If you don’t subscribe to Baseball America, you should. But I’ll tease you with this: Adrianza has good bat speed and a smooth stroke, plus he plays terrific defense; Casilla throws 90-95 with late sink; Nicholson is old but performed well; Fairley is still raw but with good bat speed and patience.

Thanks for the blurb, Dan. My BA subscription just recently expired and I haven’t renewed yet. I’ll probably wait until the top-10 prospect ranking stuff.

 Q: John from Sacramneto asks:
How good is Andrianz from the Giants? When do you see him making it to the majors and why was he in triple A for a couple of games then sent back down AFL?

 A:
Bill Mitchell: I’ve been waiting for my first Adrianza question! I really like this kid. He completely won me over during the AZL championship game when he made one great play after another. Even mistakes from him turn into outs because of his quick reactions. Just between us, I briefly considered rolling the dice on Adrianza and making him the #1 prospect in the league - that’s how high I am on him. Let’s see how his body matures over the next couple years before projecting his arrival date in the big leagues. The reason he played in AAA was because the Fresno team was short an infielder (I think it was when Ivan Ochoa got called up); since they were already in Arizona, they brought in Adrianza to fill the void until a more experienced infielder could get there.

Q: phil from scottsdale stadium asks:
Hey Bill! Thanks for the time. How far off was Jorge Bucardo from making the top 20? In the three outings I saw him in he didn’t light up the radar gun but his fastball had good running action, broke a few bats, and his slider seemed to get a lot of hitters off balance or chasing out of the strike zone. I was pretty impressed considering he’s only 18-years-old and weighs about 150 lbs.

A: Bill Mitchell: You’re right in saying that Bucardo’s best pitch is his slider. I saw him on some good days, too. He’s not as highly regarded as his brother, Wilber, who made this last season. But he ranks as no higher than the sixth best pitcher on the Giants staff. Nicholson and Casilla both made the top 20 list, Aaron King was not far off the list, and a couple of sleepers from that staff are Kelvin Marte and Javier Hernandez.

Q: Eric from Los Angeles asks:
Hi, Bill. I follow the Giants minor leagues pretty closely, but don’t recall hearing much about Ehire Adrianza. What can you tell me about him? About where do you think he would rank among the Giants’ prospects, overall?

A: Bill Mitchell: I’ll take another question on Adrianza, because this chat might be his coming out party among Giants fans. I haven’t done enough research to see how many better prospects there are in the Giants organization, but he certainly should be considered in the mix.

Q: phil from scottsdale stadium asks:
What’s your take on 22-year-old Josh Mazzola? With the Giants lack of depth at third would you consider him a prospect?

A: Bill Mitchell: Mazzola is an interesting one. He did very well, both at bat and in the field. My understanding is that he went undrafted because of questions about his bat, but he hit well in the AZL. Keep in mind however that he’s a college guy facing lots of raw, teenaged pitchers. You can count on one hand the number of nondrafted college players that have made the big leagues, and still have most of your fingers left. But it would be a great story. I’d like to have the movie rights to that story.

Q: JAYPERS from IL asks:
Adrianza = second coming of Buriss?

A: Bill Mitchell: I think Adrianza will be better, but let’s address it again in about three years.

Q: Mark from San Francisco asks:
What is your opinion of Wendell Fairley? Looks like he started to figure it out a bit late in the season. Do you see him in Salem next year or Augusta?

A: Bill Mitchell: I used the word enigma in describing Wendell Fairley. But he started to grow on me towards the end of the year when, as you stated, he made some nice adjustments at the plate. If he continues improving in Instructs and next spring, I could see him moving up to Augusta, especially since he’ll be 21 next year. If you’re wondering what the future holds for Fairley, a comp that I’ll credit to Jason Grey of ESPN is Freddie Lewis - a talented athlete who developed later in his 20s.

Q: JAYPERS from IL asks:
I see that Buster Posey is rising through the ranks quickly. Do you see him taking a similiar path to the Majors as Lincecum did? Could he reach SF next year?

A: Bill Mitchell: The Giants modus operandi has been to move their players aggressively (see Bocock, Gillaspie, etc.). I suspect they will do the same with Posey. It wouldn’t surprise me to see him in SF by the end of next season.

Q: Dan McKay from Albuquerque, N.M. asks:
Setting aside his statistics, how did Buster Posey look during his time in the AZL? Did the long layoff diminish his skills?

A: Bill Mitchell: Posey looked like a man amongst boys. If his skills were diminished at all, it certainly wasn’t noticeable.

DId anybody hear something?