One of my favorites, Frankie Piliere has up his Top 100 prospect list over at AOL Fanhouse (soon to be defunct). The Reds got these players onto the list:
- #8 Aroldis Chapman – LHP
- #49 Devin Mesoraco – C
- #59 Billy Hamilton – SS/2B
- #69 Yonder Alonso – 1B
The Top 50 players have blurbs about them listed on the site, while 51-100 are simply just listed in order. What do you guys think of the list? I would have put Mesoraco and Alonso a little bit higher. Hamilton a little bit lower.
Frankie also held a chat, but I don’t think he addressed any Reds specific questions. You can check it out here to read what he had to say about the rankings. He also posted his Team Rankings and the Reds came in at #6 overall. Here is what he had to say on the system:
Aroldis Chapman still having prospect status is a pretty good place to start for any farm system. But beyond that, having studs like Billy Hamilton, Yasmani Grandal and Yonder Alonso on the way sure doesn’t hurt either. The Reds have talent up and down the ladder as they continue to draft smart and do their share of work in the international market.
The newest Baseball Prospectus podcast is up with Kevin Goldstein and Jason Parks. Among the 2 hour and 43 minute podcast, they discuss Reds prospects. Jason Parks brings up some interesting points on Billy Hamilton that echo some of my same concerns with him. There is also discussion on Yonder Alonso, Yorman Rodriguez, Aroldis Chapman, Didi Gregorius, Devin Mesoraco, Yasmani Grandal and maybe more. You should go listen to it, but be warned, its 148 MB to download and very long. Check the page in the link above to give you times to check for when looking for specific things.
Speaking of podcasts, Redleg Nation’s Bill Lack sat down with Matt Klinker and talked about all kinds of things from his time in Mexico, other players, last season and this season coming up. Go give it a listen.