EVIL~! alkeiper

Let's run with this. Some of the rankings might be off by one or two. I'll never be satisfied as a whole, and in general it's impossible to really create a solid list. I just hope to avoid making some stupid mistakes. 1. Carlos Carrasco, RHP A strikeout an inning at AA and AAA, just 21 years old. 2. Jason Donald, SS Gotta love a shortstop who can post a .500+ slugging percentage. 3. Dominic Brown, OF The scouts love him. I'll buy into the hype. 4. Lou Marson, C I have qualms about his power, but it's much easier to go with the flow on this one. 5. Michael Taylor, OF Took a huge jump in one season. 6. Kyle Drabek, RHP Looks great in the Hawai'ian league. Ace potential. 7. Travis D'Arnaud, C 8. Zachary Collier, OF 9. Joe Savery, LHP Bad season, but peripherals weren't terrible. Deserves another look. 10. Jason Knapp, RHP 11. Sebastian Valle, C 12. Vance Worley, RHP 13. J.A. Happ, LHP I'm leary even rating him this high. He walks far too many batters for a pitcher without blow away stuff. 14. John Mayberry Jr., OF Hard to dismiss this kind of power potential. Doesn't strike out as much as you'd think for a player of this profile. 15. Michael Stutes, RHP Statistics are impressive, but really lacks impressive stuff. Even watching him, you think nothing of it and all the sudden, you have 8 K's marked on your scorecard. 16. Antonio Bastardo, LHP Big HR rate in Reading is a red flag. 17. Freddy Galvis, SS Bat is iffy, but I LOVE the defense. This is a guy I want to watch. 18. Julian Sampson, RHP While not striking out batters, extremely low HR rate is a good sign for a young pitcher. Keep an eye on this one as a possible Chien-Ming Wang type. 19. Michael Cisco, RHP Completely under the radar, but posted a 30/0 K:BB ratio as a starter in Lakewood, with no home runs. 20. Drew Naylor, RHP 21. Edgar Garcia, RHP Never impressive, but still very young. 22. Quintin Berry, OF Should make a fifth outfielder someday with his speed. Complete lack of power. 23. Andrew Carpenter, RHP Seemed to recover as the season developed. Thanks to an inning of mopup relief, he's forever a champion. 24. Sergio Escalona, LHP 25. Anthony Hewitt, SS Performance was awful, but there's potential if he can learn to make contact. 26. Anthony Gose, OF 27. Michael Schwimer, RHP 6'8" reliever, posted high strikeout rates in Williamsport and did not allow a single HR. 28. Jeremy Slayden, OF Why on earth has he never been pushed a level? 29. Chance Chapman, RHP Old for Lakewood, but I think he has a future career as a reliever. 30. Brad Harman, 2B/SS Performance was bad, but he's still quite young, plays defense well and has some power. Possibly a utility infielder in the future. He put on a show at the last World Baseball Classic for Australia, and should get another chance this time around.

Jeff Dunham was tolerable at first, but then people went nuts over that arab schtick and it became intolerable,

Fritz was one of the all time great heels. Had he been in wrestling shape and the Von Erich kids not drug abusers, that would've actually been a fun feud. But he only stepped in in the first place to replace dead children.

Wow, EHME and I agree on something. Brody should be banned For a post in NHB? I expect better from the ombudsman.

This thing tends to run its course from folder to folder. It was popular in the wrestling and sports folders, it died out. Now it's burst out in the movies section and god knows how many permutations you can develop around there. Ironically, giving the drafts their own folder may have fanned the flames. Posters go into the folder and their first instinct is to think of new draft ideas.

2007. There are a lot of OPS+'s in his career near 112.

Certainly in today's environment with separate brand champions, a Scott Hall would've had a title run. But in mid-90s WWF, they ran with a champion for more or less a year at a time. Being the #2 option wouldn't cut it, and Hall jumped ship before he could've gotten an inevitable opportunity.

The Padres are going to be blatently non-competitive this year. A 99 loss team, and they are selling off its best players. The rotation is a complete disaster area, even before they trade Jake Peavy.

Parker's borderline. Doesn't quite make my list, but he's close. He would certainly make a better choice than Jim Rice though.

I agree with this. She removes the salt from Cliff's diet because he had one friend of the same age die? Jeez, talk about overreacting. Damn health nazi.

Didn't Koko work heel in Memphis under a name like Sweet Daddy Sugar?

I suspect the voters were simply not overwhelmed by Santo's counting statistics. Much Santo's value came from walks and defense. Neither skill is usually evaluated properly by the BBWAA.

Fans of teams tend to overrate their prospects. Sometimes this reaches absurd levels. I mentioned J.A. Happ in my last entry, and apparently a few amateur prospect watchers weight him highly due to his close proximity to the Majors. Does a high level outweigh potential? What about performance vs. scouting? When I develop a prospect list, I think the correct way to go about it is to view the players as trading chips. If you were trading for a team's top prospects, which ones would you value? (Ignoring positional and team needs and such.) J.A. Happ led the International League in strikeouts, at the age of 25. For comparisons sake, these are the other starters who have finished top ten in strikeouts at the same age. Brandon Knight, Brandon Duckworth, Travis Harper, Luke Hudson, Eric Junge, Denny Lail, Everett Stull, Tim Rumer, Brad Woodall, John DeSilva, Mike Oquist, Jesse Cross, Dave Telgheder, Josh Hancock, Aaron Heilman, Brian Burres, Virgil Vasquez, J.A. Happ, Jeff Niemann and Chris Lambert. Note any All-Stars on that list? None of them even held a starting pitching job long term. Oquist had the most wins, with 25. To make a pitcher on that level a team's top ten prospect is simply delusional.

Savery had decent peripherals, including just 10 home runs in 150 innings. I think he deserves another season before throwing in the towel. Knapp is quite an interesting prospect. The problem with developing a list like this from my perspective is that I hardly have an opportunity to scout guys like Knapp, Vance Worley, and the other recent draftees. I need to go off of scouting reports. That group could shift around quite a bit. It's all projection. Based on results, he wouldn't rate. But there's a small possibility he turns in to a good player, and that rates at least some ranking. Around #30 is often where you find a Rule V draftee anyway. He had five home runs last season in Reading. I can't see holding down a job quite yet without more power. I think he becomes an MLB starter, I just like the top six better.

That's fascinating! That doesn't mean anything, nor does it make them one of the best teams ever Why not?

Glad you asked. The World Champion 1905 Giants returned almost all of their team the next season, and lost 15 of 22 games to that Cubs team.

That's a stupid argument. If a team can't win the championship, then they're not one of the best teams of all time. I think the championship argument is equivalent of a brick wall. It always comes back to the same sentence.

Let's say it's 1906. Are the Chicago Cubs of that year at that point not the greatest team of all time?

PhuturePhillies.com is doing a reader poll to develop a top Phillies' prospect list. Quite a few of the readers are keen on J.A. Happ, since he's certain to become an MLB caliber pitcher. Please. He's a #5 starter, and hardly proven. A 26 year old as a top prospect just because he's penciled into a rotation slot? I have my own rough top 30 in my blog if anyone is interested.

Nice deal for the Sox as well, to help rebuild their barren farm system. Vazquez lost favor in Chicago when Ozzie Guillen called him out on not winning the big games.

Re: Veterans Committee. I think Santo is going to miss out once again. Apparently the HOFers can vote for four players out of a ballot of ten. Six of those players have arguments as at least borderline Hall of Famers. When all the players are of similar quality, it is hard for a group to reach a consensus. This process really needs a runoff. As far as the pre-1943 group goes, I have a feeling that Joe Gordon gets elected.

Rickey Henderson Tim Raines Bert Blyleven Mark McGwire Alan Trammell Andre Dawson Henderson is obvious. Raines was a great, great player. Blyleven I'm sure we've discussed a dozen times. McGwire is deserving based on the numbers. I choose not to led the PEDs influence his worthiness, but the other argument is perfectly. reasonable. Trammell contributed more across the board than most power hitters. Dawson I think deserves induction based on being a power-hitting, gold glove center fielder in his prime. Since this is the Hall of Fame thread, I can not emphasize enough how bad a selection Jim Rice would be. He put up big numbers in a couple of seasons as a right handed hitter in Fenway Park. His stats have been cherry picked to make him look more impressive. On the whole, he was no better than Greg Luzinski, George Foster, or a bunch of other contemporary power hitters nowhere near the Hall.

MLB Talk I see six teams with a legitimate argument as the best ever. 1906 Chicago Cubs: Though they lost the World Series, they went on to win the next two. Any way you slice up win/loss records (one year, two, three, five, etc.), they have the highest on record. No team was ever more adept at turning balls in play into outs. 1927 New York Yankees: 110 wins and a World Series sweep. I personally think the team is overrated, and I'll touch on that later on. 1939 New York Yankees. 106-45, and a World Series sweep. This team won four consecutive World Series, and every single year they led the league in both runs scored and allowed. The caveat with this club is that the Great Depression severely depressed competition. An eight team league, and both the Browns and Athletics were blatantly uncompetitive. 1970 Baltimore Orioles: 109 and 108 wins in back-to-back seasons. That two year stretch is matched only by the Cubs, and the O's don't face the same quality of competition argument. 1975 Cincinnati Reds: The best lineup in history, practically an All-Star at every position. 1998 New York Yankees: 114 wins and then an 11-2 run in the postseason. Their '99 postseason run was even better, and they won four World Series in five years. Probably the most complete team of the bunch, with a deep bench and bullpen. In regards to the '27 Yankees, it strikes me that they kept the team largely intact and two years later they could not crack 90 wins. The team won a lot of games thanks to flukeish performances by their pitching staff. They had a 30 year old rookie relief ace who never produced another season like that in his life. If you could somehow put the team together again, I'm not sure they could duplicate that performance. My personal pick is the 1970 Orioles. A deep team with all the elements. They had a great offense led by Hall of Famer Frank Robinson. Their defense was also great, headed by another Hall of Famer in Brooks Robinson. Their pitching staff featured three 20 game winners. Their bullpen was solid. Their bench was good, and they had a Hall of Fame manager to put it all together. For two years, they were the most dominant team ever.

I definately call bullshit on that trade. B level pitching prospects for Peavy?

I think the idea that a team is automatically disqualified by not winning their championship is absurd. It's like claiming Leon Spinks was a better boxer than Muhammad Ali. A non-championship does not necessarily make team mediocre, nor does a perfect season necessarily make a team the greatest. Could the '72 Dolphins beat the '85 Bears? Better yet, would they beat them every single game? Of course not. If you took the 32 greatest NFL teams and put them in one league, no team would go undefeated. In fact, most of the league would finish 9-7 and 8-8 due to the high caliber of competition. The last sentence is the 800 lb. gorilla in the room. The better the quality of a sporting league, the harder it is to dominate. If a team can win 11 of 13 championships like the Celtics, it probably says more about the NBA than anything else.