The Prospect Corner

Project Prospect Top 25 Pitching Prospects

2009-10-06T07:51:00.000-07:00

For those of you interested, ProjectProspect.com recently released their list of the top 25 pitching prospects in baseball. It's a pretty good list, and well worth checking out. I'm not sure when they'll be releasing their top 100 or top 200 prospects list, but be on the look out for it in the coming months.

Brett Anderson's Place in History

2009-10-04T19:52:00.000-07:00

I realize these types of posts may be somewhat annoying to people, but I just signed up for a 1 month subscription to baseball-reference.com, so I'm trying to get my moneys worth.Anyways, I wanted to take a look at Brett Anderson's season stats as compared to historical performances and see if he's as good as I think he is. I ran a screen for players that at or before the age of 21 struck out at

Billy Butler and Pablo Sandoval: Headed for the Hall?

2009-10-02T18:52:00.000-07:00

This past month, Billy Butler and Pablo Sandoval became the first players since Prince Fielder to top 70 extra base hits with 20 or more home runs in a season at the age of 23 or younger. It might seem like an arbitrary set of parameters to judge a player by, but it got me to thinking. Could either of these 2 young players be headed to greatness?So, I checked to see how many times a 23 year old

Catching Up

2009-10-02T18:06:00.000-07:00

I need to apologize for not posting in so long. The weather has been really nice lately, and school duties have been minimal the last 2 weeks, so I've been taking some time to go play a bit of golf and relax instead of crunching stats and chasing down overlooked prospects.Though I haven't been writing much lately, I have been keeping up with the Wild Card races, as well as the Rookie of the Year

TPC in Retrospect: Tommy Hanson 2009 Projection

2009-09-07T15:34:00.000-07:00

Back in January I put together a post projecting Tommy Hanson's stats for 2009. At the time, it was hard to say how much the Braves would use Hanson, but ZiPS had him pegged for a total of 19 innings, a 5.21 ERA, and a 1-1 record. My projection wasn't perfect, but I think it was a bit better than the ZiPS projection. To come up with my projection, I didn't simply grab some figures out of a hat.

TPC in Retrospect: 2009 Top 10 Hitters: #6-10

2009-09-06T20:02:00.000-07:00

Prior to the 2009 season, I put together my list of the top 10 prospect hitters, and I think it's about time I reviewed the list to see how I did. I'll start with the last 5 hitters, and then cover the top 5 hitters later this week. 6. Chris Carter (Oakland) -- I couldn't remember how highly Carter was ranked before this season, so I checked Baseball America, and they had him as the 76th best

TPC 2009 Top 10 Hitters in the Midwest League

2009-08-26T12:33:00.000-07:00

Over the coming weeks and months heading into the off-season, I'm going to be combing through a ton of minor league stats and highlighting the top 10 hitters and pitchers from each league this year. Today, I'd like to start with the top 10 hitters from the Midwest League.I didn't spend a lot of time putting this list together, but I did spend a few hours breaking down stats and trying to

TPC in Retrospect: 2009 Top 20 Pitching Prospects #6-10

2009-08-21T05:23:00.001-07:00

Last week I reviewed my top 5 pitching prospects for 2009, so this week it's time for the other 5 guys I ranked in the top 10. While there are a few changes I would make given the chance, I think my top 10 actually came out pretty good.6. Neftali Feliz -- Up until about 6 weeks ago I wasn't sure how this pick was going to work out. Last year Feliz rocked AA hitters, posting 47 strikeouts in 45

2009 A.L. Rookie of the Year Update -- Position Players Still in Contention

2009-08-17T15:06:00.000-07:00

Now that we've covered the N.L. position players still vying for Rookie of the Year, let's spend some time on A.L. position players. Going into the 2009 season, Matt Wieters headed almost every preseason list, and I really thought he had the best chance to win ROY. But things haven't quite worked out for Wieters, and guys like Elvis Andrus and Gordon Beckham are stealing the spotlight.Let's

2009 N.L. Rookie of the Year Update -- Position Players in Contention

2009-08-16T19:33:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I took a look at the pitchers still in contention for the N.L. Rookie of the Year Award, so today we're going to take a look at the position players still in contention. There are some familiar names topping the list, but there are also a handful of surprises making a run at R.O.Y.Pulling some averages from my preseason N.L. R.O.Y. post, here's how the top 6 rookie position players

2009 N.L. Rookie of the Year Update -- Pitchers in Contention

2009-08-15T20:46:00.000-07:00

Prior to the start of the 2009 season, I made some speculations about who might be in the running for the N.L. Rookie of the Year Award. It's still a bit early to declare an obvious winner, but there are a few interesting candidates that were no where to be found on any preseason list.For my original 2009 N.L. ROY list, I included guys like Cameron Maybin, Colby Rasmus, Kenshin Kawakami, Tommy

TPC in Retrospect: 2009 Top 20 Pitching Prospects #1-5

2009-08-14T20:26:00.000-07:00

Finally, I got past my national board exam, and don't have to spend my days and nights memorizing anatomical anomolies of the head and neck and random biochemical metabolic mechanisms. At last, I can get back to reading and writing about baseball, and hopefully there are still a handful of people out there interested in reading my posts.At the beginning of the 2009 season, I put together my list

Project Prospect and MLB.com Top Prospect Lists Released

2009-08-02T15:50:00.000-07:00

In case you haven't seen it, Projectprospect.com recently published their top 25 prospects list for the summer, and Mlb.com released their list of the top 50 prospects of the summer. I don't want to spoil it for those of you that haven't seen the lists yet, but Braves fans will be very excited to see Jason Heyward's name top each list.

Catching Up: Brett Anderson, David Price, Josh Reddick, Jason Heyward, Brett Cecil, and more -As

2009-08-02T15:30:00.000-07:00

I've only got 9 more days until I take my national board exam for dental school, which means that pretty soon I'll be able to spend a lot more time watching and writing about baseball. Until then, it's 12 hours of studying everyday with 30 minutes for lunch, and an hour for dinner.However, today I've decided to take some extra time off and relax to get my head clear and catch up on missed sleep,

Catching Up with SAL Sluggers and Pitchers

2009-07-08T08:54:00.000-07:00

I've been studying my brains out over the last couple of weeks, and if everything goes according to plan, I'll be bumping up my study hours to 4 hours a day over the next week, and eventually up to 8 hours in three weeks. That leaves me a very small window to do my baseball research, but after August 11th, I'll be able to focus on baseball non-stop (well, almost).Anyways, I've been keeping an

Prospect Smackdown: Jason Knapp vs Jordan Lyles (vs Clayton Kershaw vs Felix Hernandez)

2009-07-01T13:59:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone, I don't have a lot of time today, but I wanted to draw some attention to Jordan Lyles and Jason Knapp who are both currently pitching at A ball in the Southern Atlantic League. Both were supplemental first round draft picks (I might be wrong on that, so let me know if that isn't right), and both have been toasting the competition all season long despite only being 18 years

Quick Hits: Tommy Hanson

2009-06-29T12:02:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Tommy Hanson took it to the Red Sox despite fighting off the flu, and pitching in temperatures that reached well beyond anyone's comfort zone. He's now got a record of 4-0, with an ERA of 2.48. He hasn't allowed a run in his last 3 starts, and looks to be dominating every team he faces.It would seem that Hanson -- at the ripe old age of 22 -- is well on his way to establishing

Quick Hits from the Minors and Elsewhere

2009-06-24T14:08:00.000-07:00

Hey folks, it's been a while since I posted, and it looks like my summer load at school is only going to get worse. But, I thought I'd take a second and throw out some names from the minors and the majors.P.S. I take my national board exam August 11th, so after that I should have a lot more time to post.David Price -- Not as bad as he has looked lately, but the expectations were too high, even

Draft Day Tips for Major League Teams

2009-06-09T07:57:00.000-07:00

It's draft day for the MLB, which means Stephen Strasburg is soon to be a very rich dude, and a bunch of major league teams are about to drop a ton of money on a handful of kids that -- according to history -- will probably flame out in the minors 5 or 6 years from now. However, there are several teams out there that have shown an increased capacity to make the most of their picks, often out

Summer Prospects

2009-06-04T21:59:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, just thought I'd let everyone know that I'm still here. I've been studying a lot for my national board exam and putting in a lot of hours seeing patients and doing lab work, so I haven't had much time to focus on baseball or write about prospects. I wish I had more time right now because as many of you know, there is a lot to talk about and analyze in the world of prospects these

Nick Hagadone Update

2009-05-17T10:27:00.000-07:00

I haven't seen any official news on Nick Hagadone for a long time, but a recent article by Peter Gammons states that Hagadone recently "...threw 98 this week in extended Spring Training...". The reference is very vague and short on details, but I assume Gammons means that Hagadone hit 98 mph at some point off the mound, which would be a major sign that his recovery following Tommy John surgery

Long Time No Write

2009-05-17T07:50:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone, just thought I would let you all know that I have not completely disappeared. I had finals towards the end of April, and then I took a 2 week vacation with my wife to Europe so I haven't been around computers much lately. I just flew in to Atlanta yesterday, and school starts back up tomorrow so whenever I get some time I'll try and post stuff. I have my first round of national

Pablo Sandoval -- Cold Start, Bust, or Bad Luck?

2009-04-24T14:39:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I was checking in on my fantasy roster and spent about 30 minutes trying to figure out what in the world was wrong with Pablo Sandoval. After almost a full month, he was hitting south of .250 with an OPS of .626. I knew he might struggle this year, but I thought he would at least come out hitting about .270 or .280.So, I decided the best thing to do would be to break down some

Baseball America Hot Sheet -- April 24th

2009-04-24T13:02:00.000-07:00

Last week I failed to post or comment on the first Baseball America Hot Sheet of the year (Buster Posey at #1, Josh Reddick at #2) since I was working on acquainting myself with the Southern Atlantic League, but I wanted to be sure to mention it this week.I won't cover the entire list from week 2, but if you're interested, you can check out the complete article at Baseball America.1. Michael

Home Run Rate vs. Height of Pitch

2009-04-23T13:54:00.000-07:00

Spring semester is wrapping up, which is a good thing, but it also means that it's time for finals, so I'm going to be bogged down with a bunch of studying over the next few weeks and posting will be very sporadic. However, I will be keeping an eye on what's going on in baseball, so I'll try and keep everyone up-to-date on at least the more significant details.Anyways, I was skimming articles at