Here is the new Top 10 Best Prospects list for the WPK entering the new season:
Dan Johnson of Phoenix remains the top ranked prospect in the WPK but as he is just entering single A, he isn't expected to crack the big league roster until 1985. The next three top prospects are all pitchers, with the Brewers top prospect
Mike Costa moving into 4th on the list overall and 3rd among pitchers.
Costa was dealing with a nagging injury for much of the Spring Training (a herniated disc in his neck, which has been a recurring injury for him) and as a result is starting the season at AAA just to knock the rust off a bit. All indications though are that he is big league ready.
Let's take a look at the system rankings:
There seems to be some reason for hope among perennial doormats like Phoenix and Chicago that better days are ahead. And the already very competitive San Francisco Velocity maintain one of the best systems in the game in spite of having graduated a handful of top prospects the past few years. Milwaukee is 4th best mostly on the strength of starting pitching and they already have a young and talented rotation so if they could only find some hitting they may be on the rise also. As for the Denver Brewers, well, more of the same. Not a single position player in the top 100, but a whopping 7 pitchers in the top 100. A few are nearly WPK ready (
Stephen Brooks and
Eric Fehrenbacher) while some others (
Bernie Lopez and
Eddie Gonzalez- by far the most promising international scouting discovery the Brewers have had in years) are still very young and years away from the big leagues.
At the bottom of the list are several of the more successful clubs of the past few years- San Antonio, El Paso, Pittsburgh, Portland. So it is possible that these teams are going to be looking to maximize their chances now before talent ages out and starts to run thin again.