The Hardball Times (Fantasy) rolled out their first installment of their Top 100 Fantasy Prospects with the Top 25 yesterday. Devin Mesoraco came in at #6 on the list:
6: Devin Mesoraco/C/Cincinnati Reds/6-19-88/ETA: Arrived
Forecast Notes: Ready to be in the majors now, projects as a 25-HR type.
Current Level: MLB
Scouting Notes: If not for the strong play of Ramon Hernandez and Ryan Hanigan, the Reds likely would have summoned Mesoraco prior to September on the heels of his second strong year. It took him a few seasons, but last year Mesoraco began to show his offensive prowess, and that play carried over to this year.
He offers plus power for the catcher position along with an astute eye that has helped him draw walks in over 10 percent of his plate appearances this season. A reasonable comp for Mesoraco would be Carlos Santana, with a bit less pop and current on-base skills. That difference in home run power may not fully show itself as Mesoraco will be playing his home games in a more favorable ballpark for hitting home runs. Reviews of his defense are encouraging enough to expect him to catch for an extended period of time, even if it will be as no more than an adequate defender with a plus bat. In the fantasy game, all that matters is that he retains the “C” next to his name in the lineup.
I am not a guy who plays fantasy baseball anymore, I simply don’t have the time to keep up with the day to day lineup changes anymore. But I have to imagine that especially from a fantasy perspective that Mesoraco’s potential has to make him an elite level fantasy prospect on the sole basis that catchers in the Majors can’t hit. With that said, I think fantasy or not, that ranking is pretty close to where he should be.
Milb.com has up its annual MiLB Awards for 2011. There are several categories in which Reds players can be voted for. I have listed them below:
- HR of the Year – Billy Hamilton and Donald Lutz are both eligible (I was there for the Lutz game…. he is STRONG).
- Starter of the Year – Josh Smith in the Low A Category and Tony Cingrani in the Short Season Category.
- Best Hitter – Devin Mesoraco in the AAA Category.
- Best Reliever – Drew Hayes in the Low A Category.
- Best Game – Bakersfields 24-19 loss in the High A Category, Daniel Renken’s 14 K game in Low A as well as Billy Hamilton’s 100th steal game in Low A.
- Best Team – The Dayton Dragons in the Low A Category.
Vote early. Vote often.
Baseball America will release its Midwest League Top 20 prospects around 11:30-12:30 today. I will be back to hold some discussion on that and post the list of Dragons when the list goes live. Until then, who do you think makes it from the team? My guess says Hamilton, Corcino, Rodriguez and Torreyes make the list. Anyone else would be a surprise, but I don’t know the full scale depth of the league this year yet either.
Edit
The Baseball America list for the Midwest League is out. Only Billy Hamilton (#2) and Daniel Corcino (#16) made the list. These lists are based more on what the managers within the league think than what the scouts think, so these results don’t always reflect where they will rank in the year end Top 100 lists or the Top 30 team lists that Baseball America will release.
My take on it is simple…. there is no way that Billy Hamilton is the 2nd best prospect in that league. He wasn’t the 2nd best prospect on his own team in my opinion. He is a good prospect, but his lack of hitting ability means he isn’t an elite prospect. There can’t be 6 pitchers in the league who were better than Corcino. Numbers wise, he was outstanding. Stuff wise, he was outstanding. Can’t put together his rank. I can’t wrap my head around Yorman Rodriguez not being one of the twenty best prospects in the league. He didn’t have good numbers in the league, but he was also the youngest player in the league for the first half and one of the three youngest in the league in the second half and well, he has tools, tools and more tools. As I noted in the comments already, Ronald Torreyes missed the list. It could have been due to how the schedule works out. The list is more based on the leagues managers opinions and Torreyes didn’t play in the first half, which means he missed several managers even seeing him within the league. It could have kept him out of the mix.
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