It's Blue Jays Week at Baseball America. Not only is the publication about to release its Top Ten Prospects in the Jays' farm system, but this week's issue includes a detailed article about JP Ricciardi, with a specific focus on the restructuring of the farm system.
I would encourage you to pick up the current issue at the newsstands, on sale till Dec. 22, and read the JP piece. It's not the easiest paper to find here in the frozen north, but a good local newsstand should have a copy. I usually find BA at (of all places) the Relay outlet at the Ottawa Airport, as well as at a marvellous periodicals store here in town called (I kid you not) Mags & Fags (they also sell cigarettes, you see). I'm not sure whether the Top Ten list is in the print edition, but it is available online. A year's subscription to the Net version is US$42, about half what you'd pay for the print edition for a lot of the same material.
I don't intend to reproduce the articles here -- not only would that be unethical, it would also be a nice breach of my online subscription agreement -- but I will provide some excerpts for discussion purposes. It was written by the Globe and Mail's Jeff Blair, and it's quite interesting.
Ricciardi has been brutally honest in discussing the financial concerns that plague the organization. He also says, candidly and without complaint, that he believes the Blue Jays’ payroll will be between $45 million and $55 million for the life of his five-year contract. And he is just as frank in discussing the reason for watching money in player development and scouting. "We’re revamping our system, and we aren’t going to have as many people," Ricciardi says. .....
Some of the organization’s crosscheckers reportedly made $80,000 a year, and some area scouts were earning $60,000 – more than twice what some other teams paid. The Blue Jays had seven full- or part-time Canadian scouts, yet they seldom signed the country’s best players. All are gone.
...
"I don’t believe the return on a high school player is as great as the return on a college player," Ricciardi says. "The previous administration’s approach was often to go after the best available athlete. That’s fine, but it also means that you miss out on ballplayers like Mark Ellis or David Eckstein. I’m not here to say there’s a right or wrong way. It’s just that I’m more inclined toward college players. I mean, Josh Phelps is a great player, but it took him six years to get here. People lose jobs in six years.
"We can’t be a hit-or-miss team any more. We need to manage our risks. We won’t be in the Asian market and we won’t be big players in the free-agent market. And we’re going to be very selective in Latin America. Besides, the days are gone where you’d sign 10 players out of there for $3,000."
As for the Top Ten prospects, they've already released the list itself, which I'll reproduce here for your reading interest. For the detailed analyses, however, you'll have to purchase a subscription.
1. Dustin McGowan, rhp
2. Jayson Werth, of/c
3. Kevin Cash, c
4. Francisco Rosario, rhp
5. Brandon League, rhp
6. Alexis Rios, of
7. Russ Adams, ss/2b
8. Vinny Chulk, rhp
9. Gabe Gross, of
10. Guillermo Quiroz, c
Now, BA is a very scout-driven publication, so the players they like best aren't necessarily the players sabrmetricians like, not to mention a certain Mr. Ricciardi. Certainly, I would never rank Russ Adams below Alexis Rios, nor would I have Gabe Gross so low on the list even after his struggles, nor would I have Guillermo Quiroz anywhere on the list. Even though they're quite raw, I would still have included David Bush and perhaps Justin Maureau among the Top Ten. I'm also not sure what effect his Tommy John surgery will have on Francisco Rosario's prospects.
But there you have it: JP has spoken about the farm system and one set of experts has weighed in as well. What do you think?
I would encourage you to pick up the current issue at the newsstands, on sale till Dec. 22, and read the JP piece. It's not the easiest paper to find here in the frozen north, but a good local newsstand should have a copy. I usually find BA at (of all places) the Relay outlet at the Ottawa Airport, as well as at a marvellous periodicals store here in town called (I kid you not) Mags & Fags (they also sell cigarettes, you see). I'm not sure whether the Top Ten list is in the print edition, but it is available online. A year's subscription to the Net version is US$42, about half what you'd pay for the print edition for a lot of the same material.
I don't intend to reproduce the articles here -- not only would that be unethical, it would also be a nice breach of my online subscription agreement -- but I will provide some excerpts for discussion purposes. It was written by the Globe and Mail's Jeff Blair, and it's quite interesting.
Ricciardi has been brutally honest in discussing the financial concerns that plague the organization. He also says, candidly and without complaint, that he believes the Blue Jays’ payroll will be between $45 million and $55 million for the life of his five-year contract. And he is just as frank in discussing the reason for watching money in player development and scouting. "We’re revamping our system, and we aren’t going to have as many people," Ricciardi says. .....
Some of the organization’s crosscheckers reportedly made $80,000 a year, and some area scouts were earning $60,000 – more than twice what some other teams paid. The Blue Jays had seven full- or part-time Canadian scouts, yet they seldom signed the country’s best players. All are gone.
...
"I don’t believe the return on a high school player is as great as the return on a college player," Ricciardi says. "The previous administration’s approach was often to go after the best available athlete. That’s fine, but it also means that you miss out on ballplayers like Mark Ellis or David Eckstein. I’m not here to say there’s a right or wrong way. It’s just that I’m more inclined toward college players. I mean, Josh Phelps is a great player, but it took him six years to get here. People lose jobs in six years.
"We can’t be a hit-or-miss team any more. We need to manage our risks. We won’t be in the Asian market and we won’t be big players in the free-agent market. And we’re going to be very selective in Latin America. Besides, the days are gone where you’d sign 10 players out of there for $3,000."
As for the Top Ten prospects, they've already released the list itself, which I'll reproduce here for your reading interest. For the detailed analyses, however, you'll have to purchase a subscription.
1. Dustin McGowan, rhp
2. Jayson Werth, of/c
3. Kevin Cash, c
4. Francisco Rosario, rhp
5. Brandon League, rhp
6. Alexis Rios, of
7. Russ Adams, ss/2b
8. Vinny Chulk, rhp
9. Gabe Gross, of
10. Guillermo Quiroz, c
Now, BA is a very scout-driven publication, so the players they like best aren't necessarily the players sabrmetricians like, not to mention a certain Mr. Ricciardi. Certainly, I would never rank Russ Adams below Alexis Rios, nor would I have Gabe Gross so low on the list even after his struggles, nor would I have Guillermo Quiroz anywhere on the list. Even though they're quite raw, I would still have included David Bush and perhaps Justin Maureau among the Top Ten. I'm also not sure what effect his Tommy John surgery will have on Francisco Rosario's prospects.
But there you have it: JP has spoken about the farm system and one set of experts has weighed in as well. What do you think?
