Best fringe prospect

[gunnarthor]

BP had an article on each teams best fringe prospect.  "In between the top 300 and the role-20 foot soldiers who populate the minor-league landscape lies a large body of talented but flawed players who, at least in prospecting circles, draw more criticism for their weaknesses than plaudits for their strengths. In some cases, these players are just one developmental obstacle or one grade jump from fulfilling their potential. In the absence of a place on a Top 10 list though, they’re all bound by a sort of mutual anonymity, a group deemed too deficient to contribute significantly at the major-league level, out of sight and out of mind from all but their team’s staunchest and most knowledgeable fans."

 

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=26253 

 

The Twins pick is Eddie Rosario.  The article begins with "Nearly every position player on this list can be described as a max-effort, grinder type, or can claim makeup as one of their best attributes. Neither tag fits Rosario. The 23- year-old Minnesota farmhand missed 50 games last year after testing positive for recreational drugs, and when Rosario did get on the field, he struggled defensively and demonstrated a frustrating lack of improvement in his pitch selection."

 

It's an interesting read.

[clutterheart]

This makes no sense.  How can he be a fringe prospect?

His BA prospect rankings:

2011 #3 
2012 #8 
2013 #6

2014 #10

 

[gunnarthor]

 

This makes no sense.  How can he be a fringe prospect?

His BA prospect rankings:

2011 #3 
2012 #8 
2013 #6

2014 #10

It's BP's list.  He didn't make the Twins top 10 team prospect list so was eligible for this article.  

 

It's not perfect - one could easily argue that the Twins #11 prospect is better than Cleveland's #7 prospect but they had to make a line somewhere.

[Shane Wahl]

I absolutely love articles like this featuring prospects that are in that 300-600 range overall. Rosario is probably a 200 or so prospect, but whatever (Hu, Duffey, Walker, Harrison, Rogers, Michael, Turner, Reed, and Bra. Peterson are the Twins prospects off the top of my head who I would put in that 300-600 range, though I have no knowledge of other teams' prospects in order to properly make the comparison).

[Shane Wahl]

Also, for those who love to talk about trades (as in trading X veteran away for Y prospect), a list like this is helpful because these are the players available for the likes of Hunter, Plouffe, Escobar (maybe), Nolasco (2016), etc.

[gunnarthor]

 

I absolutely love articles like this featuring prospects that are in that 300-600 range overall. Rosario is probably a 200 or so prospect, but whatever (Hu, Duffey, Walker, Harrison, Rogers, Michael, Turner, Reed, and Bra. Peterson are the Twins prospects off the top of my head who I would put in that 300-600 range, though I have no knowledge of other teams' prospects in order to properly make the comparison).

I agree.  While obviously it's great watching Sano and Buxton et al, part of the appeal this year has been watching the 11-20 type guys and see which ones might break out and move into the top 10 (or even top 100 lists).