Our Top 20 is comprised from a transcript from the March 29, 2011 LuchTime HaloTalk radio show held every Tuesday Live and linked here at Halos Heaven. Our Top 20 is tabulated exclusively by our minor league expert analyst Ryan Ghan.
REV HALOFAN: We're in the top dozen. We made it to the top dozen Angels' prospects. Who's number twelve?
RYAN GHAN: I've got Chevez Clarke. New member of the system. He was drafted in the first round last year. He's an outfielder, a switch-hitter, though he's a little better from the right side right now. He has average to above average power from both sides of the plate. He has made an effort to work counts, but is still working on pitch recognition. You know, it's so early, who knows what he's really going to be down the road. He's a raw hitter and it's going to take him a while to learn how to hit. He does not have the polish or the skills that say Mike Trout or even Randal Grichuk had last year. It would not surprise me to see him back in Arizona in the beginning of the year. The guy is only just now learning to hit.
That said, he's got an extremely high ceiling. He could hit 20 homeruns, steal 30 bases someday. He's got that sort of physical presence, those sorts of physical tools. It's just going to take him a while to develop. But I'm getting steadily more and more confident about the Angels' ability to develop these kinds of guys. I think of the last five years, and in that time they developed Peter Bourjos. I'm a big fan of his. I think he's going be a major leaguer for a while and it looks like Jeremy Moore is coming around. Clarke's current skills are similar to what those guys started with, and I think that the Halos have a good shot of developing him into a major league player. High risk, high reward, but he's got a shot.
REVHF: Wow! The ultimate Eddie Bane draftee taken ahead of many, many prospects, much more highly touted than him. So, we will see how that ends up. Do you see- is there a comparable major leaguer that you see Clarke being near anybody's ceiling? Is Clarke's ceiling near any major leaguer that we would recognize?
RGHAN: I'm going to go out on a limb... I'm going to say Beltran Lite. He won't steal quite as many bases or hit quite as many homeruns in his prime, but he is the sort of player who has that kind of an impact on both sides of the field.
REVHF: Wow!
RGHAN: He's got great tools.
REVHF: Wow! I'm jumping up and down here. Can you hear me? All right.
RGHAN: Again ...I'm emphasizing Beltran Lite. You know, he won't hit as many homeruns as Beltran did in his peak and he won't steal as many bases, and his defense probably won't be quite as good, but he'll be that kind of player assuming everything breaks right.
REVHF: Right on! All right. Well, I'm still excited. And when you say "LITE", all I'm thinking is light on the major league salary that he will be making instead of the eighteen and a half million that Carlos Beltran will be paid this year.
RGHAN: Hopefully Clarke is is Beltran-light when it comes to the injuries too.
REVHF: Yeah? Oh yeah, that too? All right.
Chevez Clarke turned 19 in January. He is playing rookie league ball for the Arizona Angels. The season just started.