Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2022 i Baseball America

Since 2004, no catcher has hit at least .280 with 30 home runs in a season. Jorge Posada was the last to do it when he hit .281 with 30 home runs in 2003. The only other catcher to do it this millennium was Mike Piazza, who did it three years in a row from 2000-02. If all goes according to plan, Adley Rutschman will be the one to end that drought. Rutschman, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2019 draft, made his long-awaited full-season debut in 2021 and did not disappoint. The 23-year-old Orioles prospect hit .285/.397/.502 with 23 home runs, 75 RBIs, 79 walks and 90 strikeouts between Double-A Bowie and Triple-A Norfolk and received universal praise for his defense and on-field leadership. That performance would be…

Every year, the toughest spot to rank on the Top 100 Prospects isn’t No. 1, 2 or 3. It’s No. 100. We agonize over who is left off those final few spots, especially since the difference between ranking No. 95 and 105 is minuscule. Here, we make the case for 10 players who just missed the cut. Andy Pages, OF, Dodgers The High-A Central MVP, Pages finished the 2021 campaign as the High-A leader with 31 home runs, 77 walks and 88 RBIs. It was a tremendous season from the 20 - year old outfielder, who was experiencing his first taste of full-season ball. Blessed with plus power and on-base ability, Pages requires further refinement of his approach and bat-to-ball skills, but if he does he could make a rapid…

With a potential star at the top in outfielder Julio Rodriguez, the Mariners have baseball’s No. 1 farm system. That’s a dramatic turnaround from four years ago, when Seattle’s farm system ranked last. Of course, the talent in the Mariners’ organization extends beyond Rodriguez, with five players in the Top 100 Prospects, including three in the top 25. Organization Talent Rankings, which began in 1984, evaluate each club’s farm system as a whole. These rankings emphasize the top prospects who drive the most value for their clubs, while blending in the prospect depth within each organization. 1. SEATTLE MARINERS 2021: #2 | 2020: #5 | 2019: #17 Top 100 Prospects (5): OF Julio Rodriguez (2), RHP George Kirby (12), SS Noelvi Marte (18), RHP Matt Brash (45), LHP Brandon Williamson…

Cowser’s Early Returns Hearten Orioles When outfielder Colton Cowser screened the first call he received from Orioles executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias on draft night, it was a rare instance when he failed to connect. The Orioles made Cowser the fifth overall pick last year after he batted .374/.490/.680 in 55 games with Sam Houston State. He had more walks (42) than strikeouts (32), exactly the kind of high-contact hitter who fits Baltimore’s profile. “I think one thing that’s just really rare with him, especially in today’s game, is the hit tool and the power without striking out,” Elias said. “He’s an elite contact hitter, uses the whole field. “He runs. He throws. He plays center field and plays it well. He’s just really able to do it all…

One of the main reasons why negotiations between Major League Baseball and the players’ union on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement are so contentious, it has been noted, is because the owners have “won” the past two CBAs. As a result, the players are attempting to claw back some of what they have lost this time around. The data bears this out. According to several financial metrics, there seems to be a clear trend. Over the past decade, the amount of money flowing to MLB players has not increased at the same rate as it has in the NFL or NBA. That’s true in terms of minimum salaries, the highest-paid players and overall team payroll thresholds. In 2011, in the final year of a CBA, MLB’s luxury tax threshold was…

FORMER BALLPLAYERS REFLECT ON PRO SUCCESS AND FAILURE Had Ben Grieve’s baseball career come around two decades later, the online noise around his on-field exploits and promise as a prospect would’ve been at nearly an unparalleled fervor compared to his peers. That’s something Grieve is thankful wasn’t the case when he was a baseball star at Martin High in Arlington, Texas. “Seeing how it is now, I would definitely prefer the way it was when I was in high school,” Grieve said. “Just a lot less stressful.” Attention would’ve found its way to Grieve in some form, regardless, because of his baseball pedigree. His father Tom, the sixth overall pick in the 1966 draft, is to this day synonymous with Texas Rangers baseball. During Ben’s childhood, his father served as…

It’s been nearly three years, and the longtime front office official still can’t get the sound out of his mind. It was only a spring training game. Still, the way the ball came off of Julio Rodriguez’s bat that day at Camelback Ranch in 2019—and the sound it made—left a lasting impression. “He takes this easy, low-effort swing and the ball just explodes off of his bat over the right fielder’s head the other way,” the front office official said. “Whenever you see him, it’s man-child kind of stuff. His barrel is very heavy. Even his hard ground balls, you remember.” The 21-year-old Rodriguez has been an offensive force since the Mariners signed him as an international free agent out of the Dominican Republic in 2017. He owns a career…

The terrific triumvirate of Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman, Mariners outfielder Julio Rodriguez and Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. lead off the Top 100 Prospects. All three figure to reach MLB and graduate from prospect status in 2022. The same is true for seven of our top 10. Two others—Blue Jays catcher Gabriel Moreno and Padres shortstop CJ Abrams—could cross the prospect threshold as well, but they have a little more work to do because of the time they missed with injuries in 2021. That creates space at the top of next year’s Top 100 Prospects ranking, leaving us to ask who is going to rank No. 1 at this time next year? We have a few guesses. 1. Anthony Volpe, SS, Yankees This isn’t exactly going out on a limb.…

Few organizations have risen as far as the Rangers have in the past 12 months. Ranked as having the No. 24 farm system in baseball at this time last year, Texas climbed to No. 9 in this year’s Organization Talent Rankings. No team rose higher year-overyear than the Rangers did by moving up 15 places. Turning back the clock to 2021, the Rangers’ system was thought to have depth but not necessarily quality depth. There was talent, of course, just not much of it at the upper levels. The sense of the unknown also loomed over the system after the 2020 minor league season was canceled by the Covid-19 pandemic. But the Rangers had work to do. They couldn’t sit back and see who would take steps forward in their…

Lawlar Nears Return From Shoulder Injury When he first started feeling discomfort in his left shoulder last August, shortstop Jordan Lawlar figured it was nothing serious. “I knew something was off,” Lawlar said. “It went through my mind to finish the season—or maybe I should say something.” Lawlar, the sixth overall pick in 2021 from Dallas Jesuit Prep, decided on the latter—and imagine his surprise when he was told he needed surgery to repair a labrum tear, a procedure that brought a swift end to his first taste of pro ball. As he neared a return to the field, Lawlar was able to see positives in how things played out. It happened late in the season. And, he said, he is glad it happened early in his career rather than…

TOP 100 BY TEAM 6 PIRATES, D-BACKS 5 DODGERS, GIANTS, GUARDIANS, MARINERS, MARLINS, ORIOLES, RAYS, TWINS 4 RED SOX, REDS 3 BLUE JAYS, BRAVES, CARDINALS, METS, NATIONALS, PADRES, RANGERS, ROYALS, TIGERS, YANKEES 2 ASTROS, CUBS, PHILLIES 1 ANGELS, ATHLETICS, BREWERS, ROCKIES 0 WHITE SOX TOP 100 BY NATIONALITY 68 UNITED STATES 17 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 8 VENEZUELA 2 PUERTO RICO, CUBA 1 AUSTRALIA, CANADA, PANAMA TOP 100 BY DRAFT ROUND 73% 51 OF THE 70 DRAFTED PLAYERS IN THE TOP 100 PROSPECTS WERE SELECTED IN THE FIRST ROUND TOP 100 BY POSITION 24 SS 24 RHP 17 OF 12 C 8 LHP 8 3B 4 2B TOP 100 BY SOURCE 42 HIGH SCHOOL 30 INTERNATIONAL 26 COLLEGE 2 JUNIOR COLLEGE The annual Top 100 Prospects ranking is the culmination of Baseball…

Successful teams can be built in a variety of ways, but they almost always are built in part through a talented farm system. Whether those prospects turn into MLB stars or valuable trade pieces, a team loaded with prospects has the ability to walk a variety of paths to success. Our Organization Talent Rankings offer proof. Since 2010, all but one World Series champion has ranked in the top five in our Organization Talent Rankings at least once in the five years preceding their title. The lone exception is the 2011 Cardinals, who ranked eighth in 2009. Of the past seven World Series champs, all but one had the No. 1 or 2 farm system over the previous five years. The exception was the 2019 Nationals, who peaked at No.…