A few minutes ago, dougdirt made a post that had me agreeing 100%.
That couldn't be more true. In years past, we'd expect to see about five or six catchers in Baseball America's top 100 prospects, but we've seen 12 in both last year's and this year's rankings.
2010
4. Jesus Montero*
7. Buster Posey*
10. Carlos Santana*
38. Derek Norris
41. Jason Castro*
58. Wilson Ramos
60. Tyler Flowers
79. Tony Sanchez
81. Travis D'Arnaud
83. Adam Moore
84. Hank Conger
86. Austin Romine
2009
1. Matt Wieters*
14. Buster Posey*
26. Carlos Santana*
38. Jesus Montero
43. J.P. Arencibia
53. Jason Castro*
66. Lou Marson
71. Wilson Ramos
73. Taylor Teagarden*
84. Max Ramirez*
85. Kyle Shipworth
99. Tyler Flowers
* - likely will not qualify as a rookie next season
Anyway, what do you think of that? Is there a reason behind so many catching prospects? Do catchers suddenly have more value? Who are some catching prosepcts to look out for? How would you rank the current batch of prospects?
And since this is a Reds board, I'll go ahead and rank the Reds catching prospects:
Devin Mesoraco - possibly one of baseball's top prospects
Yasmani Grandal - difficult to make judgments until he faces professional pitching
Mark Fleury - intriguing prospect; good at a lot but lacks numbers to prove it
Nefi Soto - has a long ways to go before being taken seriously as a catcher; great potential
Kevin Coddington - lots of contact; solid receiver; needs to develop power
David Vidal - can hit fairly well and will likely be moved to catcher in the off-season
Wilkin Castillo - versatile, good athlete; makes lots of contact but lots of outs
Chris Denove - may leave as a six-year free agent; has had a Hanigan-esque path
Trey Manz - can hit the ball, but I doubt he'll stick at catcher
Brandon Yarbrough - decent offensive numbers, but no skill stands out
Tucker Barnhart - good plate discipline but will never develop power
Chris McMurray - great defense; no stick
Jordan Wideman - good defender but hasn't developed enough as a hitter
Chris Berset - Great Britain's starting catcher in the 2009 WBC; somewhat lacking in skills
Chase Weems - what were the Yankees thinking?
Yovan Gonzalez - every organization needs catchers that speak Spanish
Danny Vicioso - see: Yovan Gonzalez
William Harford - organizational filler