With 139 of the games best prospects unavailable for me to choose from, creating a top 25 list of players not on any of the five main industry top 100's was a difficult task. Baseball America, Baseball Prospectus, ESPN, Project Prospect, and Mound Talk all built very strong, yet very different Top 100 lists. My job was to find the best of the rest. Some of the people I have chosen can be found on the bottom 50 of Project Prospect's top 150, while many are newcomers. This list will be updated every couple of weeks to show the progression and regression of the prospect status of these players. So as of April 23rd, 2008, here are your Top 25 prospects not listed on any industry top 100:
| We'll be updating the Top 25 not listed on an industry top 100 list every other week this season. Keep checking back! | ||||||||||||
| No. | Player | Pos. | Notes | Age | Org | Lvl | ||||||
| 1 | Henry Rodriguez | RHP | Cut BB% from 16.2% to 7.4% in A+ this year, increased K% from 23.9% to 33.8% | 21.1 | OAK | AA | ||||||
| 2 | Michael Saunders | CF | Showing that CAL league performance wasn't fluke, .399 wOBA in 2008, 5-tool player | 21.4 | SEA | AA | ||||||
| 3 | Todd Frazier | SS | Exceptional last year, dominating again in '08 (1.105 OPS), Need's better competition | 22.1 | CIN | A | ||||||
| 4 | Nick Noonan | 2B | Consistant from last year to this year, needs to greatly improve BB/K% (0.0% / 20.0%) | 18.9 | SF | A | ||||||
| 5 | Jonathon Niese | LHP | Off to great start in '08 ( 0.93 ERA, 6.2 BB%, 21 K%, 55% GB), always posted good FIP | 21.4 | NYM | AA | ||||||
| 6 | Cedric Hunter | CF | Youngster improved '07 BB% (9.2% / 12.1%), K% (14.1% / 11%), wOBA (.315 / .366) | 20.1 | SD | A+ | ||||||
| 7 | Brandon Erbe | RHP | Usually wild (11.4% BB in '07), command has been great (3.2% BB, 22.6% K) in '08 | 20.3 | BAL | A+ | ||||||
| 8 | Clayton Tanner | LHP | Excellent ground-ball pitcher (64% in '08) has improved both BB% and K% in CAL league | 20.3 | SF | A+ | ||||||
| 9 | Daniel Moskos | LHP | 4th overall pick in '07, 1.6 BB%, 63 GB%, 2.39 FIP all impressive in '08, must improve K% | 20.6 | PIT | A+ | ||||||
| 10 | Sean Rodriguez | SS | Blocked in LA, off to monster start in AAA in '08 (.378 isoP, .490 wOBA), will cool down | 22.9 | LAA | AAA | ||||||
| 11 | Julio Teheran | RHP | All hype to this point, but from everything we've heard and read, looks to be a future ace | 17.2 | ATL | R | ||||||
| 12 | Omar Poveda | RHP | Having a better time in CAL league this year (4.79 FIP in '07, 4.19 in '08), BB% too high | 20.5 | TEX | A+ | ||||||
| 13 | Justin Jackson | SS | Supplemental 1st rounder in '07 was miserable last year, In '08: 13.7 BB%, .411 wOBA) | 19.3 | TOR | A | ||||||
| 14 | Nick Evans | 1B | Solid season in '07, great start in '08 (.271 isoP, .412 w-OBA), must improve K and BB% | 22.2 | NYM | AA | ||||||
| 15 | Brett Gardner | CF | Ellsbury with less pop, doing great in '08 (.333/.389/.550), ready for the big leagues | 24.6 | NYY | AAA | ||||||
| 16 | Chris Coghlan | 2B | Excelled in A in '07, sank in A+, jump to AA successful so far (.309/.373/.426), 7 SB | 22.8 | FLA | AA | ||||||
| 17 | Josh Outman | LHP | Lefty struggled in AA in '07 (4.92 FIP), '08 has been much better (2.53 FIP, 23.2 K%) | 23.6 | PHI | AA | ||||||
| 18 | Cale Iorg | SS | Missed 2 years on Mormon mission, .387 w-OBA in '08 shows potential, should move up | 22.6 | DET | A+ | ||||||
| 19 | Dae-Eun Rhee | RHP | Korean teen is off to great start in first season in America (7.3 BB%, 23.9 K%, 2.16 FIP) | 19.0 | CHC | A | ||||||
| 20 | J.P. Arencibia | C | 07 1st rounder has shown power in first full season (4 HR, .516 slugging) poor BB/K% | 22.2 | KC | A+ | ||||||
| 21 | Justin Maxwell | CF | 5-tool CF is old for the league, but his skills will translate to MLB (.258/.413/.468, 7 SB) | 24.4 | WAS | AA | ||||||
| 22 | Wilmer Font | RHP | 28.5 K% in American debut in '07, this teen will start in SS but could be a fast riser. | 17.9 | TEX | R | ||||||
| 23 | Andrew Lambo | LF | Monstrous in '07 debut ( .948 OPS, .415 w-OBA), 4th rounder same in '08 (.409 w-OBA) | 19.6 | LAD | A | ||||||
| 24 | Ivan De Jesus | SS | Great discipline (11.6 BB%, 12.6 K% in '07), ridiculous in '08 (16.9 BB%, .922 OPS) | 20.9 | LAD | AA | ||||||
| 25 | Nick Hagadone | LHP | Dominant in SS in '07 (35.1 K%), same in '08 (27.9 K%, 2.96 FIP), needs to be challenged | 22.3 | BOS | A | ||||||
| Honorable Mentions: Peter Kozma (STL), Josh Reddick (BOS), Max Ramirez (TEX), Devin Mesoraco (CIN), Tony Thomas (CHC) | ||||||||||||
| <<< Discuss these rankings | ||||||||||||
| * Our rankings are a snapshot of a player's potential and the odds that he'll recognize it | ||||||||||||
| ** Ages are as of April 23rd, 2008 | ||||||||||||
| *** Lvl is the current level that the prospect plays at | ||||||||||||
Brett Sullivan can be reached at sullivan10x@yahoo.com.