John Sickels has his list of top twenty Giants prospects over at his site. Go. Quickly. Ain't no half-steppin'.
Some thoughts:
- His notes on Brad Hennessey and Fred Lewis definitely strike a chord with me. I want to see some strikeouts from Hennessey, and a full season of .390 OBP from Lewis in AAA before getting too enthralled.
- There's Marcus Sanders again, getting some love for a rookie leaguer. As the better hitting prospects start to ascend to the majors, and by physical law start to decline before they can help the Giants, it helps to have a fresh crop of youngsters to project dreams upon. Baseball America thinks Sanders will be moved to shortstop eventually, as he has the athletic abilities to do so. Sweet.
- Cain getting an "A-" isn't so surprising, as Sickels is generally stingy with the solid "A"s. In 2001, for example, only five pitchers received a full "A": Ryan Anderson, Ben Sheets, Josh Beckett, Jon Rauch, and Roy Oswalt. Three of those pitchers are huge contributors to their team, and the other two looked just as good to do the same before injuries.
The "A-" pitchers included C.C. Sabathia, Bobby Bradley, and Chin-Hui Tsao. One huge (ha ha) contributor, one who still could be, and a busted arm. That's about what you can expect from young pitchers, unfortunately. I'm assuming the "minus" stems more from Cain's tender age than anything else.