Dominic Brown Rumors

Recently, a number of respected baseball media outlets have released their respective lists of the top number of prospects heading into the 2010 season.  These lists include Keith Law of espn.com's Top 100, Jonathan Mayo's collection of top prospects starting with Scouting the Sally's Top 30, Oriolesprospects.com Top 20, Propects Paradise's Top 30, Camden Crazies Top 25, Dave Barr's Hot Corner Top 20, Prospect Junkie's Top 20, The Cardinal Nation's Top 40, Seth Stohs from sethspeaks.net's Top 20, and Mayo's Top 50.

Obviously this all represents opinion, but to get a better idea of the overall feel of the group Baseball Rumor Mill averaged the Top 20 rankings from all of the lists to come up with an aggregate ranking of the Top 20 prospects heading into 2010. 

The rankings were tabulated only evaluating the Top 20 of each list and a point value was assigned to each rank.  #1 = 20 points, #2 = 19 points, so on down to #20 = 1 point.  If a player was not listed in the Top 20 a NR indication was given and no points were awarded.  The rankings are based on aggregate point totals, though we also did an evaluation of point totals after dropping the highest ranking and lowest ranking.  For instance, Desmond Jennings finished fifth overall in aggregate, but would be tied for 3rd with Buster Posey after dropping each player's highest and lowest ranking.

To view the raw data, click here.

Not surprisingly, Jason Heyward and Stephen Strasburg were significantly ahead of the field at the #1 and #2 spot, respectively.  There seems to be a considerable drop in consensus after either Dustin Ackley at #12 or Madison Bumgarner at #13.  Only ten players received Top 20 votes in all ten rankings.

Without further ado, the aggregate rankings

1. Jason Heyward, OF Atlanta
2. Stephen Strasburg, P Washington
3. Buster Posey, C San Francisco
4. Brian Matsuz, P Baltimore
5. Desmond Jennings, OF Tampa Bay
6. Carlos Santana, C Cleveland
7. Jesus Montero, C New York Yankees
8. Neftali Feliz, P Texas
9. Mike Stanton, OF Florida
10. Pedro Alvarez, 3B Pittsburgh
11. Justin Smoak, 1B Texas
12. Dustin Ackley, OF Seattle
13. Madison Bumgarner, P San Francisco
14. Aroldis Chapman, P Cincinnati
15. Domonic Brown, OF Philadelphia
16. Jeremy Hellickson, P Tampa Bay
17. Martin Perez, P Texas
18. Alcides Escobar, SS Brewers
19. Wade Davis, P Tampa Bay
20. Chris Carter, 1B Oakland

Less than a year after being the #1 draft pick, Strasburg rates as the #2 prospect in baseball

8:41 PM: The latest rumor has the Jays asking for Clay Buchholz, Casey Kelly and another high level prospect, but Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein does not want to give up Buchholz and Kelly.

7:45 PM: The Roy Halladay rumor machine chugs along and is sure to gain steam as the week goes on. 

• Though there have been earlier reports that Blue Jays general manager JP Riccardi was instituting a July 28th deadline, that seams like nothing but talk.  Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports that Riccardi is prepared to negotiatie until the 4pm deadline Friday.  
• The Blue Jays high asking price has taking the Rays out of discussions for Halladay for now.  However, Ed Price notes that the Rays are still interested in and Victor Martinez Cliff Lee from the Indians.  There's also the possibility that they deal Scott Kazmir to the Angels. That last one seems a bit out of left field, pardon the pun.
• Negotiations between the Phillies and Blue Jays do not appear to be going very far at the moment according to Jayson Stark of espn.com.  The Blue Jays are still asking for JA Happ, Kyle Drabek and Dominic Brown.  Some think that the what the Jays are askign for is reasonable.  Jon Heyman says that there is a "5% chance" the Jays and Phillis consumate something.  The Phillies may move to Cliff Lee if Halladay doesn't work out.
• Gordon Edes of Yahoo! Sports heard that the Red Sox might offer Clay Buchholz, Daniel Bard, Michael Bowden, Junichi Tazawa and Casey Kelly.  This seems crazy to me.  That's the Red Sox top 3, arguably 4 with Tazawa, piching prospects.  Nevertheless, word out of Boston is that the Red Sox are trying to do something, whether it be Halladay or Victor Martinez or someone else.
• Some of the Blue Jays expect Halladay to stay with the Jays.  So do I.
• The Yankees are not interested in trading away their prospects or adding any more salary to their bloated payroll.

Plenty to talk about with Roy Halladay trade rumors.

• The Blue Jays offer to the Phillies for Halladay is JA Happ, Kyle Drabek and Dominic Brown.  Another source says the offer is Drabek, Michael Taylor, Jason Donald and Lou Marson while yet a third says the Phillies are considering this offer.  Either way, reports that Halladay will be traded to Philadelphia in the next 24 hours is premature.
• The Brewers are still negotiating for Halladay.  Danny Knobler of CBS Sports seems to think otherwise because they do not want to give up Alcides Escobar or Mat Gamel.
• The Dodgers still have a slight chance of trading for Roy.  The Jays are looking for two or three guys on the Dodgers ML roster.
• Jon Heyman of si.com feels the Blue Jays haul would be bigger if they take Happ instead of Drabek.  Sounds like a good plan to me: one (Happ) is a more proven commodity than the other (Drabek) and it's not like Happ is a stiff.
• The Reds are the latest entry to the Roy Halladay sweepstakes.  Seems unlikely that Roy would accept a trade to a team unlikely to make the playoffs.

Jayson Stark has a new column up on espn.com with a number of good rumors in it.

• The Padres are still interested in trading Jake Peavy despite their recent success. Clearly they don't believe they can sustain it. As far as Peavy is concerned the pecking order of teams he'd accept a trade to is: Dodgers, Cubs, Giants, Cardinals and Astros. Everyone is familiar with the Cubs attempts to get Peavy and word is that the Padres are reluctant to trade within their division, removing the Dodgers and giants. Peavy's friend, Roy Oswalt, has done his best to entice management to make a trade, but Peavy's hefty contract is keeping the Astros away.
• Speaking of Oswalt, a few scouts who Stark talked to said that he had "lost his edge" and could probably benefit from a change in scenery. Rumor has it that the Phillies have already inquired to Oswalt's availability.
• Philadelphia's interest/need for a pitcher is well known. Earlier in the week there were rumors that the Phillies were interested in Brad Penny of the Red Sox. Stark reports that they've also had some inquiry into the following guys: Oswalt, Peavy, Brandon Webb, Roy Halladay, Doug Davis, Erik Bedard, Cliff Lee, Aaron Harang, Penny, Chris Young and Jason Marquis.
• If and when the Phillies do acquire a pitcher, they'll likely have to give up one of the following prospects whom clubs are rumored to be interested: "Lou Marson, infielder Jason Donald and pitcher Carlos Carrasco -- plus catcher Travis D'Arnaud, shortstop Freddy Galvis, pitcher Kyle Drabek and outfielder Dominic Brown."
• The Braves want to take Mark DeRosa off the Indians hands, but seem unlikely to trade some of their young starting pitching to do so.
• Rumors about Jeff Francoeur's availability and who's interested in him are all over the map, but Stark reports that the Braves are "mostly listening" at this point.
• The Mets do not appear to interested in a quick trade to replace Carlos Delgado at first.
• Jonathan Sanchez is available from the Giants...for the right bat. They've already inquired, unsuccessfully, to obtain Dan Uggla, Jorge Cantu and Carlos Lee.