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Jordan Zakarin

Minors: Law’s Top 100 Prospects
By Jordan Zakarin - Jan 31, 2008 9:00 pm

Keith Law, of ESPN.com and Scouts Inc., unveiled his Top 100 Prospects List yesterday, which is available right now as a free preview at ESPN.com Insider.

After trading four of their top prospects to Minnesota for Johan Santana, the Mets were one of five teams to have just one prospect make the cut: OF Fernando Martinez, who checks in as the tenth-best prospect in Law’s rankings.

Law, waving off people unimpressed with Martinez’s injury-plagued numbers at Double A this past season, writes:

“Martinez shows huge raw power in BP that will make its way into his game performances, and he has a solid approach with good pitch recognition for someone so young. He has good range in center and a plus arm if he outgrows center field and has to move to right… He’s going to be a star, but everyone has to bear in mind how young he is to keep his performance in perspective.”

Of the players the Mets sent to the Twins, two made Law’s list: OF Carlos Gomez was ranked 35th, while Deolis Guerra, a 19-year old right hander, checked in at 80th.

…i still don’t know how the Mets managed to keep martinez, to be honest…for some perspective, the three Red Sox prospects mentioned in potential deals with Minnesota all made the list, while Yankees RHP Phil Hughes wasn’t eligible…

…all these prospects list make me wonder, why do we rank prospects so eagerly when the comparison is so subjective and unscientific given different ages and levels of experience and relies so much on scouts…aside from MVP voting, we rarely rank major leaguers?…it would seem to be a lot more scientific and easy to do, given that they’re all competing at the same level, spending time in the same ballparks…prospect ranking is more like setting gambling odds, in my eyes…

32 Responses to “Minors: Law’s Top 100 Prospects”

  1. foghorn says:

    Show Santana the money or else we’ll get all those prospects back.

  2. mrosey says:

    Did anyone else do a double take when they saw that a guy named Evan Longoria was the top prospect. . . and hes supposed to be like David Wright.

    • HelloBrooklyn says:

      HAHAHA Evan Longoria I always see his named mentioned amonst the top prospects. Why aren’t there
      thousands and thousands of jokes about this lol

      • Hit The Weights Zeile says:

        it is pretty funny. but in all honesty the kid is filthy and went to the same college as our buddy stevie trax so hes got that going for him

  3. Charlie says:

    no worries, it will happen.

    just as omar was able to wait out billy smith, so will johan be able to wait out omar.

    come 5pm tomorrow, he will be ours.

  4. chicothekid says:

    We are allegedly offering 7/142 and he’s asking 7/170.

  5. breadclock says:

    Love the F-Mart hype, and I pray he fulfills all our prayers and wishes, but so far, hype is all it is. It’s a bit embarrassing that this guy has to back up his 10th pick with “huge raw power in BP.” It’s always easy to hype a kid based on age (the younger the better) and actual minor league stats (the less concrete stats, the easier to raise the ceiling). I’m sure this guy was also on the Toe Nash bandwagon based on his “huge raw power in the Louisiana sugar cane field beer league.”

    Okay, don’t smack me, guys, until I put my plastic Mets helmet on.

    • chicothekid says:

      Hey, as long as he’s the next Strawman minus the cocaine addiction, everyone will be fine, what’s the big problem?

    • squad says:

      Actually I am pretty sure he relied on this: “He played the entire season at age 18 in AA; and he was hitting .309/.372/.409 as late as May 25 before the effects of a contusion on his left hand ruined what remained of his season.”

      and this: “To put his development in more perspective, if he’d played a full year at AA and hit .290/.360/.410 or so, he would have been on pace to debut in the big leagues at 19 or 20 and be a big league regular before he turned 21.”

  6. DannyPla says:

    7/170 wwwwwooooouuuuu that’s to much !!! the best is 6/21.5 a year.

    the thing is we can let it go!!! 5PM Friday a long Shot.

  7. Ryn5 says:

    Wait, Jay Bruce wasn’t #1?

  8. gem779 says:

    this is on the front page article about Johan.

    “In the meantime, there are signs that the Mets continue to express interest in free-agent pitcher Kyle Lohse. Lohse was viewed, essentially, as the Mets’ backup plan in case they weren’t able to trade for Santana. But when one baseball man who had spoken with Mets GM Omar Minaya was asked if the club could end up with both Santana and Lohse, the reply was: “Absolutely.”

    wow…..that is crazy but hella expensive. Lohse is probably 3/30 or maybe a little less at this point.

  9. ED B says:

    im 52 years old today and have been a met fan since 1962. i gotta tell ya Ive never been this anxiety ridden (including the collapse) in my life .this has got to get done already before i pull out what hair i have left!!!

    • bonatom says:

      You Rule ED B.. Rest assured… this will get done… don’t forget.. this is all about media play, and with the ny giants in the superbowl, the announcement is better made as close to 5 on friday as possible… so they can arrange a press conference on monday… after the giants lose (sorry) this will be a feel good story for NY to make them forget about football and look forward to NY Mets Baseball

  10. HelloBrooklyn says:

    Ed B what bought ya to the mets?

    7 170 is less then the 25 per I thought he’d get,
    Sign it Seal it. See you the 2nd game of the season Johan

    I pray FMart isnt Alex Escobar

  11. DannyPla says:

    Get this done!!!! or the mets going to have many houses with a collapse……………i’m the first one!!! 1-Job Collapse.

    Get the guy !!! or find me a job.

  12. DannyPla says:

    Both sides stayed mum about details of the negotiation. Santana’s agent, Peter Greenberg, did not return an e-mail seeking comment. Asked if he had an update, Mets general manager Omar Minaya e-mailed a one-word reply: “No.”

  13. bonatom says:

    “free preview at ESPN.com Insider.” I HATE ESPN!! They have Ball$! Charging $ for sports info…. ESPN is GREADY… With all there web ad’s.. makes me soo mad..

    • squad says:

      They’re not greedy, they’re smart businessmen. They can get people to pay for Insider, that’s why they charge.

      If no one paid, they wouldn’t charge. Pretty simple.

    • metsomniac says:

      yea… i think it’s to try to get the magazine more attention. it’s wrong… that’s why i’m thankful for Metsblog and other places where you can get just as credible (if not more so)information for free.

      • squad says:

        Yeah, thank god for these blogs… it’s not like their sources are writers for espn or anyth…. wait… buster olney is one of matt’s contacts. whoops.

      • squad says:

        And btw, the majority of the stuff ESPN.com puts on their paid portion of the site is op-ed, analysis stuff. All of the sports “news” is free. Buster Olney’s blog is simply an aggregator of articles from local papers. Anyone can visit those sites and read the articles.

  14. Rudibager says:

    To the song “The General” by Dispatch
    I call it “The General Manager” by Rudibager

    There was a celebrated general who had it made,
    that likened him to the players he’d trade
    of past deals, won and lost, and signings of old…
    seasoned veterans not past their prime

    On the FA market, he gained respectful fame
    with negotations of genius and deals to his name
    he made a contender as soon as he could
    to smach those silly braves
    and always urged his fans on

    but on the eve of a collapse
    with the ballclub in dream
    the old general tossed in his sleep
    SANTANA with its meaning
    he awoke from the night
    to tell what he had seen
    and walked slowly out of his pad

    all the prospects held tall with their
    chests in the air, with courage in
    their blood and a fire in their stare
    it was a grey morning and they all
    wondered how they would fare
    till the old general gave them a new home

    He said:

    I have seen your value
    And I hate to tell you
    but your asses are not worth keeping
    And I’ve seen Santana
    throw one fast banana
    and his changeup is still creeping

    So pack your bags, bring your shoes
    Cause I’ve got no time to lose
    before your value has faded
    Pack your bags, bring you shoes
    Cause I’ve got no time to lose
    before your value has faded…
    Sorry you have been traded

  15. thejuggernaut says:

    F-Mart Is better then Ellsbury. Thats all I care about. ”
    S”uck the “F”ox
    Go METS!

  16. gomets6091 says:

    Matt obviously doesn’t play fantasy baseball if he thinks we don’t rank ML players. Every year there’s about 30 different fantasy magazines that come out ranking all the players at their different positions.

    As for ranking prospects, it’s pretty arbitrary, and I think it might be more illuminating if instead of just the “top 100″ they did like the top 25 by league: like top 25 AAA prospects, top 25 AA prospects, etc. Or, at the very least, broke them down by positions the way they do for ML Players rankings. If you take a look at these lists, and inordinate number of the non-pitchers tend to be outfielders.