Several of you have emailed to ask when we'll release our 17th annual Top 100
Prospects list. We finalized it today and we'll release it on our website
next week. It also will be in an issue that will be mailed to subscribers
next week.

Am I allowed to tell who made the Top 100? Absolutely not. If I did, editor
in chief John Manuel would race from Durham and BaseballAmerica.com general
manager Kevin Goldstein would speed from Chicago to see who could kill me
first.

But I will give you small bit of information . . . the five players who came
the closest but ultimately missed the cut. They are:

105. Brent Clevlen, of, Tigers
104. Yunel Escobar, ss, Braves
103. Yovani Gallardo, rhp, Brewers
102. Colby Rasmus, of, Cardinals
101. Joaquin Arias, ss, Rangers

Other than that, my lips are sealed.




         We all know major leagues make huge money. The salaries of minor
         leaguers aren't mentioned much at all. What's the pay scale as a
         player moves up through the minor league ranks?

         Rob Yontz
         St. Louis


If minor leaguers are going to get rich, they're going to do so via their
signing bonuses. They don't make much in terms of salary.

I talked to officials with two clubs to ask what they paid their minor
leaguers, and they use similar scales. Players make roughly $850 a month in
short-season and Rookie leagues, $1,000 a month in low Class A and $1,100 in
high Class A. They get about $1,500 a month in Double-A and $2,100 a month in
Triple-A. If a player repeats a league for a second year, he might get a
$100-$200 raise.

Minor leaguers fare a little better when they qualify for six-year free
agency. At that point, free agents in demand can command $10,000 to $15,000
per month for playing in Triple-A. But that's still a far cry from the annual
major league minimum salary of $327,000.




         I was surprised to see that outfielder Wladimir Balentien had been
         left off of the Mariners Top 10 Prospects list. Last year, Baseball
         America rated him as Seattle's No. 10 prospect and their best power
         -hitting prospect as well. All Balentien did last year at high Class
         A Inland Empire was hit .291 with 38 doubles and 25 homers for a
         slugging percentage of .553. What more did he need to do in order to
         crack Seattle's Top 10?

         Terry Hsu
         Bellevue, Wash.


Balentien didn't miss by much. I put him at No. 11 on our Mariners Top 30
list in the 2006 Prospect Handbook.

While Terry is accentuating Balentien's positives, I took a more well-rounded
look at him. His light-tower power is very intriguing, and he also has a
strong arm and average speed. But there are also some concerns about
Balentien, who turned 21 at midseason.

Chief among them is Balentien's discipline at the plate or, rather, his lack
of it. He swings from his heels and tries to pull the ball out of the park
every time up, making no adjustments for the situation and with little regard
as to whether the pitch is in the strike zone. He struck out 160 times and
walked just 33 in 121 games. There also are questions about his conditioning
and effort.

When we rank a prospect, we're blending his ceiling and his likelihood of
reaching that ceiling, his tools and his track record. It's not a pure
science, and there's some gut feel involved. Based on my discussions with
scouts, my gut feeling is that Balentien's approach won't work at upper
levels. For that reason, I put righthanders Emiliano Fruto and Clint Nageotte
and catcher Rob Johnson on the end of the Top 10, and left Balentien off.




         What draft pick(s) do the Dodgers get in return from the Angels for
         the signing of Jeff Weaver?

         Charlie Smith
         Louisville



Because Weaver was a Type A free agent, the Dodgers will get the Angels'
first-round pick (26th overall, which previously was ticketed for the
Nationals as compensation for Type B free agent Hector Carrasco) and a
supplemental first-round choice (first in line at 31st overall).

Weaver was the last remaining free agent who required compensation, so here's
how all the draft-pick shuffling has played out:



First Round
18. Phillies (from Mets for Type A Billy Wagner)
21. Yankees (from Phillies for Type A Tom Gordon)
22. Nationals (from Athletics for Type B Esteban Loaiza)
25. Angels (from Indians for Type B Paul Byrd)
26. Dodgers (from Angels for Type A Jeff Weaver)
28. Red Sox (from Yankees for Type A Johnny Damon)

Supplemental First Round
31. Dodgers (for Weaver)
32. Orioles (for Type A B.J. Ryan)
33. Giants (for Type A Scott Eyre)
34. Diamondbacks (for Type A Tim Worrell)
35. Padres (for Type A Ramon Hernandez)
36. Marlins (for Type A A.J. Burnett)
37. Phillies (for Wagner)
38. Braves (for Type A Kyle Farnsworth)
39. Indians (for Type A Bob Howry)
40. Red Sox (for Damon)
41. Yankees (for Gordon)
42. Cardinals (for Type A Matt Morris)
43. Braves (for Type A Rafael Furcal)
44. Red Sox (for Type A Bill Mueller)

Second Round
51. Braves (from Dodgers for Furcal)
53. Padres (from Orioles for Hernandez)
54. Cardinals (from Giants for Morris)
56. Indians (from Rangers for Type B Kevin Millwood)
57. Indians (from Cubs for Howry)
58. Orioles (from Blue Jays for Ryan)
70. Nationals (from Angels for Type B Hector Carrasco)
72. Braves (from Yankees for Farnsworth)

Supplemental Second Round
75. Indians (for Type C Scott Elarton)
76. Cardinals (for Type C Abraham Nunez)

Third Round
83. Red Sox (from Dodgers for Mueller)
86. Diamondbacks (from Giants for Worrell)
89. Giants (from Cubs for Eyre)
90. Marlins (from Blue Jays for Burnett)

Fourth Round
119. Twins (from Cubs for Type B Jacque Jones)