The latest thoughts on the best prospects in baseball

Jason Heyward / OF / Atlanta
To start the year, Heyward has done everything one could expect of him and nothing to deter me from his lofty future stat projections. A superstar is born.

Stephen Strasburg / SP / Washington
Strasburg has been fantastic in his first four Eastern League starts. His command has been especially impressive considering the level of competition and his lack of professional experience.

Jesus Montero / C/1B / NY Yankees
The best news regarding Montero’s start is that the Yankees continue to stay dedicated to keeping him behind the plate.

Desmond Jennings / OF / Tampa Bay
A sprained wrist in spring training will keep Jennings out until at least May. Wrist sprains are notorious for lingering longer than they should and wreaking havoc on a hitter’s swing. We will see soon how Jennings reacts.

Madison Bumgarner / SP / San Francisco
Bumgarner’s last two starts have demonstrated improvement, and the dip in velocity that had many worried appears to be a thing of the past. The lack of strikeouts is what’s worrisome at this point. I blame it on his secondary offerings. They need to develop if he is going to eventually be an ace.

Carlos Santana / C / Cleveland
Santana is off to a great start at Triple-A Columbus, while Lou Marson is struggling in Cleveland. It won’t be long now.

Justin Smoak / 1B / Texas
After a strong minor league start, Smoak was promoted to Texas but has had a shaky six-game debut. It will be interesting to see how much patience Texas demonstrates if his struggles become chronic.

Buster Posey / C / San Francisco
Posey is off to a torrid start at Triple-A Fresno, including his trademark 1:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio. However, it’s going to take an injury to get him to San Francisco.

Neftali Feliz / SP/RP / Texas
Feliz has had an up-and-down start as Texas’ closer, but he’s proved himself enough to remain in high-pressure situations for the rest of the year, even if he eventually settles in as the setup man.

Martin Perez / SP / Texas
Perez has been impressive in the early going adjusting to the Texas League. Just 19 years old, his stock continues to rise.

Christian Friedrich / SP / Colorado
After a promising first three starts at Double-A Tulsa, Friedrich has landed on the disabled list with a tender elbow. It’s expected to be a brief stint, but it’s also prudent to always play it safe when dealing with a pitching arm injury.

Mike Stanton / OF / Florida
Wow! I’m finally fully buying into Stanton. I don’t have a choice. The strikeout rate is still high, but a .338 batting average, nine home runs and 20 walks in 71 at-bats from a 20-year-old in Double-A is fantastic.

Michael Saunders / OF / Seattle
It’s a small sampling, but Saunders has been disappointing in Triple-A Tacoma. I made up my mind to be aggressive with his preseason top-100 ranking, but I’m having second thoughts. His stock is falling.


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Mike
13 years ago

“A sprained wrist in spring training will keep Jennings out until at least May.”

Jennings returning in the middle of April puts a bit of a damper on this claim.

Mark Geoffriau
13 years ago

Surprised to see Smoak’s debut described as “shaky”. Small sample size, anyone? Yes, he’s got 1 hit in 15 AB’s, for a .067 average. But he’s also walked 7 times in those 6 games (nearly a third of his PA’s), giving him an .348 average. If he can maintain a walk rate even close to that while hitting .240-.250 (or better), he’ll be very valuable.

Who’s the last player to exhibit such a selective majoeye in his first week’s worth of games in the majors?

Mark Geoffriau
13 years ago

Typo—the last sentence should read:

Who’s the last player to exhibit such a selective eye in his first week’s worth of games in the majors?

The A Team
13 years ago

^It’s worth noting that he’s been used sparingly and relegated to pinch running duties at least once.

The A Team
13 years ago

My comment was meant for Mike…

JD
13 years ago

Is this the same blog/source that projected the median line for Heyward to be 300/400/500 essentially?  if so… pff

Mark Geoffriau
13 years ago

JD, I believe those “median” projections are for the player’s career, not this year.

JD
13 years ago

Mark, that would make a LOT more sense, thanks.

Mark Geoffriau
13 years ago

A little bit more on my newest mancrush, Justin Smoak.

Among players with 20+ plate appearances, Smoak is 1st in the majors in walk rate, and has the 2nd worst BABIP. I can’t link directly to those stats, but if you go to this fan graphs page, you can sort by BB% and also by BABIP.

http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=20&type=1&season=2010&month=0

Matt Hagen
13 years ago

Thanks Mike and A Team for correcting that.  I don’t know what I was thinking posting that.  I forgot that he returned for a few games recently from his wrist injury. But he has since gotten injured again.  It’s a dinged up shoulder this time.  And we all thought the injury history was behind him…

James Mason
13 years ago

No Tanner Scheppers/Alexi Ogando?

Chris
13 years ago

Perhaps I’m just being nit-picky about the language that you used, but it seems like you’re favoring Posey over Santana by saying “Santana is off to a great start at Triple-A Columbus” vs “Posey is off to a torrid start at Triple-A Fresno, including his trademark 1:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio. However, it’s going to take an injury to get him to San Francisco.”

Possible man-crushes aside, it really seems like you’re selling Santana short. After all, every one knows that the PCL is a hitters heaven, but Santana still has out hit Posey by a wide margin. 4 more HR’s 9 more RBI, .126 more OPS, 16:9 BB:K, two more SB’s and he’s been sidelined recently after fouling a pitch off his knee.

Santana will be nothing short of a beast when he hits his prime years at the MLB level.