Very soon, the feature pieces on an organization's top prospects will be over. Last weekend, the Pittsburgh Post-gazette ran an article on top prospect Andrew McCutchen. it was subtitled "Premier prospect could reach Pirates by season's end." That is about all one needs to know going into your keeper league drafts this month.
The belief is McCutchen is one of those toolsy ultra-talented prospects who needs to be challenged. Brandon Phillips and Hanley Ramirez were noted as similarly-skilled players who only excelled once the competition was at its toughest. Andrew seems to agree:
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Late last week, FOXSports Ken Rosenthal ran a similar article about the Mets top hitting prospects, 21-year-old Carlos Gomez and 18-year-old Fernando Martinez. For those unfamilar with each, Gomez stole 41 bases in 50 attempts at AA Binghampton while improving upon his 2005 OPS by 66 points to .773. This was done after skipping from Low A to AA. FWIW, he stole 64 bases in 2005.
Fernando Martinez is the more intriguing of the two because he is three years younger and is slated to begin 2007 in AA. he didn't turn 18 until the 2006 season was finshed. Think about that. He had already dominated Low A as a 17-year-old and was facing much more accomplished players in the Arizona Fall League when he should have been in the midst of the fall sports season - in high school!
With Gomez at AAA and Martinez at AA, both players should be on all keeper leagues' radar, and Gomez's speed makes him a very deep 2007 sleeper. To quote Mr. Rosenthal: