Baseball America Top 100 Prospects

by jscape2000 on Feb 26, 2008 1:38 PM EST in New York Yankees News

BA has their rankings up. It's the usual suspects for Yankee fans. BA puts a lot of faith into projectability (they give ETAs of 2009 and 2010 for 9 of their top 20 players). That's not a knock on the great work BA does, it's just a context to keep in mind.

Without further ado:
Joba ranked 3rd, behind Reds' RF Jay Bruce and Rays' 3B Evan Longoria.
For our Red Sox lurkers, ~~the labtop thief~~ Clay Buchholz ranked 4th.

Jose Tabata fell ten spots, from 27 to 37, but BA had this to say:

.307: Batting average in the Florida State League last year, all the more impressive considering he was 19 and had an injured wrist.

Austin Jackson is just behind Tabata at 41. BA puts those two AA outfielders ahead of Ian Kennedy (45).

That's it for Yanks, though Alan Horne, Jeff Marquez, and Jesus Montero all made the just missed list.

I'm struck by how little love Humberto Sanchez received. He was ranked 57th in last season's top 100 list and is scheduled to be ready to start pitching in the minors in mid-May. Dellin Betances was ranked #100 last season and also didn't get a vote for this season's list.

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So they could've had Santana

for a pitcher who for 3 straight years hasn't been a quality pitcher on the road and his win totals are inflated with all the run support he gets as the Yanks pointed out in the arbitration hearing plus the #44 prospect in baseball and turned it down. Great management team.

by andyroth on Feb 26, 2008 9:48 PM EST reply actions

The man behind the mask

I'm getting this growing suspicion that you and George King are the same person.

You guys both want to keep the old strategy of trading away young talent for "established" players and continuing to inflate the payroll instead of injecting youth into this team and building from within. If it was your decision, either Kennedy or Joba would have been traded to Texas last July for Eric Gagne.

Riddle me this...

Is Johan Santana worth $20M+ more per season than Wang - plus the prospects and luxury tax hit to go along with it?

I don't think so.

Wang has been the workhorse of the Yankees' rotation since his rookie season and eats 200 IP every year. And he's making only $4M to boot and is under control of the Yanks for another few years. Yes, Wang had a terrible October last year, but he was fine the two previous years.

If your argument is that Santana is better than Wang - you'd win.

But Wang is not exactly Jeff Weaver or Jaret Wright. Wang is still a very good reliable arm and the disparity between him and Santana was not worth the $20M+ per year in salary, the additional luxury tax hit, and trading other solid prospects on top of it.

Of course, this is all assuming that the Twins really wanted Wang, which I don't buy for a minute considering they play half their games on turf (a sinkerballer's worst nightmare).

It's time to move on already and focus on the current Yankee squad, Mr. George A. King III.

by anaconda on Feb 26, 2008 11:11 PM EST up reply actions

So how do you feel about the Yankees

turning down a deal for Santana that didn't include any of the Holy Trinity, becuase that is the final reality of all the negotiations which nobody is talking about or bothered by it?

Are you telling me you would've turned down a deal where Wang and none of the Holy Trinity were included? Keep in mind Wang is 28 and Santana is 29, and as former Yankee fan I wouldn't give a F how much they spend because 1. it's not money coming out of my pocket and 2. when it's a guy who has put up Hall of Fame numbers PLUS being lefty which is exactly what you want for the Stadium...Just remember after this season no Pettite, so Chamberlain, Hughes and Kennedy better live up to the hype.

by andyroth on Feb 26, 2008 11:45 PM EST up reply actions

Pettitte may indeed pitch in 2009

I have a feeling that he is going to want to pitch in the new yard. We'll see.

You should care about what they spend. Not spending money wisely is a big part of the reason why the Yanks have had so much dead weight on the team the last few years. Bad contracts = dead weight = you're fucked.

You sign big name players to big time contracts and they can't be moved if they turn out to be unproductive.

That's not to say they should never spend big money on talent, but they had already spent $400M+ this offseason to keep A-Rod, Posada, Mo, Pettitte, and Abreu in pinstripes.

Cashman and Hal decided that was enough. Sooner or later, they have to stop opening up their checkbook and use the retooled farm to their advantage.

Also, there has been no official confirmation that Wang was part of any Santana deal. That is purely speculation on your part. Even if that was the case, the disparity between Wang and Santana's production did not warrant the enormous financial cost and prospects. Is Santana really worth $20-25M per year more than Wang (plus prospects)?

I don't think so.

Take Wang out of the rotation right now and insert Santana. This team would still have almost as many question marks as they have now because the Trinity would still be on innings-caps and the bullpen would still be a question mark with a plethora of young arms competing for bullpen roles.

And I've said it a thousand times. Aces are often overrated. How many "aces" got clobbered in the postseason last year (Carmona, Sabathia, Peavy, etc)?

They can't pitch every postseason game and can get beat like anyone else - especially since they are always facing the other team's "ace". Depth in the rotation is the key to a championship run reminiscent of the late 90s dynasty.

Please move on. Santana is a Met. It's unhealthy to keep arguing about it.

by anaconda on Feb 27, 2008 1:25 AM EST up reply actions