How good, historically speaking, were our best prospect performances in 2009? The short answer is, pretty good. According to the stat OPS+, Halos position prospects Carlos Ramirez, Dillon Baird, and Alexia Amarista put up some of the best performances of the decade. Not bad for a system widely criticized as having left its best days behind.
OPS+ adjusts offensive contributions to league and competitive context, so it's really the best stat to use when looking at performances across levels. Simply put, OPS+ is the best shorthand I know of making an apples-to-apples comparison of a player hitting .300 in the Midwest League to a player hitting .300 in the Pacific Coast League.
First, let's take a look at the best numbers. Here's a list of decade-best offensive performances over at least 100 PA's by OPS+. 2009 guys are in italics.
OPS+ PLAYER PA's LEVEL AGE YEAR
201 Carlos Ramirez 190 Adv_Rook 21 2009
193 Roberto Lopez 319 Adv_Rook 22 2008
193 Seth Loman 199 ASL_Rook 21 2007
188 Chris Pettit 266 A-Ball 22 2007
181 Dallas McPherson 302 AA 23 2004
180 Sammy Swenson 267 Adv_Rook 23 2001
177 Dallas McPherson 136 Adv_Rook 20 2001
177 Sergio Contreras 201 Adv_Rook 20 2000
176 Matthew Sweeney 202 ASL_Rook 18 2006
173 Howie Kendrick 337 A-Ball 20 2004
Notice any patterns here? Half of the best OPS+'s were put up by college kids in advanced rookie ball, where significant diversity of age and talent makes it relatively easy for older draftees to stand out. Still, Orem catcher Carlos Ramirez performed better than 85 other college kids with over a hundred rookie league PA's, and that demands recognition. He got on base in exactly half of his PA's. Moreover, if you add his numbers from the Pioneer League playoffs, his season line reads even better: a 219 OPS+ with 10 homeruns across 214 rookie ball plate appearances. He's a guy to watch next year.
But we're interested in guys who put up a larger sample size, so let's look at only the best performances of players who got at least 250 PA's and see if any more 2009 draftees float to the top.
OPS+ PLAYER PA's LEVEL AGE YEAR
193 Roberto Lopez 319 Adv_Rook 22 2008
188 Chris Pettit 266 A-Ball 22 2007
181 Dallas McPherson 302 AA 23 2004
180 Sammy Swenson 267 Adv_Rook 23 2001
173 Howie Kendrick 337 A-Ball 20 2004
173 Chris Pettit 272 Adv_Rook 21 2006
171 Howie Kendrick 312 AAA 22 2006
170 Dillon Baird 250 Adv_Rook 21 2009
167 Jose Fernandez 522 AAA 26 2001
167 Dallas McPherson 339 A+ 22 2003
Again, we see one player from 2009, this time Ramirez' Orem teammate, first baseman Dillon Baird. If you're curious, Randall Grichuk's age 17 season in the ASL ranks 25th on this list. Trout didn't have enough PA's to qualify.
Next, let's acknowledge that it's a far more difficult thing to outperform your peers over a full season, rather than just a half season. Here's a list of the decade's best performances by OPS+ over 500 or more PA's.
OPS+ PLAYER PA's LEVEL AGE YEAR
169 Dallas McPherson 573 AA, AAA 23 2004
167 Jose Fernandez 522 AAA 26 2001
163 Sean Rodriguez 724 AAA 23_24 2008+2009
158 Chris Pettit 573 A, A+ 22 2007
156 Brandon Wood 595 A+ 20 2005
153 Mike Campo 569 A+ 25 2002
144 Alexia Amarista 557 A 20 2009
143 Mike O'Keefe 537 AA 24 2002
142 Mike Napoli 584 A+ 22 2004
141 Robb Quinlan 588 AAA 25 2002
Cedar Rapids' second baseman Alexia Amarista is the next '09 name to pop up, which is something of a shock due to his lack of power relative to the other guys on the list. He had a very, very good season in a league that is very, very hard on hitters. I also included split seasons in this list, giving Dallas McPherson credit for his historic 2004 campaign in AA and AAA, and Chris Pettit for his very good season in A and High A. For Sean Rodriguez, I collapsed his '08 and '09 AAA seasons into a single line - he deserves to be remembered for his fine work there.
Sure, 2009 was no banner year for the Halos system, especially at the higher levels, but it did see some very good performances by players new to the organization. Those performances rank right up there with the best of a talent- rich decade, so I think it's fair to say that the pipeline is not running dry.