Primeys & Prospecting

Tuesday, January 28 2003 @ 11:03 AM EST

Contributed by: Coach

Despite their many nominations, Gideon J. Clarke and the Beeah Guy came away empty-handed in the first annual Primey Awards. As expected, BP's Daily Prospectus was named best baseball blog, but Aaron Gleeman, whose (mostly) Twins page helped inspire this one, finished a respectable second in that category.

The prodigy's latest piece on Primer is a very detailed look at his Top 50 Prospects, which include just two Blue Jays -- Kevin Cash (#47) and Jason Arnold (#37). As with any subjective list, it's wide open for criticism, but it's much more thorough than some of the "mainstream" analysis.

Over at The Sporting News, which was once the bible of baseball, a panel of "experts" came up with a more extensive prospect rating that treats the Toronto organization more kindly. No less than seven Toronto farmhands, including Arnold (#44), are rated ahead of Cash (#110) -- Jayson Werth (#37), John-Ford Griffin (#39), Russ Adams (#61), Dustin McGowan (#97), Dominic Rich (#103) and Brandon League (#107) -- and five more Jays hopefuls make the list.

Guillermo Quiroz (#128), Gabe Gross (#136), Alexis Rios (#147), Vinny Chulk (#183) and Francisco Rosario (#184) bring the organization's total to a baker's dozen, among 186 prospects considered by TSN. Considering there are 30 MLB teams, that's about twice what they would have if all farm systems were created equal. And I think future closer Dave Bush was a glaring omission.

I do appreciate Gleeman's perspective, and his article is well worth reading, but there's a bit more fuel for the BB fire in the Sporting News list, a consensus of their staff's rankings. On the other hand, it's the same publication that rates the Twins (?!) as the best team in baseball, the Mets in the top 10, and the Blue Jays a lowly 17th, so consider the source.

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