01/05/2011 Baseball America's Top-10 Reds Prospects
 

http://www.baseballamerica.com/today...rospects/2011/
On Wednesday, Baseball America will announce their top-10 rankings of Reds prospects. Anyone want to take any guesses before the release?

Re: 01/05/2011 Baseball America's Top-10 Reds Prospects
 

Here is my stab at it. I want a prize if I'm correct:

1. Aroldis Chapman, LHP
2. Devin Mesoraco, C
3. Yonder Alonso, 1B/LF
4. Todd Frazier, LF
5. Yasmani Grandal, C
6. Yorman Rodriguez, OF
7. Billy Hamilton, SS
8. Zach Cozart, SS
9. Juan Francisco, 3B
10. Dave Sappelt, OF

Re: 01/05/2011 Baseball America's Top-10 Reds Prospects
 

Sappelt won't be in the Top 10. I know that one for a fact unless someone went over JJ Coopers head. Talked with him a few weeks ago and he said I was higher on Sappelt than he was and I ranked him 10th.

Re: 01/05/2011 Baseball America's Top-10 Reds Prospects
 

Cooper should have discussed it with you, Doug. Not many players have the kind of year that Sappelt had with his bat, not to mention his defense.

Re: 01/05/2011 Baseball America's Top-10 Reds Prospects
 

I think that Cooper doesn't think his upside is as high as I do.

Re: 01/05/2011 Baseball America's Top-10 Reds Prospects
 

Four players from last year's list are no longer eligible: Mike Leake, Chris Heisey, Travis Wood, and Matt Maloney. Despite that, this year's list looks to be much stronger.

Re: 01/05/2011 Baseball America's Top-10 Reds Prospects
 

Hamilton comes in at #2...wow.

Re: 01/05/2011 Baseball America's Top-10 Reds Prospects
 

Guess billy hamilton is no longer our little secret...

Re: 01/05/2011 Baseball America's Top-10 Reds Prospects
 

I really like me some Billy Hamilton, but I can't get behind an argument that has Billy Hamilton ahead of Devin Mesoraco.

Re: 01/05/2011 Baseball America's Top-10 Reds Prospects
 

Re: 01/05/2011 Baseball America's Top-10 Reds Prospects
 

I find it interesting all-around about Lotzkar. Interesting that he's ranked #10, given that he's only pitched 44 innings since surgery. Interesting about his curveball, which I guess I didn't realize. And interesting that he's rated as having the best control, since his minor-league numbers (48 BB in 111 IP) don't really suggest that. I hope all of this comes from a deeper familiarity of him than most of us have.

Am also surprised that Grandal was rated the best defensive catcher over the likes of Coddington and McMurray.

Re: 01/05/2011 Baseball America's Top-10 Reds Prospects
 

Wow, so Mez is nowhere on the TOOLS list.

Billy Hamilton is the type of prospect I see ranked high a lot because of blazing speed and good hitting. They are usually over-ranked because of the allure of their speed. Nonetheless, he's a deserved and tantalizing prospect.

Re: 01/05/2011 Baseball America's Top-10 Reds Prospects
 

A few quick thoughts. I guess hamilton makes their top 100 since Mes almost certainly has to. Also, BA may still be grumpy over how far they dropped Mes in last year's rankings and slow to deal w/ his improvement.

Re: 01/05/2011 Baseball America's Top-10 Reds Prospects
 

This article must've been thrown together pretty quickly, as it's pretty sloppy with typos:

Zack Cosart
Homer Bailey listed as the Reds top draft pick in 2004 and 2005
Several other grammatical errors/typos in the text

More importantly, while I like seeing Hamilton succeed (and like him as a player), I worry that speedy middle-of-the-diamond players are constantly overvalued as prospects. See Felix Pie, Fernando Martinez, Carlos Gomez, Chin-lung Hu, Carlos Trunifiel, Luis Montanez, and many, many others.

I echo others on Mesoraco not getting much love from BA, possibly due to their slamming of him in the past.

One thing to note again, is how weak the pitching is across the minor leagues. Obviously a big part of that is that all the young pitchers are now with the big club, but I'd like to see the Reds replenish the system with pitching (and a power hitting 3B or COF) in this year's draft.

Re: 01/05/2011 Baseball America's Top-10 Reds Prospects
 

Reds have a very nice mix of high ceiling guys (Yorman, Hamilton, Mesoraco, Chapman, Francisco) and solid prospects (Yonder, Frazier, Cozart, Grandal) in that top 10. I think the system is in very good shape right now.