Who is Redszone's # 41 prospect?

[texasdave]

#1 C Devin Mesoraco
#2 SS Billy Hamilton
#3 SS Zack Cozart
#4 RHP Dan Corcino
#5 RHP Robert Stephenson
#6 1B Neftali Soto
#7 OF Yorman Rodriguez
#8 UT Todd Frazier
#9 SS Didi Gregorius
#10 2B Henry Rodriguez
#11 LHP Tony Cingrani
#12 OF Juan Duran
#13 RHP Kyle Lotzkar
#14 3B Gabriel Rosa
#15 C Tucker Barnhart
#16 3B David Vidal
#17 RHP J.C. Sulbaran
#18 OF Ryan LaMarre
#19 1B Donald Lutz
#20 OF Denis Phipps
#21 RHP Tim Crabbe
#22 RHP Andrew Brackman
#23 LHP Amir Garrett
#24 UT Brodie Greene
#25 LHP Donnie Joseph
#26 1B/3B Sean Buckley
#27 3B Junior Arias
#28 RHP Josh Smith
#29 2B Ryan Wright
#30 RHP Drew Cisco
#31 OF Kyle Waldrop
#32 RHP Pedro Villarreal
#33 RHP Josh Judy
#34 RHP Nick Christiani
#35 RHP Drew Hayes
#36 IF Juan Perez
#37 LHP Chris Manno
#38 IF Chris Valaika
#39 RHP Josh Ravin
#40 RHP Dan Tuttle

[texasdave]

I thought I made it public but it appears not. Is there anyway to go back and edit that in? I guess this would be considered a 'sophomore slump' when it comes to making polls.

[mace]

I'm still a Chacin man, but it's time we were rankin' Renken, which makes me, for the next couple days, a fan of Dan.

[texasdave]

Radhames Quezada - hard to spell, easy to vote for. Pretty sure when all is said and done that Radhames is going to possess the highest Q-Factor out of all these prospects.

[OGB]

I'm still going Guillon. I'm a sucker for a high ceiling left handed arm.

[Edd Roush]

I'm still going Guillon. I'm a sucker for a high ceiling left handed arm.

I'm with you, OGB. His results have been terrible, but he has the potential and plenty of time to get there.

[camisadelgolf]

I thought I made it public but it appears not. Is there anyway to go back and edit that in? I guess this would be considered a 'sophomore slump' when it comes to making polls.

It's not as easy as it looks. I rushed home to get this one started, but you're on the ball, so thank you for that.

In no particular order, here's my voting board right now:
Sal Romano
Vaughn Covington
Ismael Guillon
Dan Renken

And everyone else is blending in right now, but I'm sure I'll have it cleared up soon enough.

[The DARK]

Romano once more. Young, promising arm with great results with a big signing bonus and appearances on prospect lists to boot.

Out of curiosity, why has there been no discussion of Kyle McMyne to this point? An 8.00 ERA is certainly ugly, but in only 27 innings in the Pioneer League, his first taste of pro ball, out of a raw power pitcher trying to develop better secondary stuff and make a full conversion to starter? It happens, and it doesn't preclude one from being a prospect... just ask Brad Boxberger. A lot of the runs also got piled up in starts where he was probably left out longer than he should have been. I say that we're more likely to be discussing his emergence as a prospect next season than Renken.

[mace]

Out of curiosity, why has there been no discussion of Kyle McMyne to this point? An 8.00 ERA is certainly ugly, but in only 27 innings in the Pioneer League, his first taste of pro ball, out of a raw power pitcher trying to develop better secondary stuff and make a full conversion to starter? It happens, and it doesn't preclude one from being a prospect... just ask Brad Boxberger.

That brings up an interesting question. Personally, I tend not to get caught up with velocity until the guy shows something else to go along with it--command, pitchability, breaking stuff, whatever. There are simply too many failures among guys who just throw hard. One of the latest examples, in the realm of Reds prospects, is Junior Martinez. Guy threw like gangbusters but never made a dent. Josh Ravin has a good curveball to go along with a good fastball, but he's still struggling along.

The question is this: What do you consider to be the most basic, important tool for a pitching prospect?

Velocity?
Control?
Movement?
Composure?
Something else?

No doubt, some combination of the above is requisite to make it big. And it goes without saying that a guy has to possess traces of more than just one asset. Composure without any stuff at all won't get you a professional contract. But is a guy like Jacob Johnson--decent stuff, great extracurriculars--a better bet than Junior Martinez? I would think so. But on the other hand, I'm sure you could identify any number of recent minor-league relievers, for instance, who succeeded initially on guile or maturity but flamed out due to lack of stuff. Does somebody like Chacin belong in that camp? Or could he take after Trevor Hoffman?

I guess this is why our polls are never unanimous.

[texasdave]

I would list them in order of importance:

Control
Velocity
Movement
Composure
Something Else - Deception

[Edd Roush]

The question is this: What do you consider to be the most basic, important tool for a pitching prospect?

Velocity?
Control?
Movement?
Composure?
Something else?

I think I would go

Velocity
Movement
Control
Composure

I list them this way because I think it is hardest to teach velocity and movement. You can tinker with mechanics and teach control and composure. If you have good stuff (velocity & movement) you are going to pitch better and therefore have a decent chance of having composure.

[mace]

I'd agree that composure is probably last on the list, as constituted, because it's an ancillary quality. But I think it makes a major difference in pitchers like Bailey, for instance, who seems to lack it (when he gets in trouble), and a guy like LeCure, who seems to have it. Masset and Leake might be a similar pairing. Maybe, instead of composure, a better catch-all category would be gamesmanship. That would include not only composure, but strategy, competitiveness, etc. And maybe deception, as well, which I think is a very good addition.

I'm still not sure how I'd rank these attributes, but I'm pretty sure that velocity would not be at the top of my list. I think I'd have it behind control and maybe movement, and possibly gamesmanship. That implies, however, that it's not totally lacking--in the Herrera class, or Arroyo last year. It assumes, say, the high eighties.

[texasdave]

NM

[texasdave]

NM

[texasdave]

NM