1. Oscar Taveras OF
2. Shelby Miller SP
3. Carlos Martinez SP
4. Kolten Wong 2B
5. Trevor Rosenthal SP/RP
6. Michael Wacha SP (I think his upside is higher than many seemed to think at the draft, and his curve may be better than advertised)
7. Tyrell Jenkins SP
8. Matt Adams 1B
9. Carson Kelly 3B (gotta love the upside, also not a huge fan of Cox in the top 10 as a very low-upside player)
10. Zack Cox 3B (OK so he made the top 10!)
11. Stephen Piscotty (again, under-rated in the draft by many, I think; he looks as good a player as Cox coming out of college, to me, albeit a touch older)
12. Anthony Garcia OF (could easily have as gone as high as #9 here)
13. John Gast SP (he’s really moved up this season, for me, but I worry that he’s blocked in St Louis and likely isn’t worth much in a trade, so maybe a bit high here)
14. Greg Garcia 2B/SS (even though he’s finally getting a bit of love, I feel he’s massively under-rated and could even be a top-10 guy in our system; numbers 9-16 are, I guess, fairly close).
15. James Ramsey OF (this might be a bit conservative, I think)
16. Ryan Jackson SS (my worry here is that he’s probably not going to hit enough to play 2B, so a utility role seems less likely, and I don’t know if he’s a starter for a team that traded Brendan Ryan)
17. Maikel Cleto RP (K/BB rate is astonishing this year, I think he’s a better relief prospect than Sanchez now becuase I think his HR-rate will be easier to get under control than Eduardo’s lack of command).
18. Patrick Wisdom 3B (not my favourite draft choice but the glove sounds like it’ll be good at third)
19. Seth Maness SP
20. Jordan Swagerty SP/RP (absolutely love Swagerty but my worry is the year of lost development really hurts his chances of being a starter, and I don’t know if he’s closer-material in the pen)
21. Tyler Lyons SP
22. CJ McElroy OF (think he could absolutely vault up this list by the end of the year, mind you)
23. Charlie Tilson (as with Swagerty, and Pham (who would’ve been on the fringes of my top 10 this time last year), injuries and lost development time are a concern)
24. Steve Bean C (despite the cruddy start, hard to leave off a guy who was a top-100 prospect coming into the draft according to most observers)
25 Eduardo Sanchez RP

I’d have liked to have got a couple of the Latin kids from short-season teams into this, but I don’t really know enough about them. I’m sure one or two (and possibly Valera) are worth a spot around #20ish.

I think it’s also an interesting exercise to see where the guys on the ML team who still qualify as prospects (or who did at the start of the year) would fit in. For me, Lynn would be straight-up #1, Carpenter would be around #6 or 7, Joe Kelly about #10. I’m guessing none of those guys are “prospects” soon, though.

I think it’s also important to note how, on any of these lists, any prospect (except maybe in the top 10) is going to be fairly interchangeable with guys 4 or 5 places above and below. By Sickels-type rankings, for instance, I’m guessing everyone on my list from about #8 to about #18 would rank somewhere around the B to B- level. 1-7 (or maybe 1-8) are all in the A- to B+ range, with probably only Oscar as a straight-A right now.

I think we have a nice blend of veterans and youth but it certainly is and continues to be a changing dynamic. The Phils went from world beaters to has beens pretty much in record time. Anybody who didn’t see it coming wasn’t paying attention.

I think predicting injuries is a tough business. So is trading your untouchables for some hot commodity pitcher/position player. I’m really glad we didn’t let Pujols go for any of the forgotten offfers we got back in 2000. I wouldn’t give up Taveras for any rental today.

Maybe it’s just me, but I could live with Taveras not reaching his full potential as a Cardinal easier than watching him become a perennial all star for someone else. But, what I want is for the chance that he becomes everything we think he’ll become wearing birds on the bats…throughout his career.

Also, if Craig (who can be more than a 1B/DH) “does not have a position on our major league team”, how does Adams have one?

Finally, more power potential? What, you think Adams will slug > .600 in the Bigs?

1. I believe other organizations would value Adams more highly (they know the ages of these players as well as we do).
2. I much prefer a guy who has a good batting eye to one who chases outside the zone. Maybe Adams will lay off pitches in the future, but there’s a risk that he’ll always have holes in his swing.
3. For the next 3-4 years, MCarp will be as good or better.

Freese and Craig have left over injury concerns from 2011, but those will be all but forgotten when the club hits Jupiter in February. Granted the big question mark is Carp without a doubt, but I have been shocked with our production to this point by Lynn and Kelly.

Getting Beltran and Furcal on two-year deals makes even more sense now as they can help usher in the new wave of Birds on the Bat starting with OT and Wong!

However, I would be quite happy if either Adams or Rosenthal bring as much value to the Birds as either Polanco or Vina did.