Rockies Deserve Coverage – Top 20 Prospect Review

Hello fellow Rox fans!! My name is Mat Germain and I am currently the lead writer for Jays Journal but decided to help Fansided out by covering the Rockies, which are my favourites in the National League. I adopted the team when I began taking part in a fantasy league that uses franchises as teams and provides owners of those franchises with the opportunity to grab many prospects from that team. We use 40 minor leaguers on top of a regular 25 man roster, 8 man bench roster and 13 reserves, for a total of 86 players per team in a 20 team league. Needless to say, I have gotten used to drafting as many Rockies prospects as possible and am thankful for the experience since it opened my eyes to the wealth of talent that exists within the Rockies franchise.

I will begin my assistance in covering the Rockies with my version of their top 20 prospects. Feel free to say yay or nay and remember that it’s just one person’s humble opinion!

Top 20 Rockies Prospects (as of 17 june 2010):

1. Tyler Matzek SP / 19 yrs old / LoA
2. Willin Rosario C / 21 yrs old / AA
3. Christian Friedrich SP/22 yrs old / AA
4. Nolan Arenado 3B / 19 yrs old / LoA
5. Tim Wheeler OF / 22 yrs old / HiA
6. Rex Brothers RP / 22 yrs old / HiA
7. Juan Gonzalez SP / 20 yrs old / LoA
8. Esmil Rogers SP / 24 yrs old / AAA
9. Eric Young Jr OF / 25 yrs old / AAA
10. Kyle Parker OF (2010 draftee)
11. Alving Mejias SP / 18 yrs old / Rk
12. Chris Balcom-Miller SP /21 yrs old / LoA
13. Rob Scahill SP/ 23 yrs old / HiA
14. Charles Blackmon OF / 23 yrs old / AA
15. Chris Nelson SS / 25 yrs old / AAA
16. Hector Gomez SS / 22 yrs old / AA
17. Cory Riordan SP / 24 yrs old / AA
18. Ethan Hollingsworth SP / 23 yrs old / HiA
19. Peter Tago (2010 draftee)
20. Daniel Cleary Jr OF / 21 yrs old / LoA

The first thing you can notice from this list is a long continuing trend in Colorado of building their team up-the-middle first. Most of the top prospects in the organization are catchers, pitchers, middle infielders and centre fielders, all of who can adapt to different positions when need be. Catchers can become first basemen or third basemen, middle infielders can move to third or the outfield, and the centre fielders always do a decent job in the corners, so long as they have the arm strength needed. Starters can always be developed as pen guys if they don’t make it as a starter, and the opposite is true for relievers drafted and turned into starters. In other words, the Rockies do an excellent job of getting prospects who are flexible. You need to look no further than the current Rox – Ian Stewart, Clint Barmes, and Carlos Gonzalez – to see that trend in action.