It's been nearly two months since our last Under 25 update, so movers and shakers are to be expected. Some shakes, however, have been more like earthquakes, courtesy of Evan Longoria. The Rays third baseman has moved from No. 17 to No. 11 to his current position at No. 3 in our past three Under 25's. Tim Lincecum has claimed the No. 1 overall slot on the board, edging past Hanley Ramirez to become king of the Under 25 mountain -- meanwhile, Prince Fielder slides to No. 5.
| Thanks for checking back for our second year of in-season rankings. | ||||||||||||||
| No. | Player | Pos. | Comments | Age | Org | Lvl | Pre. | |||||||
| 1 | Tim Lincecum | RHP | One of three NL pitchers with a FIP under 3.00 -- along with Dan Haren and Brandon Webb | 24.0 | SF | MLB | 3 ↑ | |||||||
| 2 | Hanley Ramirez | SS | Power outage: OBP similar after ASG (.391 vs. .382), but SLG way down (.566 vs. 444) | 24.6 | FLA | MLB | 1 ↓ | |||||||
| 3 | Evan Longoria | 3B | Rookie is .278/.352/.533, .365 wOBA; strikeouts are the only thing holding him back (26.8%) | 22.8 | TB | MLB | 11 ↑ | |||||||
| 4 | Ryan Braun | LF | Hanley Ramirez and Braun are the only under 25 players in the bigs with wOBAs over .380 | 24.7 | MIL | MLB | 7 ↑ | |||||||
| 5 | Prince Fielder | 1B | Strikeouts are up from last year (21.1% vs. 23.0), power is way down (.330 IsoP vs. .226) | 24.3 | MIL | MLB | 2 ↓ | |||||||
| 6 | Felix Hernandez | RHP | More BB in '08 than '07 (9.2% vs. 6.6%), fewer GB (52% vs. 62%); 3.72 FIP is career-best | 22.3 | SEA | MLB | 4 ↓ | |||||||
| 7 | Justin Upton | RF | Awful K rate in bigs (27.9%), but hitting for power as one of the youngest player in the bigs | 21.0 | ARI | MLB | 6 ↓ | |||||||
| 8 | Brian McCann | C | Looking a lot more like the player we saw in 2006 than 2007; .295/.367/.527 w/ 22 HR overall | 24.5 | ATL | MLB | 8 ↔ | |||||||
| 9 | Scott Kazmir | LHP | GB% is way down (31%) from '07 (44%) and '06 (45%); FIP increase every year from '06-'08 | 24.0 | TB | MLB | 5 ↓ | |||||||
| 10 | Chad Billingsley | RHP | K% increase, BB% decrease every season since '06; all this while sporting a 50% GB in '08 | 24.0 | LAD | MLB | 22 ↑ | |||||||
| 11 | Nick Markakis | RF | wOBA has gone up 20 pts. each MLB season (.340 in '06, .360 '07, .380 '08); 15.1% BB rate | 24.7 | BAL | MLB | 15 ↑ | |||||||
| 12 | Jay Bruce | RF | Putting up solid MLB power numbers already (.174 IsoP), but 26.5% K and 5.6 BB% are ugly | 21.4 | CIN | MLB | 9 ↓ | |||||||
| 13 | Joba Chamberlain | RHP | Yes, he's dominant (28.1% K). No, he hasn't proven to be durable (89.0 IP before injury). | 22.9 | NYY | MLB | 18 ↑ | |||||||
| 14 | Clayton Kershaw | LHP | MLB peripherals are just fine: 11.2% BB, 20.4% K, 51% GB; just needs to log more experience | 20.4 | LAD | MLB | 14 ↔ | |||||||
| 15 | Cole Hamels | LHP | Unlike Billingsley, his K% has dropped every year since '06 (26.0% in 06, 23.8%, 21.6% in '07) | 24.6 | PHI | MLB | 12 ↓ | |||||||
| Honorables: Matt Wieters (BAL), B.J. Upton (TB), Yovani Gallardo (MIL), Matt Kemp (LAD), Clay Buchholz (BOS), David Price (TB), and Matt Cain (SF). | ||||||||||||||
| Graduated (final ranking): Edinson Volquez (10). | ||||||||||||||
| Dropped out of Top 15 (previous ranking): B.J. Upton (13). | ||||||||||||||
| * Our rankings combine a player's ceiling with the odds that he'll reach it and favor recent production | ||||||||||||||
| ** Ages are as of August 29, 2008 | ||||||||||||||
| *** Level is the highest level the player has reached | ||||||||||||||
| <<< Our July 1 Top 25 Under 25 | ||||||||||||||
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Adam Loberstein can be reached at aloberstein@projectprospect.com. Adam Foster can be reached at adamf@projectprospect.com.