Here are a few Q & A from the Friday afternoon Hot Sheet chat over at Baseball America:
Eric (Montreal): Jerry Sands just got promoted to AA and hit a homerun in his first game. With Stanton and Alvarez in the majors, who are the top power hitting prospects in the minors? Is Sands near the top of that list?
Jim Shonerd: Probably guys like Montero (even if he's not showing it) and Chris Carter (even if he's not hitting for average). Sands has plenty of raw power, hitting that many home runs in the Midwest League is no small feat, no matter how old you are. But he needs to perform at a higher level (Double-A would do the trick) before we start putting him in that conversation.
They may have to put Sands in that conversation after he hit 3 HRs in his first four AA games this weekend.
nate (wisconsin): how impressive is brett jacksons season in the fsl, also is he too old for high a or is this the usual progression for the year after being drafted?
Jim Shonerd: Top college draftees starting their first full seasons in high Class A is generally the norm, so he's fine for that league, age-wise. He's should have more power potential than he's shown, but the FSL is a tough place to hit home runs and he's otherwise come as advertised.
Jackson just got promoted to AA Tennessee over the weekend where he went 2-5 with a HR in his first game.
More after the jump:
Jim (Notre Dame, IN): Jim, Have newborn duty at 3pm, so wanted to submit this early. Given he has looked much better the last month...greatly reducing his walks...what are the chances Andrew Brackman gets a legit shot in The Show next season (in the Bronx or elsewhere via trade)? Thx.
Jim Shonerd: Brackman's pro career track reminds me a bit of Brad Lincoln's, who's obviously made the majors this year. But I'm not going to make that leap and say he'll get there next year, which he would if he followed Lincoln's timetable. Brackman's numbers across the board have been solid for the last month, but he should be able to excel in the FSL. Let's see how he fares in Double-A before putting an ETA on him.
Brackman pitched at AA Trenton on Friday night. I missed him by one day as I went to the Thunder game on Saturday night. In 5 innings on Friday, he gave up 2 earned runs on 8 hits, a walk and 5 strikeouts.
Todd (Greenville): As a consensus, which prospect(s) have surprised the most this year so far, and/or have made the biggest jump up the top-100 list? Thanks.
Jim Shonerd: Trout and Jonathan Singleton for me. Maybe "surprise" would be the wrong choice of words, especially in Trout's case, but those are the first two guys I think of when we're talking about guys who'll be moving up in the Top 100 next year (Trout was No. 85 this year, Singleton obviously didn't make it at all).
I am curious to see if the Phillies move Singleton to the outfield in 2011 with Ryan Howard at first base for the next five years.