The Giants are next on the Baseball Prospectus schedule of top-ten prospect writeups, which should be interesting. Kevin Goldstein is about the best thing to happen to Baseball Prospectus since, well, ever. He has a nice mix of statistical and scouting reporting, and that's much, much better than the numbers orthodoxy of past prospect lists from BP. This isn't a paid promotion, though I have worked it out to where if you sign up for a year at Baseball Prospectus, you receive a free subscription to McCovey Chronicles. That kind of value can't even be expressed in mathematical terms.
I put off doing a top-ten list last year because I don't know what I'm talking about. After getting excited about prospects like Julian Benevidez and ignoring players like Kevin Correia and Noah Lowry until they were halfway through a successful campaign in the majors, it's clear that my prognostications are even worse than what should be expected. I wanted to e-mail scouting directors and minor league front office folks and try to get some support for my opinions on a few players. But that involved effort. So here we are.
It's still a goal of mine, but the first step would be to collect some top-ten lists from the prospect mavens right now for a community opinion. My off-the-cuff top ten:
- Tim Lincecum
- Jonathan Sanchez
- Angel Villalona
- Marcus Sanders
- Eddy Martinez-Esteve
- Nate Schierholtz
- Kevin Frandsen
- Fred Lewis
- Brian Wilson
- Billy Sadler
I'm not wild about ranking Villalona so high before he plays a professional inning, but the competition is still there. Sanders stays even after the injury, and he'd rank that high on my list even if he were a centerfielder instead of a shortstop. My first prospect list without Travis Ishikawa makes me a sad panda.
Again, I'm an idiot when it comes to prospects. I have the same sources as everyone else - Baseball America, Kevin Goldstein, John Sickels, the great posters here, and a rudimentary understanding of stats - so there isn't any great insight to be found from my list. Just throwing it out there to get some contrary opinions....