We cover prospect #24-19 in this installment of the our Prospect List.  I decided to drop adding pics because it was such a headache last time.  We've got some high ceiling players on this section--if even one of them came close to reaching their potential, that would be a good ratio.  As was mentioned in the Community Prospect List comments, it can very hard to know how to rank Carlos Rosa--25, signed for $25,000 and ready to contribute in the big leagues as a reliever vs.  Chelsor Cuthbert--16, signed for $1.5 million and miles away from the big leagues but with a huge ceiling.  Rosa might be a free agent by the time Cuthbert is contributing--but I've got Cuthbert a couple spots ahead--I wouldn't argue with anyone who wanted to flip them around.  I tend to think of a minor league system in tiers--with players within the tier as pretty much interchangeable.  Anyway on to the rankings:

24--Derrick Robinson--CF--Age:22

Robinson is an important figure in the recent history of the Royals draft--even if he never develops into anything special.  Robinson was ranked as a 1st Round talent, but he fell to the 4th Round of the 2006 draft because he had a football scholarship to the University of Florida to play cornerback.  The Royals gave him $850,000 to sign and not play football.  That began a trend of the Royals being willing to dish out big bucks to players who dropped in the draft due to signability (Melville, Esposito--even though he didn't sign, Myers, Dwyer, Simmons, etc.).  It was and is a good strategy and got better as the Royals have (since Robinson) stayed away from giving big bucks to players who main tool is speed.  As to Robinson as a player, the Royals have claimed from the day he signed that he was more than just a speed guy--that they believed he could and would hit.  Speed is his calling card and with that comes what is supposed to be very good defense in CF.  But the bat hasn't developed like the Royals had hoped.  2008 showed some positives as he hit 245/316/322 as a 20 year old in Wilmington.  Those weren't good numbers but they showed some progress from previous numbers (especially with taking a walk).  This year, however he regressed (as you see above).  His power dropped slightly and he took fewer walks.  It actually looked worse at the end of July, then in August he hit 311/362/513 and hit 5 home runs (more than doubling his career total).  The past couple of years, he's posted BABIP that are rather low for someone with his speed.  He'll go to AA next year where it would be good to see him restore those walks and flash his power more consistently.

Continue reading this post »

Mike Montgomery comfortably gets the call as the Royals Top Prospect on our poll.  He beat out Mike Moustakas and Aaron Crow.  So now the fight for #2 begins.  As before, the choices are listed alphabetically and you can make your case in the comment section.  I've added a couple of names that were listed in the comment section of the last poll.

#1--Mike Montgomery--LHP

Before we get to the top of my personal Royals Prospect List, I thought we would let you all voice who you think the Royals Top Prospects are.  I think we did this last year, I can't remember who spearheaded it, but I'll go ahead and get the ball rolling.  I haven't decided if we'll do 10, 15 or 20.  You can vote for who you think deserves the top spot and make your case in the comment section.  The choices below are listed alphabetically.

Here we are: the Top 30.  I plan to go through them 6 at a time and then do a wrap up/overview of the Royals system.  Since we are doing only 6 at a time, I'm able to squeeze in some previous years' stats as well as a few pictures.  I'll go a little more in depth for my comments.

Disco Hayes via royals.mlblogs.com

Continue reading this post »

More photos » by Alessandra Tarantino - AP

Browse more photos »

Does anyone else feel like the MLB Playoffs are starting to feel like the NBA playoffs?  I don't mind all the games--but all the days off are painful.  The offseason has officially now begun and with fresh rumors that there might be prospects involved in the Teahen trade.  Let's just say if there are prospects involved from the Royals, they better be ones I've already written about (both for the sake of making a good trade and  of not messing up my list).  We finish up the bottom half of the Royals Top 60 Prospects.  Next week I'll do #30-26 of the Royals Top 30.

Here's a review of the previous players listed:

60--Dylan Lindsay

59-Blaine Hardy

58-Barry Bowden

57-Rowdy Hardy

56-Matt Mitchell

55-Ryan Wood

Continue reading this post »

The List marches on.  We are starting to get to some very talented but very raw players in these rankings. We begin to see the trickles of the Royals increased investment in international scouting.  The Royals have a lot of 16-19 year old players from all over world.  If just one or two of them develops that will be huge.  The Royals did just sign Adam Frost from the Independant League.  It's really tough to know where to rank a guy like that.  I would probably put him at around #45-50.

Next week we I will cover #37-30 and then we get to the Top 30 Prospects--which is where things start to get really interesting. 

Continue reading this post »

We continue on our journey through the Royals top prospects.  In case you haven't yet committed the first part of the list to memory, here are #60-54:

60--Dylan Lindsay

59-Blaine Hardy

58-Barry Bowden

57-Rowdy Hardy

56-Matt Mitchell

55-Ryan Wood

54 Eduardo Paulino

I should have the next installment at the end of this week.

Continue reading this post »

Well, here we go.  I plan to rank 60--count 'em--60 Royals prospects.  We will start at the bottom and work our way up. I was originally going to do prospects #46-60 in this post but for some reason the SB Nation format starts messing up at a certain point and won't let me squeeze all the reports in.  So we will do #54-60 and the next installment should come at the beginning of next week.  When we get to #30 we will slow down, go more in depth and do just a handful of players at a time.  Some of these bottom guys there is precious little info on.  So bring on your questions/comments/your own rankings.

60. Dylan Lindsay--RHP--Age: 17

He's not Mr. Irrelevant-he's Mr. A Long Way Off-literally and figuratively.  As you read this, Lindsay is in South Africa-the country he is from-finishing high school.  This spring is when the Royals scouts/staff (save the guy who signed him) will get their first live look at him.  He is raw-perhaps even more raw than a Latin American talent and I'm guessing you will see Lindsay in the Arizona League in 2010.   

Continue reading this post »