Resonates nicely with my own world view.

Flies against previous scouting reports, but that nullifies the possibility that he’d have to move off of short.

is it because he’s real close to being on the Big league team permanent?

Catcher Mike Napoli
First Base Kendry Morales
Second Base Howie Kendrick
Third Base Brandon Wood
Shortstop Erick Aybar
Left Field Torii Hunter
Center Field Peter Bourjos
Right Field Mike Trout
DH Hank Conger
No. 1 Starter Jered Weaver
No. 2 Starter Scott Kazmir
No. 3 Starter Joe Saunders
No. 4 Starter Ervin Santana
No. 5 Starter Trevor Reckling
Closer Kevin Jepsen

Rebuild much? Obviously they don’t watch close enough to teams to realize that this lineup is not. Even. Fucking. Close.
 

are already in the top 10. Shows how good last year was but also how poorly the years before were, also the lack of picks. But this year should be another good year. Can’t wait for Trout Bourjous and Grichuck to be roaming our outfield.

Crappy for the position players. Look at the Halos history of bringing up our young AAA talent in recent years. See Brandon Wood!

He must have some really killer stuff to rank that high given his limited time at Orem last year.

Manager of Baseball Operations Tory Hernandez to talk Angels prospects.

Hank Conger at number 1, normally that spot is reserved for Reckling, but given Conger’s potential as an everyday player, I understand it, as Reckling’s only going to see PT every 5 days and will probably be a back end starter.

I’m not sure people realize the sort of potential both Richards and Martinez have. Both have what most scouts call “it”. It’s just a matter of duplicating it now. Both can be front end of the rotation arms. Richards is strong and can pound the strike zone with mid-90’s heat. Martinez is more like Ervin, he’s not strong but he can whip it in there with more movement in the mid 90’s.

I only found 2 mistakes.

1. Richards have the best curveball. This is false. If he can get it over consistently then yes he does. But he hasn’t figured that out yet. That title belongs to Reckling’s curve. It’s very Zito-esque.

2. They sort of lost hope on Jordan Walden. He has everything Richards has and is ahead of the age curve. If Walden can stay healthy he can be a mid/front of the rotation starter. Throwing him into the group of Trevor Bell (who may not ever be a rotation worthy pitcher) and Skaggs (whom we know very little about) is not fair to Walden.

I didn’t know Walden was going to be repeating AA, I thought he’d make the jump to AAA as well. Though I do disagree with your assessment of Walden. Erly in the season before his injuries he was throwing extremely well, like Reckling he was only lacking control.

Being 21/22 in AA is age appropriate and keep in mind Richards was 21 last year playing rookie ball against a bunch of kids right out of high school. I can’t deny that he has “stuff” an that adjustments were made since college, but his college numbers really weren’t that great. He’ll be 22 in A ball next year.

I saw Reckling’s curve buckle the knees of both the California League and and the Midwest and he was only 19/20 years old. And granted while I’ve only seen video of Richards curveball, it still doesn’t seem to have the effect of Reckling’s with a mid 90’s heater. I’m very open to changing my mind on this though if I saw more evidence.

BTW, has anyone noticed Will Smith, Tyler Chatwood and Ryan Chaffee missing from this list? They were popular names a year ago. Smith projects well and Chatwood really grew as a pitcher last year. I wonder what the future holds for them.

BA in 2007 had this as our projected 2010 line-up

C- Conger
1B – Kotchman
2B – Kendrick
3B – Wood
SS- Aybar
LF – Rivera
CF – GMJ
RF – Vlad
DH – Kendry
Starters – Adenhart, Weaver, Lackey, Santana, Young-Il Jung
Releiver – Frankie

And in 2006 had this as our projected 2009 last year line-up

C- Mathis
1B – Kotchman
2B – Kendrick
3B – Wood
SS- Aybar
LF – D-Mac
CF – Chone
RF – Vlad
DH – Kendry
Starters – Santana, Lackey, Bart, Weaver, Adenhart,
Reliever – Frankie

Have to give the credit to the organization, what they’ve put out there has been better than projected in 2009 (except at RP).

I’d opinionate the same will be said about 2010 (accounting for the tragedy and injuries slowing down Conger’s development and hastening Vlad’s decline).

In 2006, you could see the lack of depth in the systems outfield, and called our IF prospects “elite” (make it so, Brandon). Also in 2006, Saunders is listed as the #9 prospect (top LH pitcher) and Napoli was 11th. Both made their debut in MLB that year (Napoli HR’d in his first AB). Morales, and Weaver also made their debuts, and Kotch (mono) and DMac (oblique) both went down.