BA FSL Top 20

[TheClash]

FLORIDA STATE LEAGUE

TOP 20 PROSPECTS

1. Jose Fernandez, rhp, Jupiter (Marlins)

2. Gerrit Cole, rhp, Bradenton (Pirates)

3. Jameson Tallon, rhp, Bradenton (Pirates)

4. Christian Yelich, of, Jupiter (Marlins)

5. Nick Castellanos, 3b, Lakeland (Tgers)

6. Enny Romero, lhp, Charlotte (Rays)

7. Oswlado Arcia, of, Fort Myers (Twins)

8. Tyler Austin, of, Tampa (Yankees)

9. Gary Sanchez, c, Tampa (Yankees)

10. Jesse Biddle, lhp, Clearwater (Phillies)

11. Jake Marisnick, of, Dunedin (Blue Jays)

12. Adam Morgan, lhp, Clearwater (Phillies)

13. Avisail Garcia, of, Lakeland (Tigers)

14. Bruce Rondon, rhp, Lakeland (Tigers)

15. Marcell Ozuna, of, Jupiter (Marlins)

16. Jimmy Nelson, rhp, Brevard County (Brewers)

17. Slade Heathcott, of, Tampa (Yankees)

18. Nik Turley, lhp, Tampa (Yankees)

19. Wilmer Flores, 3b, St. Lucie (Mets)

20. Gift Ngoepe, ss, Bradenton (Pirates)

 

Awesome!

[toonsterwu]

I can't say I'm terribly surprised that no Cubs prospect made it. The D-Cubs weren't a particularly strong team as it related to prospect talent this year. The top guys that probably qualified (as Baez didn't qualify, but also didn't have a great run in FSL), off the top, would've been Matt Szczur, Arismendy Alcantara, Ronald Torreyes on the hitting side. Torreyes struggled for part of the year, and Alcantara got hurt. Will be curious if they say/said anything on Szczur. After that, you're looking at guys like, what, Rubi Silva and John Andreoli. Not exactly guys that grab attention.

 

On the pitching side, it's a lot of mid-end of the rotation arm types, with a couple soft-tossing lefties in Kirk and Del Valle (and Jokisch if he qualified), and a couple older righties in Loosen and Francescon without top stuff. Whitenack was rehabbing, and from a pen perspective, I'm not sure if Zych qualified, but he was gone so early and had problems with his breaking ball.

 

The start of 2013 should be better in regards to the quality of names at Daytona (whether or not they perform, only time will tell). The SP staff could be better, with guys like Ben Wells, Starling Peralta, Jose Rosario, Michael Jensen likely all ticketed there (and IMO, all should still be in the rotation). I'm not sure where Zach Cates fits in, but he could be headed to Daytona again. Baez should be there to start 2013, and Soler could be as well.

[Redfoot]

Justin (Nashville): The three best prospects for Daytona appear to be Matt Szczur, Ronald Torreyes, and Arismendy Alcantara. Did any of these three come close to cracking the Top 20? How would you rank all three as prospects?

 

J.J. Cooper: If I was ranking how close it would be Alcantara, Szczur then Torreyes. I've already talked about Alcantara. As far as Torreyes, guys still like him, but when you are a really short 2B, you have to put up numbers to answer concerns about your ceiling. This year for the first time, Torreyes struggled to put up those numbers. Don't give up on him by any stretch, but he's more likely to be a role player type than an impact everyday guy. With Szczur, I had one scout say "at some point, we've got to stop giving him a pass for being young in baseball experience." The concerns were that Szczur's swing doesn't allow the ball to carry much—he needs to learn how to backspin the ball more if he's going to be more than a gap-to-gap guy. His tools are impressive and he would have been in the 25-to-30 range.

[Guest]

There were other Cub-related questions too:

 

Frank (Chicago): Where would Javier Baez have placed on this list, were he eligible? Are you as high on him as your colleague Jim Callis?

 

J.J. Cooper: Hi Frank. I don't know if I'm as high on Baez as Jim is, but I'm a big fan. He's a special hitter and he's better defensively than was expected. If I had to guess, he would have been in the top four, but it's hard to give a certain answer on that, as I wasn't asking a whole lot of people about him, since I knew he would qualify. One manager described him as having a Dante Bichette-esque swing where he had a big swing, but in a controlled manner with good balance.

 

Andrew (Chicago): How close was Alcantara to making the list? What does he need to improve to become a legit SS prospect next year in double A?

 

J.J. Cooper: Very close. I'd say he was No. 21 or No. 22. Alcantara's bat was probably the best of all the many intriguing shortstops in the FSL this year. He has a very good arm, which allows him to make some plays defensively as well, although there were more questions about his defense than his bat.

 

Justin (Nashville): Where would Christian Villenueva ranked if he had been eligible? He was ranked 9th in the Carolina League, although it seems like the FSL Top 20 is deeper.

 

J.J. Cooper: I'm just going off of past Villanueva knowledge, but somewhere probably around where Ozuna ended up. I didn't ask anyone about him because so few people got to see him in his 4 weeks in the league.

 

LOL:

 

Justin (Nashville): Did Hayden Simpson show any signs of recovering his stuff in Daytona?

 

J.J. Cooper: Not enough to where he came close to making this list.

 

Justin (Nashville): Any pitchers at Daytona that are mildly interesting? It seems like the Austin Kirk, Matt Loosen, Frank Del Valle, Robert Whitenack, Kyler Burke, A.J. Morris, etc. collection of pitchers consist of back end rotation or middle relief prospects. Will any of these guys be in the Cubs Top 30 this year?

 

J.J. Cooper: I didn't have one manager or scout from another club bring up any Daytona pitcher. That doesn't mean none of them will make the Top 30 for the Cubs, but none came close to making the FSL Top 20.

[TruffleShuffle]

i don't even know why he gave a serious answer to a hayden simpson question. i would've either made a keith law-esque snarky response or, more likely, just skipped it altogether.