LOTS AND LOTS OF STUFF (Player ages referenced are their "seasonal ages". I would also like to apologize ahead of time if any of the information is too difficult to read, I really need to learn some more HTML) Let me preface everything that will follow by saying that in general I love Baseball America and that when it comes to their treatment of Yankee prospects, I am one of their biggest defenders. That said, I found great fault with some of the analysis presented by one of their columnists, Kevin Goldstein, in regards to the Yankees farm system during this past Friday's chat. In response to someone's question about Tyler Clippard's future, Goldstein states "Clippard has great control and a good feel for pitching, but still lacks the overpowering out pitch to project him as a star". I'm not saying that Tyler Clippard is a star-in-the-making, but to say that he has no "overpowering out pitch" seems a bit off to me. Every scouting report I have read on Clippard, who I have not had the chance to see play, has said that he has a very good curveball. In addition, when hitters from opposing teams have commented on Clippard following his starts, a common sentiment has been to point out how unhittable his curveball is. In fact, the general sentiment seems to be that Clippard's curveball is so advanced that he can use it to take advantage of younger hitters and resultantly his performance may not be truly assessed until he reaches a higher organizational level where can no longer fall back on that. The item relating to the Yankees that shocked me the most though was Goldman's choosing the Red Sox farm system over the Yankees. He felt justified in doing that "because of what they have at the lower levels". This immediately struck me as odd because most of the talent in the Yankee farm system is located in the lower levels so if a system is going to be better than the Yankees at anything, I had assumed it would be upper level talent. In addition, I was just of the general opinion that the Red Sox farm system was horrid at this point. Like any good "stathead", I decided to look into what Goldstein said. The names he brought up in defense of his choice were Dustin Pedroia, Brandon Moss, Mickey Hall, David Murphy, Jeremy West, Jon Palpebon, Manny Delcarmen and Hanley Ramirez. Let's see what we have here (The stats I will use to look at hitters are AB/AVG/XBH%/UiBB:K/AB:UiBB/AB:K): Moss: 430/.342/29.93%/1:1.76/10.24:1/5.81 Hall: 323/.241/46.15%/1:2.23/6.73:1/3.02 Both Moss and Hall are OF on Augusta Greenjackets squad, the Green Jackets are in the South Atlantic League, which is the other Low-A league. Though it is a Low-A league, like the Midwest League, it is different in that hitting standards there are higher. If you have a .255 BA, .329 OBP, and .382 SLG you are a league average hitter in the MWL. To be a league average hitter in the SAL you have to hit .260, .340, .401 respectively. This would mean that at first glance, the 19-year-old Hall would be an above average performer, due largely to his power, and the 20-year-old Moss is way above league averages. The Augusta home park playing as basically neutral, .994 Park Factor over the last 3 seasons, legitimizes these performances.. Moss did not make the Red Sox preseason top 30, as per BA, before the season so I don't know much about how he grades out according to the scouts. Hall did make the list, at number 11, and with a positive report along with decent stats I'm inclined to like him as a legit prospect. Not a stud that you put the hopes of your farm on, but a guy who while he might not hit as he goes up, unless he corrects his worrisome strikeout rate, has obvious projectability. Regardless of scouting reports, Moss's performance is too good to ignore so I definitely like him as a prospect. Thus far, BA seems to be 2 for 2 as far as the BoSox's lower level talent. Moving on to Sarasota, the Boston organization's FSL squad, here are the players mentioned: Murphy: 188/.255/22.92%/1:2.12/11.06:1/5.22:1 West: 371/.291/39.81%/1:2.38/12.79:1/5.38:1 Ramirez: 239/.310/17.57%/1:2.44/14.94:1/6.13:1 Firstly, Sarasota has a PF of 1.015 over the past 3 seasons, so it is a slight hitters park in the FSL. League average performance in the FSL would mean a BA of .257, OBP of .333 and SLG of .375. Ramirez and West have been above average performers in this regard while Murphey has been poor. Placing age into consideration, Ramirez is 20, Murphy is 22, and West is 22. Entering the season Ramirez was, as usual, highly rated, the number 1 Sox prospect according to BA, because of his immense physical talents while Murphy was also highly ranked within the Sox system, number 3. At 22, Murphy is said to have solid raw power, but has not displayed any statistical signs of good power in his pro career while struggling mightily since leaving the NYPL; I am going to pass on him as a solid prospect. Ramirez will retain his shine due to outstanding tools and solid performance. West, unlike the other two, did not make the Sox preseason top 30 and has been solid this season, but rates a bit below a solid prospect in my opinion because he is 22 and as a 1B I would like to see a bit more offense. I'll give BA 1 out of 3 here. The BA Chat in question also mentions Dustin Pedroia, but I will not rate Pedroia's performance this season as he has only had about 70 pro at bats and I don't feel comfortable rating someone with that few at bats. Prior to the draft, Pedroia was considered a David Eckstein type talent as he is a small SS whose main "tool" seems to be outperforming what scouts feel his ceiling is. Pedroia is 20. In addition to hitters, Goldstein also brings up some Sox pitchers that he feels are of note. Jon Papelbon, Jose Vaquedano, and Manny Delcarmen. All three are right-handed pitchers currently on the Sarasota Sox roster said to have good stuff with good pitcher's builds and all three were ranked amongst the top 30 in the preseason. Delcarmen was 10th, Papelbon 14th, and Vaquedano 28th. While Papelbon is 23, the other two are 22, so none of them is the ideal age for their league. When a player isn't ideal age for a league, I consider 20-21 ideal for the FSL, I want to see amazing performance for me to consider them legitimate. Here is what these three have done in the FSL (The stats I will use to look at pitchers are IP/Kper9/Hper9/UiBBper9/HRper9/K:UiBB): Papelbon: 104.2/11.09/7.22/2.75/0.52/4.03 Vaquedano: 43.0/7.53/9.42/2.30/0.42/3.27 Delcarmen: 57.2/10.14/10.46/2.65/1.25/3.82 Statistically, the pitcher that stands out the most is Papelbon, but he is also the oldest at 23-years-old, which takes some of the luster off his performance. It does help him that he has very good stuff and build. Delcarmen gets some slack because he is coming off surgery and Vaquedano is a non-factor in my estimation. Papelbon is interesting and Delcarmen has a track record so I will say those two have solid prospect status, or slightly below. I'll give BA 2 out of 3 in the pitchers. Keeping the guys who've earned solid prospect status based on performance this year and past scouting views the list becomes Hanley Ramirez, Jon Papelbon, Manny Delcarmen, Brandon Moss, and Mickey Hall. A comparable list of lower level Yankee prospects would give you the names Matthew DeSalvo, Tyler Clippard, Abel Gomez, Melky Cabrera, and Eric Duncan. The progress all of these players has been chronicled for some time on this blog and if you would like to learn about them feel free to go through the archives, I think the information there will say that the Yankees group deserves to be ahead of the Red Sox. I'm going to have to disagree with Kevin Goldstein here though I love his work. Also, in case you think I'm biased (That's unpossible!), here is a look at what Baseball Prospectus projects for the players during their prime big league years (hitters are done by AVG/OBP/SLG and pitchers by ERA with league used for projection in parentheses): H. Ramirez (FSL): .295/.351/.402 B. Moss (SAL): .309/.371/.509 M. Hall (SAL): .236/.323/.454 J. Papelbon (FSL): 4.37 M. Delcarmen (FSL): 6.30 M. DeSalvo (FSL): 3.75 E. Duncan (combined MWL and FSL): .248/.339/.489 T. Clippard (MWL): 4.69 A. Gomez (MWL): 4.27 M. Cabrera (MWL and FSL): .297/.356/.423 and .285/.344/.496 *** This "rant" was a lot harder to do than I thought. I *might* manage an update later, but starting Wednesday you should be prepared for about 9 days worth of consistent coverage followed by some slowing down around August 20th. *** Questions, comments, suggestions to minoryankeeblog@hotmail.com   ¶ 8:47 PM