BA NWL Rankings

[toonsterwu]

Davell touched on it in the instructs post, but the Boise Hawks were shutout of the BA NWL rankings. Not the most surprising thing when you step back and think about it - a power arm like Kurcz can be found in the NWL, and Alcantara is still raw tools. Not too surprising ... the lower levels were acknowledged as being weak this year.

 

A bit surprised Kirk didn't make it, but wasn't he sitting low 90's in Boise?

[Outshined_One]

In an eight team league, the Cubs couldn't get one guy on a Top 20? Geez, I knew it was a down year with the short season teams for the Cubs, but this was unexpected.

[davell]

I wouldn't be surprised if Kurcz was left off partly because of his rather smallish stature of 6'0, 175 pounds. He was one of the more dominant pitchers of the league.

[toonsterwu]

any news from the chat? I wouldn't be surprised if concerns on the current dominance of Kurcz's breaking ball was more at the root for why he didn't make it, considering his projection is still as a late inning arm.

[videographer]

BA chat

 

Toby (Bronx): If you stacked this list up against last year's, which one would you take, and why?

 

Conor Glassey: Hey Toby, that's a good question to start off with. I think this year is better all around. At the top, managers and scouts liked Profar better than Hak-Ju Lee, and then there's some really good depth in this year's top 5. You could have made a compelling argument for any of this year's top 5 to be No. 1 on the list. The same can only be said for last year's top 3 (Lee, Edinson Rincon & Brett Jackson). In addition to that, I think this year's list is a little deeper, too.

 

Tom (Chicago): How is it possible that the league's top hitter Alvaro Ramirez and the 4th leading hitter Pierre LePage don't rate in your top 20?

 

 

Conor Glassey: Hey Tom, hitting .350 in the Northwest League is a nice feat and not easy to do, but Ramirez is a 5-foot-9 24-year-old that's already been released by the Yankees. He'll have to settle for being on the Northwest League's official postseason all-star team. LePage did get a little more support, but he's more of a grinder-type that's going to have to prove himself every year than a real prospect. The players from Boise that got the most support were lefthanders Cam Greathouse and Austin Kirk and righthander Aaron Kurcz.

 

Drew (IL): I was supprised to see the absence of Matt Szcur, considering he has only devoted half of his efforts to baseball thus far. Or does his absence have to due with the possibility of him choosing football over baseball after his college season is over?

 

 

Conor Glassey: Szcur didn't qualify, but he is definitely interesting.

[davell]

Kind of surprised Alcantara didn't get a mention when talking about the Cubs possibilities.

[TruffleShuffle]

hey tom from chicago, you might want to check a guy's age and background before you start complaining that he's not on a prospect list.

[Wrigley Rat]

hey tom from chicago, you might want to check a guy's age and background before you start complaining that he's not on a prospect list.

But I'm glad he did, since we learned that Greathouse, Kirk, and Kurcz are Boise's top prospects!