TBLA Prospect Number One Discussion and Vote
Number One - Chris WIthrow
Due to a late surge Chris Withrow takes the top spot and is the community TBLA top Dodger prospect for 2010. A worthy choice, Withrow showed why he was the Dodgers top pick in 2007 by handling the tough California League in his first full professional season, and then doing more then holding his own as a 20 year old in AA.
This was tight vote with every person on the ballot getting some support. We are going to make it even tougher by adding Aaron Miller and Trayvon Robinson to the mix for the next round. From this point on we will be doing a vote a day during the week and skipping weekends.
| Bday | Name | Update |
| 8/13/1985 | Scott Elbert | Elbert was the Dodger Minor League Pitcher of the Year in 2009 and did an excellent job in the AA and AAA rotations after spending all of 2008 in the AA bullpen. Once promoted to the Dodgers for good in Sept he spent the month performing as a Loogy. He's probably going to be death to lefties throughout his career but he's going to have to work on that command if the wants to be an important factor in a rotation. BA left him off the top prospect list because they don't feel he is going to be a fixture in a major league rotation. The Dodgers sure didn't show much confidence in his ability to start since they never gave Elbert even one such opportunity, instead turning to the likes of Milton, Schmidt, Weaver, Haegar, Stults, Padilla, and Garland. They also weren't very confident in him to be a solid middle relief option by trading two solid prospects for Sherrill. So I don't see the Dodgers showing much confidence in their Minor League Pitcher of the Year. At 24 years old he's, he's easily the oldest prospect on the this list, is he still the best simply because he already made the major leagues? |
| 5/1/1987 | Ivan DeJesus |
Did not play in 2009 due to a broken leg. I'm firmly convinced that if DeJesus had played this season he'd be the top position prospect for the Dodgers. We already know what he can do in AA at the age of 21 so it doesn't take much insight to figure he'd have kicked butt in 2009 at AA/AAA. That said his best skills are his ability to play SS and plate discipline. It remains to be seen if he can be a major league SS and post an OBP of around .380 which he will need to be useful. If he becomes Luis Castillo without the speed I'm not sure just how useful that is. |
| 8/11/1988 | Andrew Lambo | Muddled through his first full season of AA ball and some scouts have marked him down to a fourth outfielder. That seems very premature given his age since he only turned 21 during the season. He held his own but didn't give any indication he can hit enough to man LF but the jury is still out. With an ISOP of only .150 in combination of a walk rate below 9% he's got a lot of work to do but has plenty of time to get that work in. On the plus side he is totally mashing in the AFL as we speak. BA ranked him as the 18th top prospect in the Southern league. |
| 6/15/1987 | Josh Lindblom |
2008 number two pick Lindblom started out in AA working in relief and starting but once promoted to AAA he was used strictly as a relief pitcher. He had a good year but not a dominating year and failed to make any top prospect lists. |
| 9/18/87 | Aaron Miller | Number one 2009 draft pick Aaron Miller was quick to make an impact with his sterling work for the Great Lake Loons, winning the first playoff game in Loon history and impressing everyone along the way. Striking out over 32% of batters faced while walking less then 10% will put a smile on Dodgers fans as they contemplate the future with Aaron Miller. |
| 4/22/88 | Dee Gordon | We were excited about Gordon before the season started but by the end of the year the scouts were the one's who were drooling over his tools. Most of the drooling is because of his "raw" talent and when that raw talent starts turning into more production we could really have something. After a sizzling July he seemed to run out of gas in August but that did not stop the 21 year old from being named the MWL CO-MVP (Kyle_Russell) and being voted 2nd best prospect in the MidWest League by BA. The speed is unquestioned, maybe the fastest player in the organization he led the MWL in stolen bases but he's also 2nd in the league in being caught (73/30). He's no Juan_Pierre as he has gap power, and was developing some patience as the season wore. He started April with a walk rate of 4.7% and ended it in Aug at 7.9% with a high of 8.1% in July. He made a ton of errors but has the arm and range to stick at SS |