A hat tip to KaneCoKeith who alerted me that Dimaond Futures had begun ranking the farm systems of the major league teams with the Blue Jays. Chad Jenkins is the top rated prospect. In case you were wondering they didn't pick the Jays out of interest, Toronto is their 30th ranked minor league system.
And in other news Dick Scott has a new home.
Diamond Futures makes the following claim:
Diamond Futures is a site that is over a decade in the making. We use a unique blend of analytical tools to strip away the ‘hype’ and uncover the substance that lies behind prospective Major League players. We have a track record of not only identifying who will succeed or fail and why, but of doing it first. We have developed a probabilistic methodology that recognizes that no analytical system can accurately anticipate the unique nuances inherent in predicting future performance of human players. So we don’t deal in ‘absolutes’, rather we deal in definable ‘likelihoods’. Our comparative player database has over 40 years of data and contains over 12,000 player profiles. There are plenty of places to go if you want to find conventional wisdom…at Diamond Futures we rewrite it!
Even though they make that claim they do note in a recent story that prospect evaluation is still a risky business. 42% of their top 100 prospects from 1999 have had solid major league careers, still less than 50% for the best of the best players.
Their rankings are here. Diamond Futures assign a grade to each prospect, as does John Sickels, as well as ranking the players. Here are their top rankings, write-ups are in the link.
1. Chad Jenkins - B+
2. Zach Stewart - B
3. JP Arencibia - B
4. Moises Sierra - B
5. Yohermyn Chavez - B
6. Henderson Alvarez - B
7. John Tolisano - B
8. Kevin Ahrens - B
9. Tim Collins - B
10. Tyler Pastornicky - B
11. Jake Marisnick - B-
12. Brad Mills - B-
13. David Cooper - B-
14. Gustavo Pierre - B-
15. Eric Thames - B-
Others of note (all C+): 16) Carlos Perez, C; 20) Justin Jackson, MI; 21) Brad Emaus, 2B; 23) Brian Dopirak, 1B; 24) Darin Mastroianni, CF; 27) Daniel Farquhar, RP; 28) Balbino Fuenmayor, 3B/1B;
In other news Dick Scott has been named the Astro's minor league field coordinator.
