http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/askba/26741.html


I missed much of the World Baseball Classic while on vacation, but I've
enjoyed catching up since my return. Nice breakout performances by Curacao's
Shairon Martis (Giants) and Canada's Adam Stern (Red Sox), even if their
teams didn't advance to the second round. Kudos to Korea, which surprisingly
asserted itself as the best Asian team in the WBC, and to Cuba, which got
through clubs laden with big leaguers to reach the final round. Japan only
added to its reputation for underachieving on the biggest international
stages.

One thing they need to fix for next time is these goofy tiebreakers. Using
runs allowed per nine innings is silly--it should be run differential per
nine. But as it is, the only way Mexico advances is if it beats the United
States tonight 3-0 or 4-0 in 13 or 14 innings. Why should Mexico even try to
score in regulation? If Mexico takes the tiebreaking formula seriously, it
could make a real travesty of the game.




         Can you think of an organization in recent history (or ever) with
         a collection of talented offensive prospects comparable to the ones
         the Diamondbacks currently possess?

         Travis Orton
         Flagstaff, Ariz.



When we unveiled our latest Top 100 Prospects list, Arizona had an astounding
six players (all hitters) in the first 32 slots: shortstops Justin Upton (No.
2) and Stephen Drew (No. 5), first baseman Conor Jackson (No. 17) and
outfielders Carlos Quentin (No. 20), Chris Young (No. 23) and Carlos Gonzales
(No. 32).

That's unprecedented since we began doing overall Top 100 lists in 1990. Only
one other team had five position players in the Top 50. The 1993 Braves had
Chipper Jones (No. 1), Javy Lopez (No. 20), Ryan Klesko (No. 26), Mike Kelly
(No. 34) and Melvin Nieves (No. 39).

We've been doing organization Top 10 lists since 1983, so I scanned them from
1983-89. I couldn't find a group of hitters that would have been as highly
regarded as the Diamondbacks are now. The deepest crop belonged to the 1986
Reds, whose Top 10 included Kurt Stillwell (No. 1), Kal Daniels (No. 2), Joe
Oliver (No. 3), Paul O'Neill (No. 4), Tracy Jones (No. 7), Barry Larkin (No.
8) and Lenny Harris (No. 10), all of whom had significant careers.

I went back and looked at some teams that I remembered having a lot of good
young hitters when I first started following baseball. I came up with four
clubs that had several future big league hitters in their system at one
point, but I don't think any of them would have placed six guys in the top
32. The closest would have been the 1967 Kansas City Athletics. Reggie
Jackson and Rick Monday would have ranked that high, as would have Dave
Duncan, coming off a 46-homer season in high Class A. The A's also had Joe
Rudi (who might have been in the middle of a Top 100), Sal Bando (who might
have been toward the end) and Gene Tenace (who wouldn't have been close to
the list).

The next-closest would have been the 1971 Dodgers, whose system was
highlighted by Bobby Valentine and Steve Garvey. Tom Paciorek, Bill Buckner
and Ron Cey all would have made the Top 100 but probably not the upper third,
while Joe Ferguson was a borderline Top 100 candidate.

Two other teams jumped out in terms of future big league regulars, but they
all weren't hyped at the time. The 1969 Pirates had Al Oliver and Manny
Sanguillen, who likely would have made the Top 100, and Dave Cash, Richie
Hebner, Al Oliver and Bob Robertson, who likely would have missed. Likewise,
the 1972 Red Sox had three possible Top 100 guys in Cecil Cooper, Carlton
Fisk and Jim Rice, as well as Rick Burleson, Dwight Evans, Rick Miller and
Ben Oglivie.

That's a long way of saying that I can't come up with a farm system that had
as many highly regarded position players as Arizona has right now. If the
Diamondbacks can come up with some pitching, they should be battling the
Dodgers for National League West supremacy for years to come.




         With what seemed to be an inevitable move for the Dodgers, do you
         think Joel Guzman's shift to left field will speed his climb to the
         major leagues? Los Angeles has much less depth and talent in the
         outfield than in the infield.

         Jason Yoder
         Loveland, Ohio


Undoubtedly. Scouts already had doubts about Guzman's ability to stick at
shortstop, and then the Dodgers closed off that position by signing Rafael
Furcal for three years and $39 million. The next most obvious position to
move Guzman to might have been third base, but Los Angeles gave Bill Mueller
a two-year, $9.5 million deal and also have prospects Andy LaRoche and Blake
DeWitt at the hot corner.

Scouts have been comparing Guzman to Juan Gonzalez for the last two years,
and the move to the outfield makes a lot of sense. Guzman would probably fit
best in right field, currently occupied by J.D. Drew, but the left-field
competition is wide open, with Jose Cruz the frontrunner and Jason Repko,
Ricky Ledee and injured Jayson Werth also in the mix.

Guzman is hitting .313/.353/.563 in 32 spring at-bats while Cruz and Ledee
have been off at the World Baseball Classic. He certainly has the most upside
of that group, and even if he starts the year at Triple-A Las Vegas, I
suspect we'll see him in the Dodgers lineup before the all-star break.





         If Rangers second baseman Ian Kinsler wins the American League
         rookie of the year award, would he be the first recipient of that
         award who didn't appear in BA's Top 100 Prospects list that year?

         Michael Wallace
         Dallas


There have been 32 league rookie of the year awards handed out since we
unveiled our first Top 100 in 1990. Ten of those have gone to players who
didn't make our Top 100, though Japanese veterans Hideo Nomo (1995, Dodgers)
and Kazuhiro Sasaki (2000, Mariners) weren't eligible for the list based on
our criteria at the time.

The others: David Justice (1990, Braves), Eric Karros (1992, Dodgers), Pat
Listach (1992, Brewers), Bob Hamelin (1994, Royals), Marty Cordova (1995,
Twins), Eric Hinske (2002, Blue Jays), Jason Jennings (2002, Rockies) and
Angel Berroa (2003, Royals). All of those players did make our organization
Top 10s before their standout rookie seasons, with Jennings and Karros
ranking the lowest at No. 7.