Consensus Top 50 Prospects List

March 10, 2011 by Mike Axisa 9 Comments

I missed this at the end of last month, but Project Prospect compiled a consensus top 50 prospects list by averaging out the top 100 lists published by Baseball America, Keith Law, Kevin Goldstein, and Frankie Piliere, plus their own. Jesus Montero comes in at number three (average score of 3.4) behind Mike Trout and Bryce Harper, in that order. Manny Banuelos places 22nd with an average score of 25.4, and Gary Sanchez checks in at number43 thanks to a 46.8 average score. Dellin Betances and/or Andrew Brackman didn’t make the cut.

Those rankings sound about right to me, I’m glad someone finally went ahead and put something like this together.

vinny-b

bet you if all votes were re-taken, Manny Ban finishes in top 20 and or top 15.

his stock is rising FAST
Andrew Brotherton

Keith Law said in his chat today that it is another Jason Heyward situation. He stated that Manny had nothing left to learn in the minors and he thinks that he could hold his own in the majors now. Huge praise.
- Not Tank the Frank
  
  He’s got plenty to learn. He needs to get Double A hitters out conistently. I’m not saying he can’t do it but it just shows how young he is. A handful of innings in spring training doesn’t change that. I love the idea and I understand KLaw is just giving him praise.
  - Ted Nelson
    
    “Nothing to learn” is hyperbole, but I think KLaw’s point is that Manny Banuelos has the approach and stuff to be a major league pitcher right now. Not just based on spring training, but also Arizona Fall League and his 2010 season. He has a nasty FB, 2 above average secondary pitches, and great command. You can disagree with the point, but it has nothing to do with getting AA hitters out. It has to do with his approach and stuff. Whether he’s throwing that stuff to A, AA, AAA, or MLB hitters… it’s the same stuff.
    
    That doesn’t mean he could necessarily break camp in MLB and be as good as he’ll ever be. You’d definitely expect him to improve with experience. It doesn’t even mean he should break camp in MLB. I personally don’t think he should. Just means that in KLaw’s opinion he could handle MLB hitters at least respectably well right now.
    - Mike
      
      Definitely. Betances has a lot to learn; he would not consistently get out major leaguers with the stuff he has shown this spring. Banuelos has looked like a 2 or 3 starter this spring. The refinements he may need to make his curveball and the small things like holding runners on/defense (I don’t know if he has issues with these) can be learned in the majors. It might even be easier for him to improve his curveball at the majors where the hitters are more discerning. The trade off of that is that the games and mistakes count, but every player has to learn things in the majors. Banuelos may be at that point.
      
      Banuelos will run through AA this year. Other than getting him innings, I don’t know how beneficial that will be to him.
    - Guest
      
      Here’s my counter: Manny might absolutely be ready to get major leaguers out on a consistent basis based on stuff/approach. But, unlike Heyward, he still needs to actually go through a full professional season in the minors to show that he can, well, go through a full professional season.
      
      There’s a grind to taking the ball every fifth day through the six hottest months of the year. ManBan has not really done that. I obviously have no personal experience, but it seems logical that learning how to grind is pretty difficult for young pitchers. Let him learn how to deal with “tired arm” periods without the glare of the Yankee Stadium lights.
      
      Late 2012. He’ll be 21 and much more ready to face all of the challenges of pitching in the majors. He’ll get a taste then (hopefully in a pennant chase), and then he’ll be ready to take his spot in the rotation at the start of the 2013 campaign.
Andrew Brotherton

I like the idea of letting him if he continues like he is, dominate double A hitters until July and then we can bring him up, and watch his innings, and have him for our stretch run.
Naved

This is what I think.

Brackman: College pitcher who already when through TJ. Has nothing left to prove besides owning AAA. Should be a September callup the latest.

Banuelos: If he has the same season as he did last season. June 2012 callup. He needs to log more innings and should jump to AAA sometime this season.

Betances: September 2012 callup. Still wild but has nasty stuff. Needs another injury free season before hitting the majors as a starter. If he can duplicate what he did in High A last season in AA this season should end up in the AAA rotation by the end of this season.
Naved

and wow PP didn’t even have betances/brackman on their top 100. If you excluded them in this betances would have been 48