Today's pitching starts are fronted by Minor League Ball's favorite homegrown talent, Matt Moore, all grown up and taking the hill against the revamped DET offense. How many of us will call up Moore from our minor league rosters if he dominates the game today?

Also taking the hill:

(MLB - Matt Moore!)

AAA- Matt Harvey, Wily Peralta, Christian Friedrich, Garret Richards

AA- Allen Webster, Drew Hutchison, Drew Pomeranz (why is he in AA?), Nestor Molina, Jarred Cosart, Trevor Bauer

A+ - Taylor Jungmann, Zach Lee, Seth "The Enigma" Blair

Mex: Esteban Yan (shout-out for Cardinals fans)

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Hi all,

It appears we are seeing the annual bloom of fantasy baseball want ads, with 4 recruitment notices in the past day. Before this morphs into the annual "should we have these or not?" debate, I thought I would just offer an easy way around it by consolidating all of these into one ongoing thread. if you guys rec it enough to make it a sticky, then hopefully it will attract the various want ads into one place, and everyone will be happy. Yay for compromise!

Delino Deshields, Jr. was drafted pretty high (8th) as a very young tools guy (not quite 18 when drafted) at a thin position (2b).  He then performed well, putting up a 128 wRC+ in the GCLs in 73 PA.  His performance was buoyed by a .420 BABIP and came with a subpar BB/K split (7%/25%), but these were not especially troubling for a guy in his first exposure to pro ball after being drafted as a raw athlete.  

The pro rankers took notice.  Kevin Goldstein gave him 4 stars entering 2011, noting that "He gets strong grades for both his intelligence and makeup."  John Sickels gave him a B-, well in keeping with a raw new draftee with good upside.  And Baseball America said "His bat speed helps him catch up to the best of fastballs, and he has the strength to project to hit for average power," an uplifting hitting report for a guy who profiles as an 80 runner at a thin defensive position. 

Despite all this, Deshields received surprisingly little attention within the amateur community.  We don't talk about him much on here, and info elsewhere was mighty thin for a 19-YO prospected drafted 8th overall and who performed well in his first exposure to pro ball.  Try Googling "Delino Deshields Jr scouting report."  The effects were even noticeable in my own humble fantasy league, where Deshields became the first Top 10 pro position pick to not be drafted. 

So why bring up this background?  Because I think he's got all the hallmarks of an underrated, breakout candidate. Delino Deshields has prospect fatigue before even getting any buzz, thanks to a perfect combo of profile, exposure, and sophomore performance.  

High draft pedigree? Check.

Good scouting reports? Check.

Projected to take awhile to develop? Check.

Buried in a crappy baseball organization that plays in a low media market? Check.

Low buzz? Check.

Further buried by subpar sophomore season? Check.

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Greetings fantasy campers and prospect mavens! When last we checked in, the creepy visage of Joe Mauer was spreading across SB Nation and a half dozen prospects were vying to be the next lucky ones asked to dance.

Well, since that time, Mr. Kipnis has become your winning contestant, while Messrs. Montero, Lawrie, Teheran, Moore, and Mesoraco continue to pound away on their AAA comrades. Collin Cowgill, Desmond Jennings, and, now, Jacob Turner have also been called up. Jennings and Turner in the same week are a nice juxtaposition of organizational philosophies; some here could make a compelling argument that Jennings is a season and a half too late while Turner is a season and a half too early. And in the truth-is-stranger-than-fiction category, MLB.com has to add a Parental Advisory page to cover the Furbush for Fister trade.

Next, we've also had Messrs. Singleton, Cosart, and Wheeler filing change of address forms, while Colby Rasmus gets to learn a new tax code after being shipped for 50 (Canadian) cents on the dollar. Cardinals fans hope that either a) Edwin Jackson is the difference maker in the World Series, b) EJ is cashed in for a draft pick that becomes a high-ceiling, five-tool, cost-controlled center fielder (because they are going to need one soon), or c) Toronto's PTBNLs are Smith, Anderson, Musgrove, and Beede. Or Gose. Or McGuire. Hell, they'd take Cito Gaston right now.

But that's not all, folks - not hardly.  Today's storyline promises to be every bit as rich....

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Congratulations!  You have found this daily thread in the narrow strip of blog content sandwiched within Joe Mauer  Advertisement Rollout Day.  Please claim your reward by commenting on any minor league performances you deem worthy of note.  I'll check back in after I've washed my hair and bought some sporting apparel.

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Interesting last couple weeks, in that we get to see some callups performing in the majors. Some of these were expected, but at least two (Greg Halman and Dee Gordon) really suprised me. Both have hit OK so far, Halman having only 3 whiffs (in 16 PAs), and Gordon looking like Rafael Furcal lite.

Can Halman and Gordon turn a corner at the major league level?

Other guys I am waiting to see called up: Kipnis, Mesoraco, Lawrie, Jake McGee, Jesus Montero, Travis Snider

A few notable pitchers going today:

• Drew Pomeranz
  
• Alex Colome vs. Jordan Swagerty
  
• Oliver Perez (not a prospect anymore)
  
• Tyler Matzek (see Oliver Perez, possibly)
  
• Jared Cosart
  
• Alex Torres
  
• Neil Ramirez
  
• Chris Archer
  
• Barry Zito

Slogging away on the taxes on this dull Sunday, keeping one eye on minor league baseball as a distraction. Many games already underway; the easy list of hurlers still about to take the mound includes:

Deryk Hooker

Joe Kelly

Zach Wheeler

Jesse Biddle

In other intersting news, Greg Halman has now entered the season with 3 straight games (13 PAs) with neither a strikeout nor a home run. Has his approach changed? Thinking back to last season, I cannot recall a similar such 3-game stretch. Any insight from Seattle or Tacoma fans?

So first, a mea culpa: I took the Marlins not because I know a lot about them, but instead because they were still hanging around and the teams I knew by heart were all taken.  I figured I could kill two birds with one stone - fill in a gap here, and learn everything there is to know about a team that tends to develop players pretty well. I have actually done a fair amount of research (never as much as I want to, though), but have not had many long stretches of time to type it all up. Even right now, we're in a storm and the internet is coming and going. I'll spare you the details, and get right to it. If there are any marlins fans out there that were just aching to do this, please help me out here - I feel bad for underperforming already.

So the Marlins:Penurious, cutthroat, martyr tenants, disloyal employers, World Champions x 2.  All these terms fit.  Some say they have an advanced, brilliant model that consists of essentially drafting well, raising 'em right, riding 'em hard, and selling 'em off almost the way that family down the street does whenever their car exceeds the warranty miles.  Sorry Edgar, Mike, Charles, Josh, AJ, et al: the time of elves is over, and it's now time for the Age  of Farmkids. To me, that leads directly to a main draft philosophy of taking the best available player.

But, their philosophy is a little more nuanced than that. They don't like to pay too much - Livan Hernandez's bonus from 15 years ago is still the 3rd highest in team history, and Skipworth's bonus from 2008 is the highest since 2000. They're not afraid of HS kids, nor of arms, nor of a combination of both - they took four HS arms in Round 1 of 2005, then Chad James in Round 1 of 2009, and a few others in high rounds in between. And they seem to like tools - they draft HS projects like Stanton, Skipworth, Marquis Cooper, and Dominguez, and trade for ones like Hanley and Maybin.

So although their low draft slots (#23, 73, 103) mean it's hard to predict exactly who they will take, I think it’s reasonable to guess on several overriding elements. First, they'll draft regardless of position, perhaps with the exception of any HS catcher projects that may be expensive (they already have one of those in Skipworth). Second, I don't think they'll take anyone who will be an overslot sign, which means they WON’T take the best player available if it's someone who falls due to signability concerns but still wants Top-10 money.

Third, they seem very happy to draft under the belief that you can’t have enough arms in the system.  In a draft rich with arms, perhaps they will do what they did in 2005 and lean heavily to the mound side of things.  If any team HAD a reason to avoid position players due to their system, the marlins would be one of them, with guys like Skipworth, Sanchez/Morrison, Uggla/Coghlan, Hanley, Dominguez, Stanton, Maybin, and Coghlan arranged around the diamond. Fourth, I stopped trying to determine if there’s a trend within the arms they usually take. They move into a new stadium soon, and I think it would be unwise to try to draft for flyballers vs. groundballers, etc. Fifth, I don't think the Marlins are shy about taking guys who need major development tweaks; it appears to me they have a lot of faith in their development system, and so it makes sense that they can sculpt guys who bring the proper attitude to that athleticism. Of course, it wouldn't be 2010 if there weren't a bushelful of Web prognosticators here to guide us through their opinion on something, and the draft is one of them. Mock draft choices for Florida at #23 include AJ Cole (Kevin Goldstein), Aaron Sanchez (Perfect Game USA), Barret Loux (MLB Fanhouse), and Karsten Whitson (MLB John Mayo). Loux doesn't seem like a great fit to me, and Cole seems like he might be a little too spendy if he falls that far. Sanchez and Whitson, on the other hand, seem like very likely picks if they are available at #23.

my thoughts are to grab a pick from among these players, for the following reasons.

Aaron Sanchez -  HS RHP, one of the top prep arms, upside, chance to fall

Karsten Whitson – HS RHP, Top prep arm, chance to fall, local

Peter Tago – HS RHP.  Likely available, likely won’t be there at 73

Dylan Covey, HS RHP.  Stock has slipped a bit, but the confident Marlins are OK with that.

AJ Cole, HS RHP.  Contradicting myself from above, I think they have to at least consider him if he falls to here. 

Bats:

Nick Castellanos -  HS 3B.  If he falls, he’s a Marlins type of pick.

Kolbrin Vitek – College 2B/OF.  Athletic college bat that could move fast, could help at 2B or CF.  Marlins not afraid to play big sticks with bad gloves in the INF, and could dream of keeping Vitek at 2B even if he is below average defensively.

Kaleb Cowart – HS 3B/RHP.  Athletic HS bat, he’s got to be in the mix here.

Levon Washington – Juco 2B/OF.  This is my reach.  I think he’s exactly the kind of guy the Marlins think they can develop, and fits in well with their system.  If they like him, will they wait until 73? 

What's next? 

Marlins fans, check it out and see how you rank these 9 guys coming up.  Someone from the Top 5 will likely be available, and is likely to be the guy I’ll type in here in a couple hrs.  If you have another, definitely propose him – please just include an explanation.  If you’ve heard rumors of the Marlins linked to any guys at 23, also let me know.  I've go my own rank among these 8, but I'd like to see what you Fish Fans think first.  Both of you!

Hey all,

I've got the numbers run.  But like I said in my post a few days ago, I need formatting input from someone.  I want to post several graphs form XL to this site, but am having trouble finding a way - I'm used to producing graphics in Word and PDF, not on the Web.

Anyway, what I need is step by step instructions on  how to get a graph from XL to some kind of format (JPG?) that can be uploaded to this site.  I have converted one from XL to PDF to JPG, but the resolution became so poor that the text was unreadable.

Further complicating it is that I have designed one graph to have a long Y-Axis, long enough that it would not all fit onto one Word or PDF page (but would seem to be fine on the Web, where we can scroll down indefinitely to continue a graph).

Can I get some advice from those of you who run web sites?  John, Erik, Doug, etc.?  You can email me, too, if you'd prefer.

SiddfynchATgmailDOTcom.

BTW, the Top 5 are:

1) Wieters and Price (basically a tie)

2) Heyward and Snider (again, basically a tie)

3) Maybin

4) Bumgarner and Rasmus (basically a tie)

5) LaPorta

Prospect 100 is David Huff, but another 129 guys were listed and come in below him. 

Cahill (# 10) was the highest-rated guy to be left off of one ballot.

Villalona (#38) was the lowest-rated guy to make it on all the ballots.

Of guys who appeared on only one ballot, Ryan Kalish (#36 on that one, #145 overall) was the one listed the highest.

Strangely, there were no Rangers players listed anywhere in the top 50.

According to BA:

http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/bird-land/bird-land/2008/12/baseball-america-st-louis-cardinals-minor-league-talent-cracks-top-10/

Of course, I;ve been bitching for awahile that AAA semi-stars that project as MLB regulars should be given more weight than they are getting in out internal rankings here, and this helps my feelings - guys like Chris Perez, Jason Motte, David Freese, and Allen Craig are surely in the Cards top 10, and probably help tip the Cards system into the Top 10.  Interesting, though, that BA is traditionally the organization that tends to upgrade raw talent, whereas the guys I am talking about are the steady reliable types.

Off the top of my head, teams I see ahead of teh Cards would be:

TB

ATL

OAK

TEX

SFO

BAL?

BOS?

The link refers to STL being #8.

Hey all,

I'm on vacation with Dick Cheney at our secret undisclosed location and am just logging in after a fews day without the internet.  I'd like to run the Synthesis of the Community top-100 list during this vacation, but also would really like to get more lists from people - for example, I see guys posting their 100 on here, but not sending an email along.  Please, if you have a 100 list, go ahead and email it to me at siddfynchATgmailDOTcom.  All you need to do is list the last name, then first name, and spell everything correctly - I can take care of the rest.

here's the original link, but in reality you don't need it - just email me your top 100 list, and please spell the names right.  I'm especially interested in those from a few of you regulars (doug, galt, dfarth, daveh, etc.) that always are willing to share their thoughts.  And John, I promise not to give yours away if you submit it also ;)

http://www.minorleagueball.com/2008/11/20/666430/community-ranking-synthesi

Hey all,

It has slid off the front page, so I thought I would give a quick reminder on the synthesis of people's individual Top-100.  The link with full overview and directions is at Top 100 synthesis.

It's kind of cool so far - contributions from many people who don't post a lot, but are long--time readers here, and some pretty variant opinions.  Be sure to get yours in the queue!

siddfynchATgmailDOTcom

Hello everyone,

I have volunteered to collect people's Top 100 and report back to you with the results.  This will be a useful list on its own, as well as interesting to compare to our Community Top 100 and other lists.

The most onerous part of this process is not going to be computing the actual numbers, but rather organizing the files that everyone submits.  My experience doing this for other sites is that this is by far the biggest headache.  Therefore, I am asking you to submit with some fairly strict (but simple) requirements.  If you do this, your list makes it into the mix.  If you don't, I may be able to fix it, or I may just chuck it.  I'm not going to assess any kind of "User name requirement" such as seniority on this board or anything - rather, the organization of your list will be the chief criteria I use in accepting the submissions.  (I will, however, reserve the right to throw away a list that is obviously from a sabateur.) Can we all live with that?

If you submit your list in Microsoft Excel (preferred), I need you to save it for pre-2007 version (e.g., XLS 2003).  I also need it to be a simple list of three columns - one for the rank, one for the last name, and one for the first name.  Please do not list position, team name, or anything else.  This should look like the following:

1 Bruce Jay

2 Longoria Evan

3 Rasmus Colby

If you don't have Excel, you can send it as a text tile, saved as RTF format.  If you do this, please list as:  Numerical rank, followed by a space, followed by last name, followed by a comma, followed by a space, followed by the first name.  This will create a list that looks like this:

1 Bruce, Jay

2 Longoria, Evan

3 Rasmus, Colby

(Please do not submit a list that looks like this:

1. Bruce, Jay

or this

1 Jay Bruce

or this

1  Bruce,   Jay)

Some other requirements:

1. If you submit in XLS, BE SURE to save it as XL 2003.  Each layer should be on a separate row, and all rows should be consecutive (e.g., 50 rows for 50 players).  If you don't have Excel, try it as a list in rich text format (rtf).
2. Send the file to me at: Siddfynch AT gmail.com (note that this is NOT the email address found in my settings on this site).
3. In the file name, be sure to include the username you use on this site (e.g., "top50list from Siddfynch")
4. You MUST spell the names of all the players completely and correctly.  Do not send me "Moose" as an entry, or 'Mike Moostakas".  I'm willing to spend a little time fixing typos and spelling errors, but not a whole lot.  If your entry is chock full of errors, it makes it tough.  Be extra careful with the use of "s" and "z" in Latin American names.  Note that I do this myself with BA and BP and John's list each year, and they NEVER have typos in the names - it's not hard to avoid, with a little effort.
   

Time span

I've got a great window of time from Dec 16 to work on this.  Our own Commuity list will be done by then, and many other sites will be well into their reporting season, which means plenty of resources out there for informing our rankings.  Thus, I am proposing the following:

1. Call for submissions: Now
2. Deadline for submissions: Dec16
3. My report back to you:  January 3 (faster, if the files are clean)

List size and player eligibility

After reading the initial comments, let's make it a Top 100.  You can submit more if you choose.

Let's make eligibility based simply on:

1) a max of 50IP or 130 ABs in the majors (e.g., don't worry about service time)

2) a player has to have been either drafted or already in a major league program (e.g., no Stephen Strasbourgs)

Note:

I won't be checking that email account very often in the next week or so, so it's generally better to post questions/comments/complaints in this thread than by email to me directly.  Thanks.

Happy ranking,

Sidd

Yup, it's at:

http://itmightbedangerous.blogspot.com/

And, from reading the first two threads (excuse me, um "fanposts"), it looks like it could be pretty nifty.  He comes across as pretty genuinely interested in interacting with the readers, and already has a couple answers to posts up there.  He's crazy if he thinks he can keep up with the stream of questions he'll get, but even if he can settle into some sort of selective cherry-picking every so often, it's a cool move forward in this information age.

Future Redbirds has recently had some great interviews with Jeff Luhnow, the Cards' director of player development.  Between real-time interviews like that and blogs started by the SD front office, is it safe to assume we are starting a new age of front office interaction, where we can at least some prospect news directly from the source?  5 years ago , the Chris Perez callup "story" would have been broken only by the press; now it is broken by bloggers; in 5 years, will it be released directly by the Cards GM?

Just came across this while skimming the Milwaukee newspaper, www.Milwaukeenewsandsuasagepress.com/Melvin.  Given all the recent discussions about the seven-headed monster known as Heyward-Moustakas-LaPorta-Burgess-Schafer-Vitters-LaPorta -Snider in here, I thought it might be useful to some ongoing discussions (that will hopefully end by 2010).

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Great read on both Morales and Stewart, as well as on some prospecting philosophies in general.

Not sure how much is subscriber content, so I'll just post the link.

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=7076

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I don't think this is subscriber info, so I'll post the whole thing instead of abridging.  Originally tacked it into Prospect #37 diary, but  then felt it had enough tranferrable value to hopefully spark some larger discussion, especially in regards to other prospects:

From the Dec 19 chat at BP:

David (Sonoma State University): Is Clayton Kershaw REALLY that good? Why aren't the Dodgers more willing to trade him considering that they have Scott Elbert?

Nate Silver: Clay did a bunch of work on the pitcher DTs this winter -- I mean, some really thorough, painstaking work -- and one thing he found is that the difficulty curve for minor league pitchers is much steeper that we'd previously believed. So to the extent that Kershaw is a top prospect, it's at this stage more a scouting thing than a numbers thing -- his high walk rates are almost as much of a minus as his high strikeout rates are a plus. He's still an excellent prospect, but he's leaps and bounds behind the Clay Buchholz class of pitchers.

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OK, here's the supplemental round, which turned out to be even longer than Round 1 in  2007.  As before, the stats are from BB Cube and from MiLB.com, with supplemental info from blog sites and pre-draft reports.

As before, I have assigned grades, but I think the real value is just in knowing where the guys played, and what kind of numbers they put up.  These grades are also strictly performance-related, and don't factor in ceiling or overall outlook as a prospect - they are all about stats, as modified by ARL.

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Hey all,

I had wanted to put this up earlier, and now wish I had before Votto went on.  I'd have liked to see a discussion on how to deal with Votto before annointing him #13 (or whatever), but that's moot now.  I don't really think vote stuffing is the huge problem that others make it out to be - it's fairly easy to detect, we just need to agree on how to treat it.  

What we can do is have a poll that references how the community in general feels we should deal with this next time it comes up.  Doing so now, while there's no stuffing, will also help keep it free of passions over any one player.

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With 233 votes in, Brandon Wood wins #14 going away.  On to Round 15.

Once again the requirements are 130 AB/ 50 IP/ 45 Days on a roster not including September call ups.

Prospect Rankings
   1. Jay Bruce
   2. Evan Longoria
   3. Clay Buchholz
   4. Clayton Kershaw
   5. Joba Chamberlain
   6. Colby Rasmus
   7. Cameron Maybin
   8. David Price
   9. Travis Snider
  10. Homer Bailey
  11. Andy LaRoche
  12. Jacob McGee
  13. Joey Votto
  14.  Brandon Wood

Please post more suggestions for the list!

Also don't forget to send in your slurve top 50/100!

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All -

Here's the list I sent to Slurve, with my comments on a few selections.  I buried this down low earlier in another diary, but maybe we actually NEED more diaries about baseball in here.

Anyway, I think this is the sacrificial first list -  let's use it for target practice, and to help flesh out testers for the community poll, and to help form thoughts for JPahk's ranks.

Also to help my fanatasy draft, of course :)

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Hey all -

While putting mine together, I was reminded of some flaws that cropped up when I compiled a similar list of the Fantasy Baseball Cafe a few years ago.  There are a couple things you can do when you make this list that make it MUCH easier for the programmer (Slurve) to process these lists.  The main things is just a standardized format that let's the lists be sorted and searched with the minimum amount of hassle.  Rather than Slurve having to error-check each entry, we can each do it ourselves and save him a tremendous amount of headache.

Slurve, if you don't mind, may I propose the following? *A) List each player EXACTLY like this:

1.  Lastname, Firstname  

(as in EXACTLY number-period-tab-lastname-comma-space-firstname)

B). Use the full name, spelled correctly (watch the Z's and S's on the latin names!)

C). Do not use nicknames.

D). Do not add positions, team names, handedness, etc.*

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Dr. B. did this last year, and I found it very insightful.  I probably can't match his skill, but it's about time that someone did this, and it's been awhile since I contributed anything besides smartass comments.  So with that, here is Sidd's summary of who did what in 2007, for 1st round picks.  

A few quick notes about the methods:

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I'm looking for searchable, sortable stats, for an entire league or (preferably) the entire minors.  Something in a downloadable spreadsheet, preferably.

Anyone know of a site that offers such numbers?  Or, if 2007 is not yet assembled, a site that will in the future?

Since I'm down into filler territory, I was sitting in the bathroom stall at the airport the other day, and a guy walked into the adjacent stall.  I started wondering what the likelihood was the he'd tap my foot and, if so, what the chances were that it would be accidental.  I could model this, but only with a  good dataset.  With that, I have a poll.  If we can get enough votes, I'll let you know the results.  

(Hopefully this meets the requirements of the red lettering that asks that I "give my diary some more thought")  

This site was my main source of info for preparing for my first MiLB draft, and I have meant to give some feedback for awhile now.  I figure I'll probably learn something useful just by tying up this post-mortem  - here's hoping some of you also find it useful.

The tale of the tape:  18-team league, auction style, with a minor league draft of 3 rounds.  There are some pretty knowledgeable vets in there, including guys who post on this site.

My situation:  Before the season, I aggressively dealt for a bunch of minor league picks.  I ended up adding 7 to my normal 3, for a total of 10 picks: I had picks 2, 4, 14, 21, 22, 24, 27, 32, 38, and 39.  The draft was in February of 2007.

Draft Prep:  Going into the draft, I really needed hitting, which was a problem because the best players were pitchers.  I had a hard time deciding among 4 pitchers - Dice-K, Gallardo, Lincecum, and Andrew Miller.  I felt that Evan Longoria was not as good of a pick as these 4 SPs, but was better than the remaining bats.  So I decided that I'd use my 1st pick (Pick #2) on my 5th-rated player (Longoria), knowing that 1 of the Big 4 pitchers would be there for me at #4.  

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OK, I see all 3 of these will likely be on the ballot at #29, and each contain some intriguing storylines - oddly similar ages (McGee almost exactly 1 yr younger than Hurley and Davis), oddly similar stats, yet at different levels.  They also threw similar enough innings for the past 1.5 years that their comparisons might be truly meaningful.  

My time zone is so far behind the rest of you that I often don't get a word in until people have moved on.  But this early AM, I saw a post in debate #28 regarding Davis's better rate stats, and thought I'd try to stimulate discussion before the flurry for Poll #29.  My final claim is that...well, read thru and see, FWIW.

Summary:
Hurley - 6'4", 21 YO (Sept B-Day), RHP.  + FB (93-96), +SL, - CU.  BA comment:  throws harder in latter innings.  Johns comment: A- grade, can be a staff ace if he improves CU.  AA at start of 2007, moved up to AAA for last 2 starts.        

Davis - 6'5", 21 YO (Sept B-Day), RHP. + FB (up to 95/97), "solid" CB, SL, CU.  Command and control are issues.  BA comment: FB tends to flatten out, needs to work on command, has potential for 3+ pitches.  John's comment: B+, but command issue keep him out of top echelon of young pitchers.  A+ at start of 2007, moved up to AA for last 3 starts.  

McGee - 6'3", 20 YO, (Aug B-Day), LHP.  +FB (90-94), avg CB and CU.  BA comment: has potential for 3 + pitches.  John's comment: improved control will make him an elite prospect.  FSL for all of 2007.

My overall comments:
Guys, this is an intriguing trio to rank/discuss!  
In the #28 vote, Hurley leads Davis, with McGee trailing.  There are plugs for Davis based on HRA and GB rates.  Mcgee is a lefty.  Hurley is awful young, yet is coping really well in a much better series of hitters leagues.  Davis has great GB and HRA rates.  Hmmm.....

In 2006, Hurley/McGee/Davis tossed 134/137/146 innings.  Mcgee and Davis both had incredibly similar K/BB numbers (171/65, 165/64); Hurley had fewer K's, but also fewer walks (137/43).  One thing I learned from Arties' posts last year was to look for dominance (Thanks Artie), but to back it up with scouting.  Clay Buccholz, for example had great dominance numbers, and rave scouting reviews; Will Inman, great dominance, but scouting reports were tepid.  Thanks to Artie, I skipped Inman in my draft, targeted Buccholz, and am smiling like the Cheshire cat.

Anyway, my notes from last year were McGee had a dominance of 1.02, coming at age 19 in A ball;  Davis was also in A ball, but at age 20, and had a lower dominance of 0.88; Hurley was also 20 and had a dominance of 0.88, but was a level higher at A+ (mostly), in the pitcher's graveyard of the Cal league.  Scouting reports on all 3 were that each had high ceilings, but all 3 had some rough edges.  Based on scouting, age vs level, and stats, it seems clear that McGee or Hurley were awful similar, and Davis was a tick behind.      
       

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