Every season as the year approaches we look forward to the players on the rise from the minors league ranks who could have an impact. Sometimes, the experts get it right on the top Rookies and sometimes a player come out of nowhere to surprise.
For example, take the case of Jason Bay. Not a heralded prospect by any means. He started his career out with the defunct Montreal Expos, gets traded in a variety of deal as a throw in to the Mets, and then to the Padres. It wasn’t until 2003 he started tearing the cover off the ball. It was then shortly after his major league debut with Padres, he goes down with a broken bone after being beamed at the plate. Shortly after he is healthy again, he is part of a blockbuster deal as a relative unproven commodity to Pirates for Brian Giles. Its the case of one player who showed signs of being a good player, but somehow stayed off the radar.
Its a rare case. For the most part, the minor league excellance does translate to success in the Majors. With that in mind, I point you to the people who keep up with the top minor league talent for 2007:
- Baseball America with Top 10 by Organization and the new prospect blog
- Bryan Smith with his Top 75 Prospects
- John Sickel’s Minor League Ball
- The Project Prospect Site
- The excellent JDM ScoreSheet’s Top 10’s or Top 100 Rookies List
- Fantasy Baseball Hub ProspectMap
- MILB.com post 2006 prospect list
- Diamond Futures
- Firstinning
