Top 25 Rankings

August 27, 2007
Check back every Monday for the only regularly updated in-season prospect rankings on the internet
No.
Player Pos
Notes
Age
Org Level Pts. Pre.
1 Phil Hughes RHP Pitched 12.1 IP last week: 8 H, 10 K, 6 BB; don't measure MLB success by ERA 21 NYY MLB 96.4 1 ↔
2 Joba Chamberlain RHP Has pitched 9.0 innings since joining the Yankees on 8/7: 3 H, 15 K, 2 BB, 0 ER 21 NYY MLB 95.0 3 ↑
3 Justin Upton CF Overmatched; had 3 hits in 17 ab last week; 5 BB vs. 20 K in 20 MLB games 20 ARI MLB 94.8 2 ↓
4 Jay Bruce CF Leads MiLB in XBH (76): 43 2B, 8 3B, 25 HR; .319/.376/.584 in 505 combined ab 20 CIN AAA 94.4 4 ↔
5 Clay Buchholz RHP Started in Pawtucket on Weds.; mediocre line: 3.0 IP, 4 H, 3 K, 2 BB, 3 ER 23 BOS MLB 94.4 5 ↔
6 David Price LHP Has been working out with Low-A Columbus; threw a bullpen on Saturday 22 TB NCAA 94.3 6 ↔
7 Colby Rasmus CF .405/.495/.845 w/ 13 BB vs. 12 K and 50% XBH (7 2B & 10 HR) in 84 August ab 21 STL AA 93.8 7 ↔
8 Evan Longoria 3B Just 1 of his 7 hits last week went for extra bases and 1 BB vs. 4 K (5 games) 21 TB AAA 93.3 8 ↔
9 Cameron Maybin CF Not enough MLB ab to draw any solid conclusions from; 1 BB vs. 10 K, though 20 DET MLB 91.6 9 ↔
10 Adam Jones CF "You can learn more by playing...I'm learning a lot just being around these guys." 22 SEA MLB 91.4 10 ↔
11 Brandon Wood 3B Remember when he hit 43 HR in 2005 (California League)? Has 20 this season. 22 LAA MLB 91.2 11 ↔
12 Clayton Kershaw LHP Utterly dominant in both his starts last week: 13.0 IP, 4 H, 18 K, 6 BB, 1 ER 19 LAD AA 88.3 14 ↑
13 Andy LaRoche 3B Returned from his back injury on Saturday; 0-for-5 with 2 BB and 1 K since 23 LAD MLB 87.7 12 ↓
14 Jacob McGee LHP Nearly matched Kershaw pound-for-pound: 13.0 IP, 10 H, 17 K, 2 BB, 3 ER 21 TB AA 86.5 20 ↑
15 Reid Brignac SS 6 BB vs. 6 K was big for him last week (0.56 BB/K this year): also had 3 XBH 21 TB AA 86.3 17 ↑
16 Homer Bailey RHP Got rocked in FSL rehab start: 3.0 IP, 8 H, 4 K, 2 BB, 6 ER; Sept-callup worthy? 21 CIN MLB 86.2 16 ↓
17 Andrew McCutchen CF Went 8-for-31 with 8 singles last week; continues to struggle against RHP 20 PIT AAA 86.0 15 ↓
18 Johnny Cueto RHP Rebounded from horrendous last start w/ this gem: 6.0 IP, 5 H, 11 K, 2 BB, 2 ER 21 CIN AAA 86.0 22 ↑
19 Jeff Clement C Had a solid week, but McGee, Brignac, and Cueto were all more impressive 24 SEA AAA 85.4 16 ↓
20 Rick Porcello RHP 07's 27th overall pick may have gone as high as No. 2 without bonus demands 18 DET HS 85.3 19 ↓
21 Travis Snider RF .310/.372/.516 in 426 MWL ab; Jay Bruce went .291/.355/.516 there in 2006 19 TOR A 85.2 20 ↓
22 Matt Wieters C Selected 5th overall in '07; soid bet to stick behind the plate, potential impact bat 21 BAL NCAA 84.8 21 ↓
23 Asbrubal Cabrera SS Continues to prove himself as a MLB 2B; now .318/.340/.477 through 44 ab 21 CLE MLB 84.7 24 ↑
24 Carlos Gonzalez RF Played first AAA game on Saturday; went 4-for-10 w/ 2 2B over the weekend 21 ARI AAA 84.6 NR
25 Fernando Martinez CF Hand contusion is now being reported as fractured hamate bone; sugery likely 18 NYM AA 84.5 25 ↔
Honorables: Mike Moustakas (84.46), Ian Kennedy (84.34), Wladimir Balentien (84.29), Will Inman (84.28), and Josh Vitters (84.26).
Graduated (final ranking): None.
Dropped out of Top 25 (previous ranking): Will Inman (23).
* Our rankings combine a player's ceiling with the odds that he'll reach it and favor recent production
** Only signed professional players with less than 130 pro at-bats or less than 50 pro innings are considered for our rankings
*** Ages are as of September 2nd, 2007
**** Level is the highest level the player has reached
***** Pts. Is the player's score from my prospect ranking program
****** Pre. is the player's rankings from last week's Top 25.
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Disclaimer
Our in-season rankings are a tool that we’ve chosen to implement for the first time this season. We realize that this weekly exercise cannot be as thorough as creating a pre-season Top 100 prospect list – which involves months of thought and research. So why even bother publishing these rankings? For fun.

Just like any coaches poll or other in-season rankings, our rankings won’t be as concrete as the ones that can be made when you’re looking at something somewhat after the fact. (We’re still adjusting to the volatile nature of in-season rankings as well.) Lists will stray far from then maybe come back to looking like our previous prospect lists. A few odd names will work their way into the rankings--emphasis is on recent performance.

Think of these rankings like a giant coliseum battle. Everyone will be going after everyone; the air will be cluttered with dust. Then our preseason prospect list will be our take once the dust settles. Until then, just remember that's we're trying to judge a battle while it's still in progress.

We hope to provide an entertaining glimpse of our thought process, and a snapshot of how the prospect scene changes throughout the season.

A few other important notes: 1) More than ever, we’re going to begin relying on numbers for our rankings. Perhaps we could make better lists by regularly talking to people in the industry, but that’s not our style. 2) We’ll be balancing 2006 and 2007 numbers in order to draw upon the best sample that we see fit – the same methods will be applied to each prospect.


I am prepared to answer questions in more detail upon email request,

Adam Foster
Project Prospect Founder
adamf@projectprospect.com