Baltimore Orioles
Boston Red Sox
New York Yankees
Tampa Bay Rays
Toronto Blue Jays
Chicago White Sox
Cleveland Indians
Detroit Tigers
Kansas City Royals
Minnesota Twins
Houston Astros
LA Angels
Oakland Athleticss
Seattle Mariners
Texas Rangers
Atlanta Braves
Miami Marlins
New York Mets
Philadelphia Phillies
Washington Nationals
Chicago Cubs
Cincinnati Reds
Milwaukee Brewers
Pittsburgh Pirates
St. Louis Cardinals
Arizona Diamondbacks
Colorado Rockies
Los Angeles Dodgers
San Diego Padres
San Francisco Giants
PART I CAN BE FOUND HERE: http://strike3forums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11517
PART II CAN BE FOUND HERE: http://strike3forums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11543
PART III CAN BE FOUND HERE
http://strike3forums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11918
Part Four is up ahead…where we get into the real meat of the prospect list, featuring some of the better players in today’s game. Sorry for the hiatus, but here is 40-21!
PART FOUR OF FIVE: PROSPECTS 40-21
40. Marty Janzen, rhp, Blue Jays
Marty Janzen enjoyed a two-year career with the Blue Jays, and seems to be another victim of not getting enough chances. Originally an amateur signed as a FA by the Yankees, he was part of a trade to Toronto for David Cone. After almost 100 poor innings, he was shipped off to Arizona in the expansion draft, and traded later that off-season back to the Yankees for Andy Fox. Interestingly enough, he had 25 innings of 3.6 ERA ball in his last year, at the age of 24. Surprising that he did not get another shot at the major league level, although being traded to the Yankees during their dynastic run made that possible.
39. Trot Nixon, of, Red Sox
One of four Red Sox on the list, and he is the second most successful all things considered. One of Lou Gorman’s more notable picks for the Red Sox, as the 7th overall selection in 1993. He got to the majors in 1996, but he saw real time in 1999. Over 3500 plate appearances, he has been, primarily, a right-handed pitcher specialist. Trot has issues against lefties, but he is deadly against right-handed hitters. He is a career .280-.370-.490 hitter who, unlike a vast majority of current Red Sox, is a homegrown player. For a while, Trot was the only homegrown player on the roster, and one of only a few with Nomar Garciaparra (36) and Kevin Youkilis at separate times.
38. Jimmy Haynes, rhp, Orioles
We saw Danny Graves before, and now we got another portion of the modern day targets of hatred from the Queen City (Ohio!). Haynes had a relatively long but undistinguished career. The 7th round pick of the Orioles in 1991 and made it to the majors with Baltimore in 1995. Throughout his career, he was primarily a starter, with stints in the pen in the beginning and at the end. He had a career ERA of 5.37, with his best season coming in 2002 with the Reds. In 2002, he went 15-10 with a 4.12 ERA with almost 200 innings. However, he never truly matched that season again, as his last major league season garnered him an ERA of almost 10.
37. Ben Grieve, of, Athletics
Grieve is the 15th all-star and the 58th major leaguer on the list. Basically, he was a more heralded but less successful version of Trot Nixon. He won the RotY in 1998 and he won his only all-star bid. Grieve never matched that season again, providing about 5 more full above-average offensive seasons for the A’s and Devil Rays over the course of seven years. He has a career OPS of .809, a very respectable number. He was also involved in a massive trade in the off-season of 2001, which sent Johnny Damon, Cory Lidle, and Mark Ellis to the A’s, Angel Berroa to the Royals, and Ben Grieve to the Devil Rays, among others.
36. Nomar Garciaparra, ss, Red Sox
NO-MAH! I really shouldn’t have to say more, but he is the first of a few real stars on this portion of the list, and the most successful of the Boston prospects on this portion of the list and on the list overall. Nomar debuted for Boston in 1996, being drafted in the first round of the 1994 draft. He hit .306 in his second season and didn’t look back, a season in which he won RotY. In 1999 and 2000, he provided the Sox with a superb fielding shortstop who put up OPS over 1.000 with an average on the higher side of .350. He was also an offensive superstar in the 1999 ALDS with the Cleveland Indians. He finished second in the MVP voting in 1998. However, after his wrist injury in 2001, he was not the same player. He was a very good hitting shortstop in 2002 and 2003 as well. In 2004, he came into ST injured and he never got a shot to play due to his persisting injury. He was getting restless with fans and media pushing him to play. The fans and media were getting restless with his poor attitude and his seeming inability to play. He was dealt at the trading deadline to the Cubs in a four-team trade for Orlando Cabrera and Doug Mientkiewicz. Later that year, the Red Sox won the World Series, and Nomar hurt his groin in an early game with the Cubs in 2005. Garciaparra is currently enjoying a comeback season as the first baseman in Los Angeles.
35. Jeff Suppan, rhp, Red Sox
Perhaps the most interesting thing to me about Soups’on is that I saw his debut against Kansas City. That ****tard Bob Hamelin didn’t give me an autograph when he easily could have, so the whole section booed him for the game. He was horrible. However, Suppan wasn’t great and KC won that game. Suppan is the definition of major league mediocrity. Going into the 2006 season, he had a record of 94 wins and 94 losses (.500). His career ERA was 4.66, with a league average of 4.70. However, at least in the win column, St. Louis has rejuvenated his career with 32 wins in the last two years. He also helped steal away two nice young players from the Red Sox as both Mike Gonzalez and Freddy Sanchez were traded for him and Scott Sauerbeck in 2003. He was the third overall pick in the expansion draft for the Diamondbacks in 1997. He is a generally boring player.
34. Jaret Wright, rhp, Indians
lol jaret wright. Well, not a whole lot to say about Jaret. He’s had one great season in his career with 15 wins for the Braves in 2004. The Yankees promptly gave him a big-time deal and he returned to good ole Jaret Wright with injuries and mediocrity abound. Most notably, he had two very good postseason series for the 1997 Cleveland Indians, and as a result of that and Leo Mazzone, he’s set for life financially.
33. Edgar Renteria, ss, Marlins
Rent-A-Reck is the 17th all-star and 62nd major leaguer on the list. He has been a good shortstop over the course of his career and has ridden two great offensive seasons to a big payday. A three-time NL Silver Slugger and two-time gold glove winner has appeared in four all-star games for the Marlins and Cardinals. Offensively, for a shortstop he has been good, for a baseball player, not so much with a 95 OPS+. After a disastrous season in Boston where the gold glove SS has 30 (!) errors, he was traded to Atlanta, where he is enjoying a very good season in the NL.
32. Todd Helton, 1b, Rockies
Todd Helton is a monster. Seriously, him and Frank Thomas could be the two most underrated players of this era of baseball. Yes, he plays in Coors Field, and yes, that does help his numbers. However, look at these ranks
5th – OPS
22nd – BA
9th – OBP
Those are his ranks ALL-TIME in those statistics. His most similar player at his age is Jeff Bagwell, then Frank Thomas, Hank Greenberg, Chuck Klein, Joltin’ Joe Dimaggio, Manny Ramirez, Carlos Delgado, Hal Trotsky, Ted Williams, Albert Belle. And none of them have a similarity score among 900, making Helton truly unique. He has a career OPS of 1.040 and a BA of .337. Since 1998, he has played at least 140 games in every season. Even in a year where he was injured, he still had an OPS near 1.000 in 2005. The five-time all-star, three-time gold-glove winner, and four-time silver slugger is one of the best, and most underrated, players in baseball.
31. Jaime Jones, of, Marlins
And one the other end of the spectrum is Jaime Jones. I seriously cannot find anything on him, other than that he didn’t play in the majors, his baseball-cube page cannot be found, and Gammons noted his name in a draft article. He is the 7th career minor leaguer on the list.
30. Jermaine Dye, of, Braves
Jermaine Dye’s had an interesting career. He was, essentially, a bust until 1999 where he broke out with Kansas City. In 2000, he put up a .321-.390-.526 line and earned his only ASG appearance. He didn’t really match that again due to both injuries and disappointing performance in general once he was shipped off to Oakland in a three-way deal, where he was traded straight up to Colorado for Neifi Perez (ouch) and then moved to Oakland. He made a comeback of sorts with Chicago, winning the World Series MVP in 2005. He is enjoying an awesome year in 2006, with a .309-.406-.674 line so far, practically guaranteeing him his second all-star selection with Ozzie Guillen at the helm.
29. Bob Abreu, of, Astros
Abreu is the 20th all-star on the list and the 65th major leaguer. Amusingly, two teams let one of the better major league outfielders get away. The first was the Astros, who let him to Tampa Bay with the 6th pick of the Expansion Draft. On the same day, he was traded to Philadelphia for Kevin Stocker. Kevin Stocker was worth 2 ASG appearances, the best Home Run Derby round ever, a Gold Glove, a Silver Slugger, and a Top 50 career OPS. Sounds fair to me. Abreu could reach the 300-300 plateau that Reggie Sanders just reached by the end of his career. One of the best players on the list, and two teams left him unprotected or available for Kevin Stocker. Go figure.
28. Donnie Sadler, ss, Red Sox
Well, there’s the token craptastic utility man, who was ranked better than Nomar in the same organization. He played every position but catcher, first base, and pitcher in his seven-season career. Pretty interesting since he played in about 400 games with 25 games or more at six positions. He had an amazingly bad career OPS+ of 40, which may explain why he didn’t stay with many teams, including several negative OPS+ in seasons where he was moved to another team. His 9th most similar player is Danny Ainge.
27. Scott Rolen, 3b, Phillies
Rolen is the final high point of this portion of the list. The 67th Major Leaguer and 21st All-Star could be the best defensive third baseman since Brooks Robinson. Oh, and he can hit. He has won six gold-gloves, the 1997 rookie of the year, a Silver Slugger, and the 67th ranking on the career OPS list. He was also part of a hideous trade, with Scott Rolen going to St. Louis for Bud Smith, Placido Polanco, and Mike Timlin. Two good players are in that list, but none of them had nearly the impact of Rolen. He is simply a very good player who is a very good hitting and fielding third baseman. Rolen is by far the most successful third baseman on the list of the Top 100 prospects.
26. Jason Kendall, c, Pirates
He’s a catcher who has a career average of over .300. The three time All-Star (#22 on the list) is, generally, a solid catcher who has managed an above-average OPS, playing mostly for a dismal Pirates club. Too bad he can’t hit for power…at all. I guess that’s the difference between Mike Piazza and Jason Kendall. Wait, it definitely is. A solid player who could be a piece on a good club, but not a player to rely on to lead a team to victory.
25. Jeff D'Amico, rhp, Brewers
Wow, there are two Jeff D’Amico’s? Who knew? As for this one, he was the definition of one-year wonder. Career ERA: 4.61. ERA in 2000: 2.66. He never saw an ERA below his career rate again. Seriously, I don’t remember that happening very often.
24. Jim Pittsley, rhp, Royals
The 70th major leaguer on the list, and that’s it. Seriously, he wasn’t a good player. 225 innings of 6.02 ERA ball.
23. Jose Cruz Jr., of, Mariners
A generally unexciting outfielder. He did win a gold-glove and he has wielded a low average, but generally decent (103 OPS+) bat over his career for a 7 teams, including three in 2005. Somewhat similar to Mike Cameron over his career and not a whole lot else to say, other than his father was an all-star in the league, and he was also traded for Mike Timlin. And for some reason, it costs 30 bucks to sponsor his baseballreference page.
22. Todd Walker, 3b, Twins
A decent player at 2b over his career. Pretty much mirrors the league average for rate stats with a slightly higher batting average. Oh, and he was a hideous fielder. He was a beast in the 2003 playoffs for Boston as well. It seems that Walker’s page is sponsored by the owner of b-r. Go figure.
21. Jay Payton, of, Mets
He threw a hissy fit to get off the Red Sox. Other than that, he’s Todd Walker, except the outfielder version with a worse batting average. I don’t want to say anymore, this section was boring due to the horrible mediocrity past Rolen.
Major League Players: 73 (91.25%)
Career Minor Leaguers: 7 (8.75%)
All-Star Players: 22 (27.5%)
Dudes that threw a hissy fit for more playing time: One that we know of (1.25%)
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