have suddenly turned cheap this off-season. Do they really think Moseley is a decent starter? Do they really think they don't need a DH who can hit?

I'm lovin Vitters that high...maybe Towers will read this...Hahaha.

The Zimmerman/Youk comparison is as of their careers before they hit arbitration for the first time. The point of the comparision is to project that Zimmerman may develop into a Youk-type hitter.

I can't stand Keith Law.

as far as I recall, he's said exactly 1 thing regarding the Nats that could have ever been possibly mistaken for maybe being kinda sorta complimentary since they came to DC.

leave it up to him to sensationalize anything even remotely negative about the Nationals.

we do NOT have a bottom-3 farm system. I don't care what Keith Law says.

a fair assessment of our farm system would put it pretty much middle-of-the-pack at this point due to regressions and injuries, but definitely not "worst-in-baseball".

Law most likely ranked the Nats farm system based solely on the fact that they didn't sign Aaron Crow.

To continue that though, I almost think that the fact that he has been sort of an after thought is a good thing. Forever, we have heard about how he is the next big prospect, or the teenage hitting machine, or whatever. The best thing is for this kid to just take his time, play baseball, and mature without hearing his own hype machine every week. Let him grow and when he is ready, he is ready. No need to rush him.

BTW, I meant no disrespect at all to Youkilis, but my point was just that Zimmerman has a few years before he hits his prime and he doesn't have the same hitters ... Also Fenway is more of a hitters park and RFK stadium is a pitchers park

I mean Nationals stadium, not RFK

"Law most likely ranked the Nats farm system based solely on the fact that they didn't sign Aaron Crow."

That is a lame excuse for having a poor system, by that I mean not signing 1 1st round draft pick and besides that, drafting out of slot/supposedly non signable players and offering them high bonuses to sign, with the drafting system the way it is it is perfectly ;egal to do it and if a team has a GOOD scouting system in place they should be able to do this and a poor showing in a Minor league ranking generally shows that a team just has a poor scouting system. Crow wanted far too much granted, but putting to much emphasis on him and not over paying and drafting a few more HS players whom had committed to college already and trying to sign those in the rounds 10-30 was a mistake that most teams make also.

Got to wonder what Law is smoking.

The Giants 9th? I can't find more than one top 100 prospect in their farm system (Posey) and they are totally devoid of depth.

Mets 17th? Who exactly are the prospects there? One top line guy in Martinez and a bunch of nobodies.

Padres 19th? They have several top 100 BA prospects in Antonelli, Blanks and Kulbacki and others that are high ceiling players like pitchers Latos and Bush.

I guess we will just have to wait until Baseball America comes out with its rankings to see intelligent talk about prospects.

gotta agree with Bleedinblue,

I'm honestly surprised the Giants weren't higher than 9th. They've got some very good prospects, especially high end pitching.

And the Mets were that high based mostly on international prospects (Martinez, Flores) and an expectation that Holt will develop (not sure about him at all either positive or negative.

And as for the Nats he did specifically mention Detwiler as having stepped way back.

Not that I am being a Nats homer, but how are they bottom 3? Their high-A team won the league title last year, and the others didn't do so bad. I wouldn't begin to argue they have the best farm system, but hardly one of the three worst.