Scouting Book: The Best Baseball Prospects for 2008 (Sleepers Too!)

Baseball Prospect Rankings for 2008

Scouting Book's Top Prospects list is different than other prospect lists: we're not in a bubble, and we never sit still. We show you not just our own rankings, but also rankings from some of the other major ranking lists for each player. You can now sort, for example, by Baseball America's rankings, or view the top prospects as chosen by the wizards at Baseball Prospectus, or compare our rankings to those from Sports Illustrated. Also, unlike most lists, we don't publish a book! Our lists are updated often during the offseason, and updated daily during the pre-season to show the latest situations and adjusted for spring results. This means we're always a work in progress. We also think this means our lists are much more useful for fantasy draft purposes. If you notice a mistake or have a suggestion feel free to let us know by mailing mistakes (at) our domain name. For more on our methods, see this blog entry.

Baseball's Top Prospects for Spring 2008

141. Michael Aviles

2B, KC

A native New Yorker, Aviles is a journeyman infielder on the cusp of being a major league regular. A stocky player with a short, compact swing, Aviles a gap hitter with a little power. He lacks speed and range, but has a good glove and a strong arm. He is best suited to second base, though he can also play shortstop. Aviles could probably fill a good bench role for most major league teams, but Kansas City is well-stocked in middle infielders, which means he'll spend 2008 hoping for a trade or injury to open the way.

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142. Mitch Talbot

RHP, TB

Where does Tampa find these kids? Over a statistically significant 500 innings pitched, Talbot's strikeout ratio is over 4, his WHIP is under 1.3, and his potential to break into TB's rotation is very very high, especially for such a young pitcher.

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143. Craig Hansen

RHP, BOS

We're all tired of hearing it, but it's still likely true that he is the Red Sox closer of the future, no matter how good Papelbon looks. Hansen's fastball is ready, even if his control is not. All who work with him are so certain of his 'closer mentality' though, that it's pretty much destined to happen.

As he's developed, his fastball has reached the high 90s, perfect for closing duties. He also possesses an excellent slider, which he employes as a K-Rod-esque strikeout pitch. The only problem is that some days, that slider just doesn't slide and ends up as a pancake-flat pitch that gets hammered. If Hansen can make the slider work every day, he'll be a scary good pitcher. Until then, he's just someone to keep an eye on.

Whether they bring him up as a super-setup pitcher, re-re-deploy Papelbon to the rotation, or use him as high-value trade bait, Hansen will see his day in the majors soon, and it should be a bright day.

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144. Gordon Beckham

SS, CHW

The bigger Beckham doesn't have the sexy glove or sizzle of the smaller one, but he's got advanced baseball smarts and a sophisticated eye at the plate. A Kelly Johnson with more power or a Robinson Cano with a better glove? We're not sure, but we do expect to see him move to second or third base soon enough. It'll be fun watching to see which Beckham (no relation, by the way) makes the bigger splash when their time comes.

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145. Eric Hosmer

1B, KC

He's a little older, a little wiser, and a little less powerful than Pedro Alvarez (who was, fairly, drafted a few spots higher), but Eric Hosmer is probably a more advanced hitter with better fundamentals. Whether that makes him a better prospect is a matter of opinion, but the re-engineering going on in Kansas City makes him a fascinating player. He could be KC's own Youkilis come 2011 or 2012.

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146. Edgar Garcia

RHP, PHI

A young, raw, but very promising prospect, Garcia looked very strong at Batavia last year. Signed at the age of 16 Dominican Years (that is, 18 or 19), Garcia has always shown the potential to bring spectacular stuff to the mound, but his still-developing control and lack of experience have so far made it impossible to judge exactly how good he'll be.

Garcia has a low-90's fastball that will likely get nastier as he matures, along with a workable slider and a changeup that's better than it should be in one so young.

At various levels of minor league ball in the years since, Garcia has been at times dominant, striking out almost 11 per nine innings in 2005. At other times, he's looked afraid to throw anything other than a strike, and he's been hammered as a result.

Given the condition of the Phillies bullpen, it's not impossible that he'll make an appearance with the big-league team before the season is out, if only to give the coaches a look at his performance under the big lights.

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147. Michael Bourn

OF, HOU

Since Philadelphia already had another burner in Shane Victorino, Bourn was deemed expendable and shipped back to his hometown Astros as part of the Brad Lidge deal. Bourn, who may be even faster than Victorino, batted .277 as a Phils rookie, stealing 18 bases in 19 tries.

While Bourn has played in more than 120 major league games for the Phillies in 2006 and 2007, he was used almost exclusively as a late-inning defensive sub or pinch runner, which means he freakishly remains under the 130ab limit for Major League Rookies.

He has little power and has not yet shown enough patience at the plate to reach base at a high clip, but the roster-depleted Astros will give him every chance to win and hold the everyday centerfield job in 2008 anyway. If he manages to get his OBP up to respectable levels, he could be among the league leaders in steals as a result of the extended playing time.

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148. Daniel Cortes

RHP, KC

A prospect more famous for his MySpace pictures than his talent (go Google it yourself, lazy reader), Dan Cortes is a very young and very strong righthander in the Royals organization. Cortes was a 7th round selection by the Chicago White Sox in 2005 who was later shipped to KC as part of the deal that sent reliever Mike MacDougall to Chicago. Until recently he was basically a one-pitch power arm, but his previously-serviceable curve took a leap forward late last year, when he used it effectively to strike out 120 in 124 innings of high-A ball.

His control is iffy (he walked a rather high 45 batters in those same innings), and his mechanics look a bit dangerous to some scouts, but since he's been clocked in the high-90's and hasn't yet reached a level where batters have figured him out, he has to remain high on the Royals list of cherished prospects. If his curve continues to be as effective as it looked late last season, and if he avoids injury, he projects as a front-rotation starter in a couple of years. If he struggles with either his control or his elbow, he'll likely move more slowly and make any eventual debut as a reliever.

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149. Cesar Carrillo

RHP, SD

When the Padres chose Carrillo with their first-round pick in the 2005 MLB draft, he was regarded as the most 'Major League ready' pitcher available. While things didn't quite work out that way, he remains a powerful prospect, with a 96mph fastball that has approached 100mph, a moving two-seam fastball, and an almost-ready changeup.

Sidelined by surgery in mid-2007, Carrillo is expected to make a full recovery by spring 2008. If so, San Diego will be faced with some interesting choices: in Carrillo they have an intriguing setup man, or even future closer, but he's also a name often mentioned in trade talks.

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150. Sean West

LHP, FLA

A tale of two seasons. In the first half last year, West had a 1.26 ERA with a K:BB rate above 4. In the second half his ERA surpassed SIX and he started walking guys almost as often as he struck them out. West has good size, good command and a quality fastball, but unless he develops some stamina, and soon, he may never become what he could otherwise be: one of the game's best left-handed pitching prospects.

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