baseball prospects

Be sure to read our prospect profiles. There are 19 of them so far (Cito Culver is scheduled to be published later today) and I plan on doing at least 10 to 20 more. So don't fall behind on your Yankees prospects.

Dice-K, Jay Bruce, Matt Wieters, Jayson Heyward, and now you can add Los Angeles Angels outfielder Mike Trout to the elite list of top prospects in all of Major League Baseball as MLB.com made the announcement Monday in their annual listing of the Top 50 Prospects in Baseball.

The undisputed home run king Crash Davis! has some company.

For real, Crash may be a character in Bull Durham, one of the all-time great baseball movies, but Charlie Lisk of the Frontier League has set a record himself.

On Thursday night, Lisk rewrote the Frontier League record books by hitting his 87th Frontier League home run.

That homer pushed him past Morgan Burkhart for number one on the list, and let me say that is something to be very proud of.

The Marlins, a young franchise, with two World Series titles on their resume, have to be excited for the future.  Over the years they have been the subject of ridicule for their attendance numbers and low payroll.  The fan base has witnessed not one, but two World Series teams get dismantled for financial reasons.

However, now more than ever, the enthusiasm behind this team is growing and here are the ten reasons why:

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Wilmer Flores is one of the Mets' top prospects and one of the top prospects in all of baseball. At just 18 years old, Wilmer has already been playing professional baseball for three years.

After a strong performance in Single-A this year, Wilmer was called up to High-A ball to play for the St. Lucie Mets. At 18 years old, Wilmer is the second youngest hitter in the Florida State League.

Wilmer's success continued as a member of the St. Lucie Mets. He has a .349 batting average with two home runs and 19 RBI in 29 games.

He may still only be 19-years old and developing in the low minors for the New York Mets, but infielder Wilmer Flores needs to be recognized more frequently from now on. He's putting up big minor league numbers that could give him an express ticket to pro baseball. 

The Mets signed Flores as an undrafted free agent in 2007 as a very young 16-year old with a lot of upside.

The guy who looks like the Giants’ top prospect is at Class A Augusta, 20-year-old right-handed starter Jorge Bucardo, who has slumped the last two weeks.  His ERA has risen to 2.38, although he allowed only one run in seven innings pitched on Wednesday.

For the third time in less than a year, Cliff Lee has a new home. This time, he has joined the Texas Rangers.

Lee, 31, was brought in to help strengthen a relatively inexperienced rotation as the Rangers look to make a deep run in the playoffs.

Much like the past deals Lee has been involved in, the team parting ways with the star pitcher has looked for a huge haul of prospects in return.

The Indians', Phillies', and Mariners' prospects arrived with the glimmer of a brighter future, as each team will expect to find their value in the years to come.

Drafted in the first round of the 2009 draft, outfielder Mike Trout instantly entrenched himself among the team’s best prospects. Opening the season at Single-A, he has done little to disappoint:

257 At Bats
.370 Batting Average (95 Hits)
6 Home Runs
35 RBI
59 Runs
34 Stolen Bases
.449 On Base Percentage
.553 Slugging Percentage
.420 Batting Average on Balls in Play

The Golden Baseball League seems to have this habit of generating headlines in a sport dominated by A-Rod, Derek Jeter, and the New York Yankees.

On Saturday afternoon, during the Fox Saturday Game of the Week, the Boston Red Sox were playing host to the Philadelphia Phillies.

Nothing out of the ordinary, except that the Phillies are in dangerous team slump where hitting and pitching have seemingly affected everyone.