Top 10 High-A Pitching Prospects by Production

November 1, 2011
. . . . . .Rookie / Short-Season / Low-A / High-A / Double-A / Triple-A / Hitters
@AdamWFoster's 2011 Offseason Prospect Rankings
Rk   Player   Pos   Comments   Age   Org
1   Robert Erlin (eBay)   LHP   Only walked 5 in 54.2 IP; K% went from 31% in A+ to 24% in AA   20.9   SD
2   Shelby Miller (eBay)   RHP   Had 7+ Ks in all but one A+ start; big jump in GB% from A+ to AA   20.7   STL
3   Tyler Skaggs (eBay)   LHP   Spectacular K%, especially given his age; he kept it up in AA, too   20.0   ARI
4   David Holmberg (eBay)   LHP   Youngest SP in A+; BB% rose a lot from Low-A; K'd a good amount 20.0   ARI
5   Drew Hutchison (eBay)   RHP   Owned Low-A, owned High-A, then was dominant in 3 AA starts   20.9   TOR
6   Joseph Wieland (eBay)   RHP   Acquired, along with Erlin, for Mike Adams; very good command   21.4   SD
7   Aaron Kurcz (eBay)   RHP   Moved from SP to RP in late June & flourished; a fly-ball pitcher   20.9   CHC
8   Joseph Ortiz (eBay)   LHP   RP who gets a lot of grounders and has very good command   20.9   TEX
9   Giovanni Soto (eBay)   LHP   Another SP who was converted to an RP mid-season (June)   20.1   CLE
10   Jairo Heredia (eBay)   RHP   Hard to find any details on his '11 injury; out from June 28 on   21.9   NYY
Best of the Rest
    Chad James (eBay)   LHP   Showed big improvement in BB% from '10 (12.7%) to '11 (7.8%)   20.4   FLA
    Matt Lollis (eBay)   RHP   Taken out of the rotation in early-July; returned to it in late-Aug. 20.8   SD
    Brody Colvin (eBay)   RHP   Missed a month after injuring his back in his 1st start; low K%   20.9   PHI
    Clayton Cook (eBay)   RHP   Had some stretches with lots of BB; others will good command   20.9   CLE
    Jonathan Pettibone (eBay)   RHP   Went 6+ innings in 20 of his 27 starts; low BB%; finshed strong   21.0   PHI
    Nicholas Bucci (eBay)   RHP   K% droppped steadily from Apr to Jul before jumping up in Aug   21.0   MIL
    Jake Odorizzi (eBay)   RHP   2008 draft pick was K machine in A+ before slowing down in AA   21.3   KC
    Allen Webster (eBay)   RHP   Mike Newman just published report on him with scouting video   21.4   LAD
    Jake Buchanan (eBay)   RHP   Studly GB rate (58%) to go along with very low BB and low K%   21.8   HOU
    Trevor May (eBay)   RHP   Showed signs of command improvement & missed tons of bats   21.8   PHI
* Ages are as of July 1, 2011            
** Minimum 50 innings pitched        
*** If eligible, Carlos Martinez would have ranked 8th on this list        

Warning: These rankings were created without utilizing scouting information. The list was assembled as a conversation starter/watch list by way of a relatively simple, objective prospect finding system. After weighing in scouting information, our rankings of players will change.

Methodology: Only players who were a deviation below level-average age were considered for the list above. The average High-A pitcher age in 2011 was approximately 23, with a standard deviation of approximately 2. Players were ranked based simply on deviations from level-average age, strikeout percentage, walk percentage and ground-ball percentage.