June prospect voting results

[RWeeksFan23]

11 hours ago, Joseph Zarr said:

1. Jacob Misiorowski
2. Jesus Made
3. Cooper Pratt
4. Jeferson Quero
5. Luis Pena
6. Braylon Payne
7. Logan Henderson
8. Robert Gasser
9. Mike Boeve
10. Craig Yoho
11. Tyler Black
12. Eric Bitonti
13. Josh Adamczewski
14. Carlos F Rodriguez
15. Bishop Letson
16. Luis Lara
17. Brock Wilken
18. Ernesto Martinez
19. Josh Knoth
20. Bryce Meccage

Basic entirely unsolicited thoughts about our list of players here:

(1) 2025 Eduardo Garcia - especially given his ability to competently play SS/3B/CF not an easy feat - imho is definitively a more vote-worthy prospect than Guilarte and Hall. 

(2) I don't know why RHP Tyler Woessner is on this list. He hasn't shown anything resembling remotely close to a Top 20 guy for over 1.5 years. He's not even remotely a Top 30 guy from my vantage point.

(3) I think we are seeing 1B/DH Wes Clarke is back to fringe Top 30 guy. He is now only getting spot (and I do mean 'spot') playing time with the addition of savvy vet Bobby Dalbec and EMJ's return from injury. He is now playing essentially 2-to-3 games every six-game set. He continues to strike out at far too many pitches in the zone. Given his age, his limitations, and these flaws I just don't see him as anything other than a fringe 30 guy.

(4) It's very early in the DSL but there are a couple of players who weren't the highly touted we'll want to keep an eye on. INF Leonard Rijo has really impressed early, OF Carlos Done (Injured last season - 2024 signee) has flashed, C Johanderson Tarazona has flashed (albeit in an absurdly small sample size, unfortunately). It's obviously way too early here. Big name signings have gotten off to very pedestrian starts (and that's being quite generous - without Fenelon's early HR you likely wouldn't even notice their collective outputs). And, we know not to over invest in DSL pitching thoughts.

(4) I think if we're going to be putting these older names up here we should very much consider counter-balancing that narrative with some of the extremely young names impressive. I go immediately to the HS pitchers from last year's draft. RHP's Jayden Dubanewicz, Ethan Dorchies, and Hayden Robinson (now that he's back healthy). I would personally be more bullish about including these types of upside unknowns than several of the older names on this list. This may just be me, however.

(5) To that same end, I'd be inclined to want to vote on INF Juan Ortuno, INF Jorge Quintana, OF Jorge Quintana over some of the older names on this list from a purely speculatively upside and youth proposition

(6) INF/OF Luis Lameda, imho, is currently one of the most underrated versatile rapidly maturing and evolving stateside player in my viewing world. This young man moves with agility and athleticism. He is a smooth and graceful athlete. His bat is really intriguing - he has line drive pop in there. He has snuck up into my wheelhouse of players I love to watch perhaps faster than any other player in the stateside ranks in 2025. I have been absurdly pleasantly surprised by what I have seen.

(7) OF Hedbert Perez is stating his case to potentially be in these names by season's end. His minor shoulder injury knocked him back some and he hasn't quite regained that heater he was on. BUT, he has made it known he may belong back in consideration for Top 20 votes here and there.

(8) C Matt Wood is suddenly becoming a name to really pay attention to in Biloxi. Of all things! This could just be a hot stretch - we've seen it time and again in Minor League baseball. But, it could also be the start of something for him. I am merely saying we should continue monitoring his progress down in the Southern League. 

That is all I can think of in this rapid-fire 'over coffee' morning thoughts before I go tend to farm work. Happy voting!

did you forget Dinges? I know you're really high on him.

[Ro Mueller]

It looks like we've got a clear Top 6 and Top 23 from our latest rankings (excuse any computational errors, but I think I've re-produced the analysis correctly):

1		Jacob Misiorowski	955
2		Jesus Made	921
3		Luis Pena	858
4		Cooper Pratt	818
5		Jeferson Quero	783
6		Logan Henderson	761
7		Robert Gasser	567
8		Braylon Payne	525
9		Marco Dinges	484
10		Bishop Letson	476
11		Brock Wilken	453
12		Luke Adams	394
13		Eric Bitonti	341
14		Mike Boeve	331
15		Josh Adamczewski	269
16		Craig Yoho	268
17		Luis Lara	190
18		Bryce Meccage	184
19		Coleman Crow	158
20		Blake Burke	117
21		Tyler Black	103
22		Tyson Hardin	101
23		Carlos F Rodriguez	97
24		Josh Knoth	36
25		Brett Wichrowski	27
26		Brailyn Antunez	20
27		Ernesto Martinez	16
28		Manuel Rodriguez	12
29		Alexander Cornielle	9
30		Jadher Areinamo	8
31		Jason Woodward	4
32		Anthony Seigler	2
33		Kenny Fenelon	1
34		Bjorn Johnson	1

[Austin Tatious]

I feel like Spencer, Joseph and Bieder are the answer key and I check my work against them.  

[Joseph Zarr]

Because I'm a noob I do want to say:

I did not actually vote - meaning, although there is a submission there that submission is the original Top 20. I didn't look through it with any type of scrutiny. So although my list may have slightly skewed the Final Rankings (?) I actually entered the prospects list to see who we were actually voting for as a community. To that end, I only wanted to add some comments about the players listed. LOL. 

Anywho, consider my comments. Absolutely throw the Top 20 List above those comments in the trash.

😅

[Joseph Zarr]

6 minutes ago, Austin Tatious said:

I feel like Spencer, Joseph and Bieder are the answer key and I check my work against them.  

See my comment above. I appreciate you valuing my opinions! AND, my List listed within this thread for all intents and purposes belongs in the trash. Surely there are worthy players in that list but I didn't order anything or actually take the time to vote with intent. I was legitimately trying to simply add feedback. Surely Brock gave us all these instructions in his thread pre-amble. I clearly sped through it and acted the part of a Fool. 😅

[Austin Tatious]

1 minute ago, Joseph Zarr said:

See my comment above. I appreciate you valuing my opinions! AND, my List listed within this thread for all intents and purposes belongs in the trash. Surely there are worthy players in that list but I didn't order anything or actually take the time to vote with intent. I was legitimately trying to simply add feedback. Surely Brock gave us all these instructions in his thread pre-amble. I clearly sped through it and acted the part of a Fool. 😅

No worries but makes me feel better about being fairly close to Spencer’s. You guys are so good you could grade the rest of us.  

[Joseph Zarr]

2 minutes ago, Austin Tatious said:

No worries but makes me feel better about being fairly close to Spencer’s. You guys are so good you could grade the rest of us.  

I believe Fangraphs gave me a 10 Grade in 'Process'. It's holding me back. I mean it 'should' be pretty clear by now (?) I'd have Dinges sitting firmly in that Top 5 - for example.

[biedergb]

35 minutes ago, Austin Tatious said:

I feel like Spencer, Joseph and Bieder are the answer key and I check my work against them.  

If Bieder is referring to me, then whoa, that is some incredibly illustrious company that I don't deserve to be in, but if not (see my post a month ago when I thought I was the Greg that Joseph referenced when it was Gregmag I think) then nothing to see here as I may have made an assumption .... 😬

I work on the assumption that Spencer is the answer key, and Joseph is the eyes on the ground which leads to the answer key.  But to try to summarize (which I do poorly ha!) I love that we have a great group of posters who love the prospect world and the minor leagues

[ErnieRilesBrianGiles]

Rankings I probably screwed up:

Bishop Letson (had him #20) - knew he was lights out the first month, but his last start wasn't so great, and he hasn't pitched in over a month. Recency bias gone wrong...

Bryce Meccage (didn't even rank him) - knew he's a second round pick who had a really solid start, but his last four starts weren't as great. Recency bias gone wrong again...

Rankings that surprised me a bit:

Brock Wilken (had him #8) - leading the southern league in OPS and crushing the southern league in HR

Braylen Payne (had him #12) - had a really great first month, but has struggled the last month and a half

Eric Bitonti (had him #18) - had a really great first two weeks, but it's been feast or or famine since

 

[jay87shot]

I am surprised by Gasser at 7. I get that from a talent and value point that is a fair spot. My only concern is that Gasser is 26 and coming off an injury, with our current depth it is probably likely he won't pitch in the bigs again until next year when he is 27 which just greatly reduces prospect value.

[LouisEly]

3 hours ago, ErnieRilesBrianGiles said:

Brock Wilken (had him #8) - leading the southern league in OPS and crushing the southern league in HR

I think it's a combination of not looking up stats, not knowing that the Southern League is notorious for suppressing hitting stats (league average OPS is something like .650), and possibly early votes coming in before he went on a hot streak.  

That, and the noob @Joseph Zarr submitting a ballot without looking at it.

[LouisEly]

1 hour ago, jay87shot said:

I am surprised by Gasser at 7. I get that from a talent and value point that is a fair spot. My only concern is that Gasser is 26 and coming off an injury, with our current depth it is probably likely he won't pitch in the bigs again until next year when he is 27 which just greatly reduces prospect value.

If by "prospect value" you are referring to lifetime value, he is a LHP and the good ones can pitch well for a long time (see Jose Quintana).

[wiguy94]

9 minutes ago, LouisEly said:

I think it's a combination of not looking up stats, not knowing that the Southern League is notorious for suppressing hitting stats (league average OPS is something like .650), and possibly early votes coming in before he went on a hot streak.  

That, and the noob @Joseph Zarr submitting a ballot without looking at it.

I think most people that frequent a site like this and the minor league portion of said site are probably pretty in tune with what minor league prospect stats look like. 

I personally had Wilken 13 but in the same tier as prospects 7-14. I think there are plenty of reasons to look at Wilken and have reservations. He's an extremely passive hitter which is something that better pitchers can take advantage of. He has some strikeout and swing and miss concerns. He runs a pretty low batting average. He looks like a guy who is probably going to be TTOish at the MLB level. Despite his huge HR and ISO numbers, he doesn't have elite raw power.

[CheeseheadInQC]

43 minutes ago, LouisEly said:

I think it's a combination of not looking up stats, not knowing that the Southern League is notorious for suppressing hitting stats (league average OPS is something like .650), and possibly early votes coming in before he went on a hot streak.  

That, and the noob @Joseph Zarr submitting a ballot without looking at it.

I had him in the teens in part because Longenhagen at Fangraphs has me paranoid about his significant home/road splits.

[jay87shot]

1 hour ago, LouisEly said:

If by "prospect value" you are referring to lifetime value, he is a LHP and the good ones can pitch well for a long time (see Jose Quintana).

I don't have a problem with him being that high, just usually once players turn 25 or so they lose space in various rankings. I still think he will be a good 3/4 starter and have a solid long career. I guess by prospect value I am looking at industry standards comparing age, level, ceiling, achievement, and tools. From my own personal rankings I had him like 21-23 because I dropped him 5ish spots for being older and 5ish spots for the injury.

[LouisEly]

57 minutes ago, CheeseheadInQC said:

I had him in the teens in part because Longenhagen at Fangraphs has me paranoid about his significant home/road splits.

His road OPS is .837 in the Southern League.  The only SL non-Biloxi player with a higher OPS than Wilken's road OPS is Tatem Levins, and he has 120 fewer PAs (and his road OPS is .815).  His road OPS would be 5th among all SL players' total OPS, behind Adams, Ramon Rodriguez (84 PAs), Levins, and Ethan Murray (109 PAs, 0.852).

How old was that writeup?

[CheeseheadInQC]

34 minutes ago, LouisEly said:

His road OPS is .837 in the Southern League.  The only SL non-Biloxi player with a higher OPS than Wilken's road OPS is Tatem Levins, and he has 120 fewer PAs (and his road OPS is .815).  His road OPS would be 5th among all SL players' total OPS, behind Adams, Ramon Rodriguez (84 PAs), Levins, and Ethan Murray (109 PAs, 0.852).

How old was that writeup?

Basically he has been saying don’t trust the home run total because Biloxi is the one park in the league that is friendly to power hitters.

[Ro Mueller]

For the month of April, many were worried that Wilken was headed off prospect lists entirely like Eric Brown Jr.: .164 AVG, 28 Ks in 103 PAs that month, with an OPS propped up by a seemingly unsustainable 27 walks.

Wilken's turnaround beginning May 1 has been incredible and I'm sure many of us are now trying to figure out what "normal" offensive production for him really is.

[sveumrules]

The evolution of Wilken's monthly splits are pretty nuts...

April (103 PA)
164/408/342 (139 wRC+)
26.2 BB% | 27.2 K%

May (114 PA)
237/368/570 (173 wRC+)
17.5 BB% | 26.3 K%

June (66 PA)
304/409/786 (241 wRC+)
15.2 BB% | 24.2 K%

Crazy thing about June is that he's got his walk rate down to a much more tenable place, he's got the average over three hundred, the K rate is gradually diminishing, and still has only two singles in those 66 PA with nine doubles and six homers accounting for the rest of his 17 hits this month. 

[sveumrules]

I think Gasser at seven makes sense. After the consensus Top Six guys he has the highest floor by virtue of already having 28 IP of 62 ERA- | 83 FIP- under his belt in MLB.

Obviously the surgery and long layoff clouds things somewhat, but pretty easy to see him sliding back into the rotation and being able to provide something along the lines of Patrick or Priester quality innings.

[LouisEly]

11 hours ago, CheeseheadInQC said:

Basically he has been saying don’t trust the home run total because Biloxi is the one park in the league that is friendly to power hitters.

I get that.  What I'm saying is that, excluding Biloxi players, his road OPS would still be second among all players in the Southern League.

And it's not just HRs (although I find it really difficult to believe that they guy who is tied for the lead in HRs among all minor league players at all levels playing in the Southern League isn't an elite power hitter), he's also tied for 32nd in all of the minor leagues in doubles, and he's second in all of the minor leagues in extra base hits.

[snoogans8056]

11 hours ago, sveumrules said:

The evolution of Wilken's monthly splits are pretty nuts...

April (103 PA)
164/408/342 (139 wRC+)
26.2 BB% | 27.2 K%

May (114 PA)
237/368/570 (173 wRC+)
17.5 BB% | 26.3 K%

June (66 PA)
304/409/786 (241 wRC+)
15.2 BB% | 24.2 K%

Crazy thing about June is that he's got his walk rate down to a much more tenable place, he's got the average over three hundred, the K rate is gradually diminishing, and still has only two singles in those 66 PA with nine doubles and six homers accounting for the rest of his 17 hits this month. 

The monthly splits for all those Biloxi guys are pretty nuts.

Lara and Luke Adams are being held down by terrible Aprils too.