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Second Opinion: A’s Top 15 Prospects

Last week, we took a look at how John Sickels of Minor League Ball ranked the A’s top prospects. In the ever-growing forms of media, talent evaluators are able to spread their scouting expertise and associated opionions with ease. It seems there are now more prospect “experts” than ever before.

Over at Scout.com, I found another expert who ranked the A’s top 15 prospects, but in a much different way than Sickels. Deric McKamey, of BaseballHQ.com, rates prospects according to their potential (or ceiling) and the probability at which that player will eventually reach that level.

He gives each player a 1-10 rating (minor league roster filler to hall of fame-caliber) and a A-E rating (90% chance to reach potential-10%). Here is McKamey’s top 15 in the A’s system (which is he says is now among the five best farms in MLB)…

1. Carlos Gonzalez (OF)- 9C
2. Daric Barton (1B)- 8A
3. Gio Gonzalez (LHP)- 8B
4. Fautino De Los Santos (RHP)- 9C
5. Brett Anderson (LHP)- 8C
6. Trevor Cahill (RHP)- 8C
7. James Simmons (RHP)- 8C
8. Ryan Sweeney (OF)- 8C
9. Aaron Cunningham (OF)- 8C
10. Andrew Bailey (RHP)- 8C
11. Corey Brown (OF)- 9D
12. Sean Doolittle (1B)- 8C
13. Henry Rodriguez (RHP)- 9E
14. Chris Carter (1B)- 8D
15. Javier Herrera (OF)- 8D

I like this way of ranking prospects: It definitely hammers home the idea that a guy may have all the tools but may never actually develop the skills. Unfortunately, however, we see a lot of “C’s” and “D’s” up and down the A’s list, as in there are many players with uncertain upsides.

In his discussion with Scout.com’s Melissa Lockard, McKamey said:

“The Athletics rank in the top 5-7 of all MLB teams with their recent acquisitions, whereas they were in the bottom third prior to the off-season. The Oakland system gets higher marks for their depth as opposed to top-end prospects. Tampa Bay, Boston and Cincinnati have the best systems in my opinion, with Oakland being in the mix with New York (A), Texas, Atlanta, and Los Angeles (N) for the next spots.”

For the discussion in its entirety, here ya go…

Breifly:

The A’s avoided arbitration with two pitchers, signing Joe Blanton and Huston Street to one-year contracts. Chad Gaudin remains as the last arbitration-eligible player without a contract. Consider, Billy Beane and staff rarely go to arbitration (not since Juan Cruz). Oh, and SFGate’s Ray Ratto says, “Let San Jose Have the A’s.”

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 19th, 2008 at 6:10 pm and is filed under Prospects, Rankings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.