| 22 June 2010
Most of the top prospects in baseball are in the National League, which indicates a power shift in future seasons. The AL has been the better league by far for several years, but that appears ready to change due to the infusion of talent that has hit the NL. Really, when you look at the list, it's quite amazing:
- Stephen Strasburg - SP, Washington
- Jason Heyward - OF, Atlanta
- Mike Stanton - OF, Florida
- Buster Posey - C/1B - San Francisco
- Starlin Castro - SS, Chicago Cubs
- Pedro Alvarez - 3B, Pittsburgh
- Mike Leake - SP, Cincinnati
- Aroldis Chapman - SP, Cincinnati (well, Louisville for now)
Now, the AL does have a few top prospects - such as closer Neftail Feliz from Texas, starting pitcher Brian Matusz of Baltimore and catcher Carlos Santana from Cleveland - but the NL has without question the top-two rookies in the game (Strasburg and Heyward) and I have to think Stanton will be the third-best rookie in the Majors this year before it's all said and done. He smashed his first career home run last Friday and it was a grand slam. He led the minors with 21 homers (in just 192 at-bats) before his call-up from Double-A. He also had a pretty decent OPS of 1.171. (I didn't think the stat went up that high -- .800 is considered good, .900 is great and 1.000 is Pujols. Course, Pujols obviously being on the juice helps his cause. Yeah, I said it.)
Also, Posey is having an excellent start to his career (although not playing catcher thus far hurts his value a bit in my book - it's much easier to find a good first baseman than a good catcher) and Leake has been lights-out, sans two starts. I thought Leake might be hitting the rookie wall, but he was very sharp in a no-decision against Oakland Monday night. (A 6-4 Reds win in 10 innings ... OK, I guess they shouldn't stay home instead of making West Coast trips. But it was good to see them play solid baseball on the left coast for a change.)
The point is that if you just had a Major League Baseball Rookie of the Year award - instead of it being split up by league - it would be dominated by the NL this year like we've never seen before. Seriously, guys like Strasburg, Heyward and Stanton don't come around very often, but they are all rookies in the same season. I certainly don't remember anything that rivals this. Then you add in excellent players in their own right like Posey, Castro (I hate to say it since he plays for the Cubs, but it sure must be nice to have a 20-year-old that you know is going to be your shortstop for the next 15 years in all likelihood) and Leake and you can really feel the power shift coming between the leagues.
And yes, I put Chapman on the list as well. He's a 22-year-old lefty that throws 103 MPH. I don't care that he's had a couple rough outings in Triple-A - he's been very good for the most part and MLB hitters are going to want nothing to do with him.
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