Baseball held it's annual player draft this week, and as you may have heard, the Nationals didn't go the cheap route, selecitng Bryce Harper with their second consecutive #1 overall pick. In baseball history, no team has ever added this level of talent in back-to-back drafts, so it's a good time to be a Nationals fan. Next week we'll review the draft from a fantasy perspective. We don't have the resurces of some other websites, but I'll do a team-by-team analysis and let you know who to look for from a fantasy perspective.
Regarding the 2010 draftees, you'll note that I'm not including them in this week's rankings. Consistent with past seasons, unless a guy has signed a pro contract, he will remain ineligible for this list. If you want to know where Bryce Harper will rank (many of you do), if Harper signed today, I'd probalby slot him #5 on my top-50 hitters list behind Mike Stanton, Carlos Santana, Buster Posey, and Pedro Alvarez. However, with Harper unlikely to sign until August, there's a strong possibility he makes his debut at #1 on this list.
This week's 20 freebies:
American League
10 Mike Trout LAA OF A- Promote him already - .366/.444/.546
with 6 HR and 31 SB. .432 in last 10 games.
14 Dustin Ackley SEA 2B A- Seeing time at 1B. Also hitting .323 since the end of an awful April. Still only 1 HR all year.
20 Aaron Hicks MIN OF B+ Just .215 since the end of April and 59 K in 53 games. Also just a 45% SB% in 13 attempts.
21 Eric Hosmer KC 1B B+ .440 in June, but curious why only 2 HR in 214 ab. Does have 24 other XBH, so prob no worries.
26 Wil Myers KC C B+ Has overcome a .232 April and now has solid .879 OPS and 0.87 EYE.
37 Nick Hagadone CLE SP B 2.39 ERA in A+ gets him a promotion. Five shutout innings in second AA start. On the rise.
40 Zach McAllister NYY SP B 6+ IP and <= 6 ER in each of last give GS. He'll see NY before year's end…or be traded.
41 Alex White CLE SP B 1.83 ERA in first three AA starts. So far so good for 2009 first-rounder.
45 Garrett Richards LAA SP B Follows up 3 scoreless starts with a bad outing. 70:21 K:BB in 73 IP.
46 Wilmer Font TEX SP B Great arm and just 1 ER total over last 3 GS. Command issues at times, but great upside.
National League
1 Mike Stanton FLA OF A Yep, some other guy made his debut on Tuesday. 3 hits for Stanton. He's here to stay.
3 Buster Posey SF C A Can't complain about lack of BB (1 to 33 AB) when he's hitting .455.
4 Pedro Alvarez PIT 3B A .400 in June could be getting him closer to his Pirates' debut. ETA: early-July.
6 Domonic Brown PHI OF A .969 OPS and some rumors the Phillies may cut bait on Ibanez. Seems unlikely however.
12 Starlin Castro CHC SS A- He's levelled off a bit with a .280 AVG and just 4 XBH in first 100 big league at-bats.
1 Stephen Strasburg WAS SP A+ Well, THAT wasn't bad. If you didn't see Strasburg's debut, you missed history.
3 Aroldis Chapman CIN SP A Oops. 2 IP, 7 ER, 6 BB in his last start. Guess he's not quite ready after all.
6 Madison Bumgarner SF SP A 5 ER in 6.1 IP on Tuesday was his worst start in some time. Still should be in SF by now.
7 Julio Teheran ATL SP A 1.04 ERA and 32:4 K:BB in 26 innings since A+ promotion. Nice work for the teenager.
14 Arodyz Vizcaino ATL SP A- Look at his last 5 GS: 33.2 IP, 0 ER, 31:0 K:BB. Hey, how about a promotion ATL?
Each week we provide over 70 updates to our top 100 prospects (50 hitters and 50 pitchers) as well as our team-by-team top 5s in Prospect Central. Link: http://www.fantistics.com/baseball00/M-Prospect.htm. Not a member? Join today link:www.fantistics.com/join/join.php3
