I’ll expand on this later, but I wanted to put this up ASAP so folks can discuss in the comments. Here’s the summary:
| A | Bryce Harper |
| B+ | Derek Norris |
| B/B+ | Danny Espinosa |
| B | Sammy Solis, A.J. Cole |
| B- | Wilson Ramos, Robbie Ray |
| C+/B- | Michael Burgess |
| C+ | Eury Perez, Rich Hague, Cole Kimball, J.P. Ramirez, Chris Marrero, Steve Lombardozzi, Brad Meyers, Brad Peacock, A.J. Morris |
| C | Tyler Moore, Tom Milone, Danny Rosenbaum |
Now before anyobdy gets their panties in a bunch about the C’s, remember that Sickels is a tough grader. And then look at his caveats…
“[Moore] — I realize that other sources and most Nationals fans rank him much higher, probably due to his hot second half. But he’s older than Marrero, a level behind him, and I don’t like the reports about holes in his swing or his BB/K ratio.”
“[Milone] — Great Double-A numbers of course despite lack of stuff. I might be underestimating him.”
“[Rosenbaum] — Tom Milone Part Two?”
None of these I can argue with and I’m especially pleased about Rosenbaum because I’ve been thinking it privately but was afraid to jinx him by stating it publicly. Nine C+ prospects is something to be happy about when for years it seemed like it was 19 C’s out of the Sickels Top 20.
UPDATE:
As threatened promised, here are some thoughts. And a link to his article.
…Yunesky Maya as an honorable mention. I’m very torn about whether or not to rank Maya even though he’s technically a rookie and he’s said to be major-league ready. Those two things are key components of being a prospect. But that also has a certain arrogance to it, that his international experience is no better than collegiate baseball. And I wonder if my ambivalence is also because he looks like he might be Rolando Arrojo II (though the parent club could certainly use a slightly-above-league-average pitcher).
…Michael Burgess being rated higher than Chris Marrero. The two are three months apart in age, but Marrero has shown that he can at least hit for average and with a modicum of power. It may be splitting hairs, but Marrero is the better prospect of the two at this point.
…Steve Lombardozzi is finally getting some respect. If nothing else, getting named here should make some folks pay closer attention.