FanPost

2011 Minor League Prospect Placement

I will only attempt to predict the regulars at each full season affiliate, so here goes nothing:

Augusta Low A:

C- Dan Burkhart

1B- Sundrendy Windster

2B- Carlos Willoughby

3B- Kyle Mach ?? no real clue

SS- Ydwin Villegas

LF- Chuckie Jones

CF- Jarrett Parker

RF- Raphael Rodriguez

DH- Julio Izturis

Synopsis:

This lineup is the hardest for me to fill out because I don’t know who will play 3B or if they are still toying with putting Windster at 1B. This outfield would be really exciting to follow with Parker, RaphRod and Chuckie out there everyday. On the Infield, Carlos Willoughby really excites me as a 2B prospect with his blend of speed and OBP. Like Willoughsby, I am also intrigued by Julio Izturis with his high OBP and hope that they give him another look at shortstop. At the catcher position I expect Dan Burkhart to get most of the starts, but also like how Mike Murray from Wake Forest fared in his first year in the minors. This team has lots of high ceiling prospects and that outfield just oozes with potential.

San Jose A+:

C- Tommy Joseph

1B- Luke Anders

2B- Ryan Cavan

3B- Chris Dominguez

SS- Carter Juirca

LF- Nick Liles

CF- Gary Brown

RF- Ryan Lollis

DH- Hector Sanchez

Synopsis:

San Jose should be a good team next year with two top flight catchers in Joseph and Sanchez, however I expect this is the year where Light Tower Power will finally move over to 1B and get settled. Up the middle I think the double play combo of Cavan and Jurica will provide good pop and great defense. I had a hard time choosing between San Jose and Richmond for where Dominguez should start the year. I expect a monster year out of Dominguez if he is at San Jose, but think he would be better served getting challenged by facing better pitching in AA. This will be a slaphappy hitting outfield and will rarely strike out, but Brown should have a good year and steal a ton of bases. This team has a lot more polished players than in Augusta, but should be exciting.

Richmond AA:

C- Johnny Monell

1B- Josh Mazzola ?? no real clue if he's healthy now

2B- Charlie Culberson

3B- Jose Flores

SS- Ehire Adrianza

LF- Wendell Fairley

CF- Juan Perez

RF- Francisco Peguero

DH- Nick Noonan

Synopsis:

Richmond is where prospects sink or swim. I feel that Sabean won’t let just any hitter skip AA (unless you are Posey) and that is why both Culberson and Noonan will be here to prove their worth. At catcher, Monell has become one of the more consistent players in the system at putting up impressive power numbers no matter where he goes. The infield will anchored by Culberson after his nice AFL season and no one picks it like Ehire so seeing if he can maintain a respectable BA will be key for him. 3B is a big question mark now that Drew Biery has made the switch to catcher, but Flores has played there in the past and is coming off a great season in San Jose so I would give the first crack at it or maybe even Noonan or Culberson could slide over there. Who plays 1B Mazzola was pretty good a year ago, but I think he got hurt. The outfield has lots of potential with Peguero but it will be interesting to see if his swing happy approach will succeed at the AA level. Wendell and Perez will both be here trying to see if last year was a fluke or if it something they can build from. Like every year, Richmond will be where prospects learn how their career should play out.

Fresno AAA:

C- Jackson Williams

1B- Brandon Belt

2B- Emmanuel Burriss

3B- Connor Gillaspie

SS- Brandon Crawford

LF- Thomas Neal

CF- Darren Ford

RF- Roger Kieschnick

DH- Brett Pill

Synopsis:

This was the easiest lineup to fill out because the players that deserved a promotion got one and the fringe Giants filled out the rest of the spots. I like Belt and fully expect his ascent to the majors to be delayed until May or June just like Posey’s was to save his prospect clock. Burriss will be the starting 2B and will be the first to get called up when Freddy Sanchez tweaks something. Williams has been a very underwhelming, yet a consistent catcher since being taken in the supplemental round and really has backup catcher written all over him. Gillaspie and Crawford round out the infield and finally get a taste of AAA after surviving AA. I expect big things out of both of these guys. The outfield is pretty set with Neal and Ford, but Kieschnick could be here or in AA depending on how his spring goes. This is the first Fresno team that I can say that I am excited to check the entire box score for in quite a while and expect ounce back years from most of these players.

I tried to place the pitchers for each level but that got really tricky really fast so maybe someone else could do one of those lists.

Thanks for reading and please feel free to reply if you think something is missing or if you can help me better fill out these lineups.



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