MiLB.com ranks Joba 5th

November 30, 2007 by Benjamin Kabak 22 Comments

MiLB.com finished up its Minor League prospect rankings today, and Joba took the 5th spot. The Yanks ended up with three of the top 50 prospects, and Jose Tabata didn’t even make the list. Not bad for a team that didn’t have much of a farm system a few years ago.

Outlaw43

I’m kind of surprised that Jackson made the list and Tabata didn’t, but the real shocker to me is that Ian Kennedy only ranked 26th. He may not have Joba’s heat or Hughes’ hammer, but how could he win MiLB.com’s pitcher of the year award but not make their top 25 prospects? Seems off to me.
Reality Check

Sure that makes sense. Tabata is in the top 20 last year. This year, as an 18 year-old, he hits above .300 in the notoriously pitcher friendly Florida State League, all the while playing through a wrist injury. Sure, that makes a lot of sense. You can take the mlb rankings and throw them out the proverbial window.
Rob

Seriously, what’s the difference between guys like Adenhart, Bailey, and Miller versus IPK? Kennedy trumps all of their numbers across the board last year, including major league performance.
- http://sportsmusings.wordpress.com JCP
  
  I think that people would argue it’s the discrepancy is in the stuff of those pitchers vs. Kennedy. Not that I’m agreeing, but that’s what they’d say.
  
  Adenhart is a long, tall righty with a smooth delivery who sits at 92-94. Miller can touch 98 and throws a sinker in the low 90’s, but his injury history makes putting him above Kennedy extremely questionable. Bailey’s stuff ranks as elite, even if his numbers didn’t this year.
  
  Lost in all this seems to be that Kennedy hasn’t even turned 23 yet. I think Kennedy will be very interesting going forward, because his rise through the minors was meteoric, yet there are still a lot of skeptics.
  
  A similar pitcher to Kennedy, IMO, is J.P. Howell of the D-Rays, who is never even discussed in prospect convos because of what many consider mediocre stuff. Howell put up truly elite K, BB, and GB rates all year at AAA last year.
Glen L

A non-yankee prospect not on that list that surprised me was Carlos Gomez .. i live with 2 die hard mets fans and watch plenty of mets game .. i thought gomez looked incredibly promising … he’s only had 125 MLB AB’s .. so he’s still a rookie .. i can’t believe he’s not even in the top 60 (if you go to the breakdown article the give you 50-60 as well)
Eric

Gomez can’t hit. For power at all. He can run but that’s it.

Not putting Joba 1 after what he did in the majors is the dumbest thing ever.
- Glen L
  
  Not to put them on the same level – but Ellsbury can’t hit for power at all either
Eric

I think Ellsbury is really overrated too. How they won’t include him for Santana makes me 99% certain that they are just in it to get the Yanks price up.
Eric

Kennedy’s minor league numbers last year were ridiculous.

But those guys ahead of him have the stuff scouts drool over. Size, stuff etc
http://www.yanksblog.com James Varghese

Dumbest thing ever, Eric?

I dunno – you gotta put trading a kid who put up a 787 OPS in a pitchers park (in his age 22 season)…for a 29 yr old OFer and an back up catcher pretty high on that list of dumb things, right?
chris fowler

can’t put much stock into these rankings when they rank a corner outfielder no. 1.
- Rob
  
  Exactly.
Glen L

Barry Bonds was a corner outfielder .. would that stop you from ranking him as the number 1 player in baseball for the first half of this decade?
keith

Jay Bruce is on steroids?
zack

Its unreal how many of the top 25 are (Devil) Rays. They have so much damn talent they NEED to be making more trades like the Garza-Young swap..
Chip

Yeah I was thinking about that earlier about how absolutely stacked the Ray’s system is! They’re going to be scary good in the next few years if they can hold onto Kazmir and some of that other pitching develops
steve

the rays really need their ownership to start spending some money though, eventually some of these players need to be locked up long term. now when that happens i’ll start to be scared … real scared
http://riveraveblues.com Mike A.

That list is really bad, very inaccurate. Bruce is deserving of #1, but you can certainly make a case that Longoria deserves that spot.

Scott Elbert over Ross Detwiler is the biggest head scratcher of them all. I’d love to see someone explain that one to me.
Andrew

Also, compare what Austin Jackson and Cameron Maybin did this year. Jackson is number 49, and Maybin is number THREE.

And Andrew McCutchen did nothing this year to deserve his number 8 spot.
Paul

Why wasn’t Phil Hughes listed?
- http://riveraveblues.com Mike A.
  
  Too many innings last year. Rookie (and prospect) eligiblity ends after 50 IP.
Barry

“…but the concept of a Philip Hughes-Joba Chamberlain-Ian Kennedy rotation should make Yankee fans plan for baseball deep into October for the next decade or so.”-mlb.com
Even the mlb.com website would rather the Yankees keep the trinity.