Baseball America has released its Top Ten Pirate Prospects list for 2011, prepared by Dejan Kovacevic; it's pretty much the usual suspects.
They say "The organization currently has a wave of hitting that has just crested over the top, a wave of pitching coming from the bottom and a whole lot of question marks in between."
They also have their "best of" tools section & the top prospects of the decade.
Very good article by Dejan. I'm on board with hsi top ten list with the exception of Von Rosenberg. I am a big believer in Justin Wilson, who throws harder than the other two top lefthanded starting pitching prospects in our system (Locke and Owens). I also love Wilson's bulldog makeup and winning, big game experience in the College World Series. He has a bigger, stronger body than the other two, as well, and while his control to this point is so-so, neither is it terrible, and he makes up for his 4 walks per 9 innings with more strikeouts. He has also been very durable in his pro career. What has Von Rosenberg done in the minors compared with Wilson? Not nearly as much.
ReplyDeleteAh, they're just beauty lists anyway Wil; we all know that the players rank themselves eventually, just like kids in the playground.
ReplyDeleteAnd I liked Benson, even if he and Anna were publicity divas. I always figured that they were just looking for a little notoriety to help establish Anna.
Kris could have been a quite good mid-rotation, inning-eater guy if his arm would have cooperated. Who knows how much his college workload cost him?
I always thought Benson was more like a good number two in terms of his ceiling; he did strike out nearly 200 hitters in his best season, and when you get near that number you're starting to get close to "power pitcher" territory more than "innings eater", methinks. But your point is well made and well taken, sir: Benson WAS the real deal in terms of his talent, and I agree with you that his collegiate innings probably set him on the road to persistent injury later in life. That's always the risk you take with college pitchers, of course, but you also get the occasional Roger Clemens (minus steroids, heh). Along those lines I still believe in former College World Series hurler Josh Wilson in our system.
ReplyDeleteIf his arm stayed together, Wil, he probably could have been a #2; he was that high both in Pittsburgh and New York, before the 2007 surgery.
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