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Wednesday, March 02, 2005 |
Sickels: Dodgers Top Twenty Prospects
John Sickels writes about the Dodgers' top 20 prospects today, and much like the Angels, what stands out here is the depth more than the upper-tier quality of the players (only Joel Guzman and Chad Billingsley rated A- or better grades). Unlike the Angels, the Dodgers' system is swimming in starters, though there's no clear Felix Hernandez waiting to bust out and crash through the division. Also, being longer, Sickels' list has some unfamiliar names on it relative to the Baseball America list, but that's because it's longer. As I did with the Angels, I'll provide commentary after the individual names. Italicized comments are straight from Sickels, everything else has attributions attached.
- Joel Guzman, SS, A: Jon's less-than-sanguine about Guzman's actual ability, mentioning his scary-bad walk totals as a reason to think Sickels overrates him ("looks like a potential Miguel Cabrera to me"), and ultimately thinks his future lies at third or in the outfield.
- Chad Billingsley, RHP, A- Billingsley is another prodigy. He needs sharper command, but again we're talking about a guy who acquitted himself well in Double-A at age 20.
- Jonathan Broxton, RHP, B+ Broxton is underrated...
- Edwin Jackson, RHP, B Jackson and Loney were disappointments last year, Loney due to injury and Jackson due to "I'm a young pitcher" syndrome. I expect rebounds from both.
- James Loney, 1B, B
- Chuck Tiffany, LHP, B
- Yhency Brazoban, RHP, B
- Delwyn Young, 2B, B Delwyn Young is a favorite of many statheads due to his booming bat. Defense remains a big questionmark....
- Dioner Navarro, C, B
- Russ Martin, C, B
- Blake DeWitt, 3B, B
- Cory Dunlap, 1B, B
- Willy Aybar, 2B, B- Some other analysts have started rating him as among the best prospects in the game. ... I still don't see him as among the best prospects in the game, not yet.
- Andy LaRoche, 3B, B- ... it is possible I've underrated LaRoche... One big positive in LaRoche's profile is a low strikeout rate for a power hitter. I probably didn't account enough fro [sic] that.
- Chin-Lung Hu, SS, B-
- Scott Elbert, LHP, B-
- Justin Orenduff, RHP, B-
- Julio Pimentel, RHP, B- [H]as "2005 Breakthrough" tattooed on his forehead.
- Matt Kemp, OF, C+
- D.J. Houlton, RHP, C+
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