contains players who I had a chance to see and make an evaluation on during the
regular season. Weaver, Carillo and a few others simply did not line up right for
me to see them play although with over 300 evaluations online I am confident I
have a good sense of the makeup of the league.
Why is your list different than Baseball America's and who's is better?
Baseball America compiles there list through discussions with league managers
and scouts. All of these people have their own unique and individual opinions on
players in the league. I also had many discussions over the summer with
managers,coaches, players and scouts covering the league but in the end coming
up with the top prospect list for the league rests solely in my hands. Prospect
evaluating is an inherently inexact science and it takes a few years at least in order
to evaluate the accuracy of a list, this should be kept in mind when comparing one
list to another. I like my list though.
Present Performance or Future Potential? First and foremost this is a
prospect list that looks at the potential of the players down the road, not an All
Star list that rewards a good statistical season. Who is going to be a more
valuable player at the ML level and if I am running a team, who do I want?
Luckily for me most of the players who I think are going to be good big leaguers
had nice 2005 seasons. With that being said there are several notable exceptions
in players who I liked and didn't perform at the level that I believe they are
capable of and conversely some players who despite their excellent seasons I am
not convinced will be able to succeed at the higher levels for one reason or
another (addressed in each players indiv. scouting report).
Why Stop at 30 players? Why not 40, 50, 60, 70? What does the future hold
for the 53rd best player in the league. Exactly. I am positive that there will be a
player outside of my Top 30 who will have a productive career at the ML level
while I player who sits securely inside will undoubtedly fail to reach expectations,
again it's the nature of the business and by understanding this I think I can create a
more balanced and hopefully accurate list. I include an extra 15 players to watch
for but they are listed alphabetically in order to account for this issue and
essentially represent the next group of players down with respect to the numbers I
put on each player.
