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The Oakland Telegraph
10 April 2033
Reynolds and Plourde appear in BNN Top 10 prospects
By Mack Beth, wild stabs in the dark correspondent
Is this a dagger I see before me?
No, fool, it's the BNN Top 100 prospects list. It looks nothing like a dagger.
Yes, it's the opening bell to the new baseball season, when BNN publishes its annual guess at which talented and not so talented youngsters will one day, perhaps, become, maybe, big league baseball stars, possibly, in the future, potentially. For the Oakland A's, whose traditionally strong pitching suffered a right old time of it in 2032, there was some good news with the appearance of starters Palmer Reynolds and Mario Plourde at #6 and #7 on BNN's list respectively, and reliever Brandon Lee at #19.
Young third baseman Tony De Jesus, the #1 prospect a couple of years ago, continued his delightful slide down the rankings, and this year has come in at #36. Two other young A's pitchers also featured. Starter Ben Nixon popped up at the favourite number of every single, testosterone-filled young player who spends all his days in an all-male working environment, #69. And reliever Ricardo Maldonado came in at a distinctly non-prospect sounding position of #78.
Despite posting a very healthy six players on the list, Oakland's minor league coach Ron Washington-Deecy did come in for some criticism at the disappearance this year of shortstop Harvey Turner. The 21-year-old Turner was #29 last year, but his development seems to have stalled badly over the last year, and he's now outside the top 100. Speaking to reporters following BNN's announcement, Washington-Deecy admitted Turner had had a difficult twelve months, but said, not totally unreasonably, "How can I be responsible for Harvey not making the list, when I didn't write the list?"
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