Just about everything is up. The top 100 ranking starts here with 1-25. I also ranked the top ten by position, the top 5-10 by organization (top 10 prospects for the top 10 orgs, top 5 for everyone else), and quick notes on ten who just missed the list.
I’ll be chatting in English at 1 pm EST and in Spanish at 4 pm EST. You can also chat with Matt Wieters at 4 pm EST.
Spectacular work, Mr. Law. In my opinion, this is the best prospect-related content online.
Jeez Keith. Top 100, Top 5/10 in each organization, top 10 by position, ranked each organization. I guess you were quite busy this winter huh?
I echo Rhino’s comment, great job.
Keith – There’s a typo on your rankings by position; Brian Matusz is listed as being on San Diego. Great work on the top 100, as usual.
Great chat as always.
I had a question that didn’t get picked up, so I’ll ask it here and apologize for the party foul. Based on how you’ve talked about Nolan Reimold in the past, I was surprised not to see him listed in the Top 100. Is it his age? Skills erosion? I know Baltimore doesn’t seem to believe in him, but I’m curious to see why you don’t.
MikeB: I hate to hold it against Reimold, since they didn’t promote him, but he didn’t show much progress this year in AA other than staying healthy. I still think he’s an everyday corner outfielder, but I wasn’t going to put him on the list just because he was on last year’s. There were too many better guys.
Keith – thought I’d pass a long a ludicrous tidbit from the LoHud Yankees blog:
“keith laws list is rubbish…Tabata ranked higher than Montero? what a joke. Montero has a special bat and looks like Albert Pujols at the plate.”
My question is, how do you do deal with reactions like this without your head exploding?
Keith, fantastic list. Given your comments and retained optimism on Rasmus, I was surprised to see Snider ahead of him. They seem pretty similar offensively and Rasmus obviously has the glove, speed, and positional advantage. Is Snider’s bat just that much better?
Keith, like everyone else, I’m very impressed with the depth and range of your top 100 prospects.
I do have a question, though, and I missed the chat. You said about Wieters that he glides from both sides of the plate. Forgive my ignorance, but what exactly does that mean?
Where’s the snark on the Spanish chat, Keith?
I am not good enough to snark in Spanish đŸ™‚
Keith, is there a damn prospect that you don’t know everything about?
Jimmy (Chicago): Does Even Longoria come back to earth this year, or is he really that good?
Keith Law: He’s Even better
Genius, pure and simple. This is why I can’t miss a chat (transcript.)
Speaking on behalf of many White Sox fans, I could ask you a lot of questions, but it’s simply not worth it for a prospect list–something that’s usually pretty useless anyway.
However, I do wonder why you ranked Junichi Tazawa and left off Dayan Viciedo. Tazawa didn’t even pitch in Japan. I’ve read that Tazawa’s upside is basically just middle-of-the-rotation. That doesn’t seem 100-prospect worthy.
Keith,
I noticed you ranked Lonnie Chisenhall ahead of Beau Mills. I’m aware that you don’t rate Mills as high as some other people in terms of Indians prospect pecking order. That being said, do you rate Chisenhall higher because of his position, or does his bat play a role as well. What kind of ceiling does he have? Thanks and love the chats and all this week’s prospect info.
My Spanish is mas o menos so I got a little help from dictionary.com’s dubious translate feature; this was my favorite from KLaw’s chat de espanol:
SportsNation Keith Law:…Later of an exchange, Damon plays the left forest, Goatherd in central forest, and Nady or Swisher in the right. I do not believe that Gardner can bat as player of every day – she can run well but he is a gardener fourth.
That is hilarious translation. I haven’t taken a spanish class since the eighth grade (14 years ago) but I made it through the whole chat pretty well understanding everything through Latin, French, and context. It did take me a while to figure out some of the terms, but I got them down. The gardner/fielder one is great. I also like the phonetically recognizable terms like for home run.
Pretty awesome Spanish-language chat KLaw, but you didn’t convert your mph’s to km/h. I guess you aren’t perfect after all.
I also find it interesting how “outfield” translates to “jardin”(garden in most cases) and how “Jeff Francouer” translates into “suck” in any language (ok, might have been a little harsh there).
Great idea, I’ll pass this along to my old high school Spanish teacher to use as homework. Just wondering Keith, what was the difference in # of posts submitted, and # of posts that made you want to bang your head into a wall.
Keith, great opening for the chat! Hilarious. I’ve realized after listening to her interviews and briefings that I’ve never heard a valley girl use “you know” as much, you know?!
Hi Keith,
This is a side question, and I couldn’t find an email to send it. It is a bit related to the top 100 though.
You mentioned the O’s could hold back a year to keep his arbitration clock back a year. I was curious if you thought this was a smart idea given the current free agent market. Ryan Howard is looking at $16-18 million in arbitration while most free agents are coming no where close to what they would probably get in arb.
So my question is is it wiser to have an extra year of control when the cost of that year would be more than signing the same player as a free agent? I know its impossible to forecast 5 years from now, but I thought it was an interesting question.
Grant – I only had about 40 unique questions total in the Spanish chat and about 60 if we count questions posted repeatedly. I think I was over 2500 (including double-counting) in the English one.
I can’t read Spanish, but I like seeing little phrases like “salon de la fama”. I don’t know why that entertains me.
I have enjoyed reading all of your articles, but they are the best. My hobby is writing and at least I know how painful the process of writing is. I can only imagine how much time you put into this task.