Baseball America publish their top ten prospects today, followed by a subscriber chat this afternoon. Thanks are due to mylegacy who has reported the top ten from the actual paper which has already been mailed to subscribers.
The top ten is as follows with the batters box ranking shown in brackets.
1. Travis Snider (1)
2. JP Arencibia (3)
3. Brett Cecil (2)
4. Justin Jackson (7)
5. David Cooper (4)
6. Kevin Ahrens (5)
7. Brad Mills (6)
8. Ricky Romero (9)
9. Marc Rzepczynski (10)
10. Brad Emaus (18)
In general the top lists are very similar with eight of the ten players separated by just one spot. The exceptions were Justin Jackson and Brad Emaus/Scott Campbell. Jackson played well for a nineteen year old in A ball and his defence is major league quality. However Jackson, and Ahrens, struck out a lot this season but obviously BA are not too worried about this. We will probably see some reasoning in the scouting report tomorrow.
Emaus and Campbell are similar players in many ways, both have good offensive reputations with defence being a question for both. Emaus and Campbell each hit .302 this season with OPS over .800. Campbell played at a higher level but Emaus is eighteen months younger. For BA it looks like age trumped level but this will probably be questioned tomorrow. Emaus probably has more of a power profile while Campbell is seen as a line drive hitter.
The verbiage in the scouting reports are fairly standard. BA likes Arencibia's defense, they say he has really improved on blocking balls and cut down on passed balls, that was his weakness. They repeat the durability question regarding Brett Cecil and suggest he might be headed to the bullpen. The Blue Jays would say that Cecil's innings were controlled because this was his first full year of starting having been a reliever in college. BA repeats the suggestion that David Cooper is not interested in defense. Dick Scott in his end of year interview with Da Box claimed that Cooper had made a big improvement in defence in the instructional league. Believe who you want to. Brad Emaus gets the Ty Wiggington comparison.
Fall Leagues
In Arizona JP Arencibia is hitting .277 with good power. Arencibia was reportedly asked to see more pitches in Arizona and it looks like he has done that a little. Remember this is Arencibia's first full season so he is probably getting very tired by now.
Scott Campbell is hitting .267 in limited at-bats. Campbell is playing mainly at third base, presumably to give him some flexibility for a utility role.
Ryan Patterson is hitting .250 in 60 at-bats but his OPS is only .683 as he has not shown much power.
All four pitchers have struggled in Arizona. Kyle Ginley is the only starter and he has had good starts and bad starts. The Jays sent him to Arizona to see better hitters so he could learn how to pitch and mix his pitches. Hopefully his stuggles will teach him a lesson that he can use in 2009.
The three relievers, Zach Dials, Mike MacDonald and Daryl Harang have aos had good and bad appearances. Of the three Dials' 5.28 ERA is the best.
In Hawaii Brad Emaus has continued to hit well, he is hitting .338 with an OPS of .957. Eric Eiland has struggled hitting .073 in 41 at-bats. It was a stretch to send Eiland to Hawaii but he needed playing time so his stats might not be a true indicator of the value of his time in Hawaii. New Jay Adam Loewen is hitting .240 in only 25 at-bats.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20081113220027508