Fangraphs Top 50 Midseason Prospects - Billy Hamilton #37

[dougdirt]

Billy Hamilton is the only Reds prospect on the list and he comes in at #37. You can see the entire list here: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index...-50-prospects/

[Scrap Irony]

Hulet's list looks a lot like his end-of-season list. Shelby Miller's been bad all year with a case of Steve Blass disease, yet he's #20? Jameson Tallion has had a poor year in High A, yet he's in the top ten? Julio Teheran hasn't pitched well and has been homer prone (plus he can't K anyone). Jacob Turner's also not King anyone, a major red flag as to future major league success.

I'd rank all of those pitchers well below where they are.

As to Hamilton, he's a little low, IMO. (He's around 25th on my list), but, really, there's not that much difference here.

[Benihana]

I think Hamilton belongs somewhere in the 25-35 range, so I'm fine with this ranking for him.

Interesting that Corcino and Cingrani didn't seem to make any of the "experts" top 50. Not saying I strongly disagree, but I'd have to think that both of them belong if pitch as well in the 2nd half as they did in the 1st half of the season. Hard to imagine them being that far behind a guy like Tyler Thornburg. If Stephenson goes to Dayton and continues to impress, he could be in consideration as well.

Speaking of Stephenson (and Cingrani), it's crazy to think that there are 5 pitchers from last year's first round ranked in the top 15 prospects in all of baseball, and that doesn't even include Trevor Bauer who is already in the big leagues. The 2011 draft really might turn out to be the best pitching draft ever.

[The DARK]

Corcino definitely seems like at least a fringe top-50 guy. With his ERA down to 3.05 despite having skipped a level and all the correct pitches in place, I could see him making the list by season's end.

[Scrap Irony]

If Cingrani's Strat-numbers continue until the end of the year, he should at least get some major consideration. I'd think a stats-heavy site like Fangraphs would be intrigued by Cingrani.

[powersackers]

I would be doing a major re-order on his list. Here's just a few IFs I'd take Billy Hamilton over in a heartbeat, assume most GMs would too:

Machado (maybe)
Castelanos
Arenado
Lindor
Lee
Baez (maybe)

Mike Olt at 31, too low.

[dougdirt]

Originally Posted by Scrap Irony

If Cingrani's Strat-numbers continue until the end of the year, he should at least get some major consideration. I'd think a stats-heavy site like Fangraphs would be intrigued by Cingrani.

Simply because Fangraphs is based around numbers doesn't mean all of their writers are. I don't know exactly which way Hulet (this particular writer) leans, but they also have Mike Newman and Kiley McDaniel who are heavy scouting based prospect evaluators.

[Scrap Irony]

Originally Posted by dougdirt

Simply because Fangraphs is based around numbers doesn't mean all of their writers are. I don't know exactly which way Hulet (this particular writer) leans, but they also have Mike Newman and Kiley McDaniel who are heavy scouting based prospect evaluators.

I get that. However, the site itself purports itself as a saber-heavy approach. You would think therefore that the site would have some sort of statistical analysis instead of being scout-only. (Or at least scout dominant.)

Any list is virtually impossible, but this one reeks of a lack of thought. No mention of why he made the decisions he made. Simply a list of prospects. You could do the same picking names out of a hat.

[dougdirt]

Baseball Prospectus is about as numbers heavy as it gets. They have to guys who do their prospect related stuff. Goldstein, who talks to scouts to form him opinions, and Jason Parks, an actual scout.

Fangraphs is pretty similar in that sense.

The most 'numbers friendly' prospect guy out there is Sickels.