The Baseball America top-100 list is out! And the Giants … well, huh. This isn't good. Kyle Crick is #66 on the list, and he's also the only Giant to make the list. This is the worst showing for a top Giants prospect on the list since 1996, when Shawn Estes was the #72 prospect in baseball. And considering the Giants had two prospects on the '96 list, you could make the argument that this is the worst prospect showing since BA started doing the list in 1990.
Because we can, here's the full list of the Giants prospects to place in the top 100 of BA's annual list:
Year - No. of Giants prospects on the list - Name (overall rank)
2013 - 1 - Kyle Crick (66)
2012 - 1 - Gary Brown (38)
2011 - 2 - Brandon Belt (23); Zack Wheeler (55)
2010 - 4 - Buster Posey (7); Madison Bumgarner (14); Wheeler (49); Thomas Neal (96)
2009 - 4 - Bumgarner (9); Posey (14); Angel Villalona (44); Tim Alderson (45)
2008 - 2 - Villalona (33); Alderson (84)
2007 - 2 - Tim Lincecum (11); Jonathan Sanchez (69)
2006 - 2 - Matt Cain (10, just behind Lastings Milledge!); Marcus Sanders (65)
2005 - 3 - Cain (13); Merkin Valdez (58); Fred Lewis (78)
2004 - 2 - Valdez (40); Cain (91)
2003 - 5 - Jesse Foppert (5); Jerome Williams (50); Kurt Ainsworth (64); Todd Linden (82); Francisco Liriano (83)
2002 - 4 - Williams (19); Boof Bonser (29); Ainsworth (58); Tony Torcato (83)
2001 - 4 - Williams (19); Ainsworth (30); Torcato (60); Niekro, (85)
2000 - 1 - Ainsworth (58)
1999 - 1 - Jason Grilli (44)
1998 - 1 - Grilli (54)
1997 - 2 - Joe Fontenot (45); Dante Powell (92)
1996 - 2 - Shawn Estes (72); Fontenot (96)
1995 - 2 - J.R. Phillips (73); Powell (90)
1994 - 2 - Salomon Torres (22); Phillips (83)
1993 - 4 - Calvin Murray (33); Kevin Rogers (50); Joe Rosselli (65); Steve Hosey (83)
1992 - 4 - Royce Clayton (6); Torres (30); Hosey (61); Derek Reid (95)
1991 - 5 - Clayton (23); Steve Decker (52); Johnny Ard (77); Hosey (83); Rogers (89)
1990 - 2 - Hosey (52); Eric Gunderson (85)
The first thing you can do is print out all of the years before Matt Cain. Print them out in a real big font, so there are a lot of pages . Then roll up the pages, and keep them in your back pocket. And if people ever suggest to you that the Giants don't deserve Matt Cain or Buster Posey, take the pages out and hit them on the nose. Repeatedly. Don't draw blood, but come close. Because those names at the bottom are depressing.
While this might be the worst showing of the two dozen different top-100 lists over the years, there's a silver lining. Let's see if I can point it out without falling back on the "two titles in three years" point. And … no. No, I can't. Turns out that I just did it right there. But it's not just that the Giants won titles, it's the relative youth with which they won them. Over half the lineup last season was 25 or younger -- that's somewhat crazy. The last championship team to do that was the '71 Pirates, who broke the Giants' hearts so many years ago.
So would you feel better about the Giants if all of the under-30 players were five years younger and just starting to come into the majors? Of course not. That doesn't mean it wouldn't be cool if the Giants had nine prospects in the top 15 of the BA list, but it's a gentle reminder not to look at the Giants' poor showing and think, "Gawrsh, the future is sure bleak."
Besides, this is the year that Panik! breaks out and becomes a Human Centipede that combines Dustin Pedroia and David Eckstein, so don't worry so much.