2012 MLB PROSPECT REVIEW: Prologue

As the MLB season has crowned a new champion (Congrats to the San Francisco Giants) and the Arizona Fall League is in full effect, now would be the time to take a look back at my unpublished 2012 Baseball Prospects Rankings.

The reason I never published them was because I'm in a highly competitive fantasy baseball keeper league and feared that my opponents would take advantage of my hard work in ranking 116 baseball prospects. However, since it's a competitive league, I have come to the conclusion that there are a lot of smart players and a lot of the top prospects were gobbled up, regardless.  So more transparency wouldn't hurt my chances  of winning, heretofore.

Also, when ranking these prospects back in March, once again, I had the following criteria in mind when coming up with the list:

• How close is the player ready to contribute to his MLB team?
• How talented is this player expected to be once he gets called up?
• Be it in the short-term or long-term. 
• Will player be able to make a fantasy baseball impact soon?
• Does the player's team have a good/bad reputation in scouting young talent?

To start off, we can take a look at player #116 (Mr. Irrelevant on this list, if you will) on the big board, former Giants' catching prospect, Tommy Joseph:

• 116.  Tommy Joseph--C--Philadelphia Phillies: 
• 2012 OUTLOOK: "Impressive power, but still developing other skills"
• 2012 ACHIEVEMENTS: Participated in 2012 Future Games; Came into 2012 as "Best Defensive Catcher" in California League; Ranked #11 and #10 in California and Eastern League respectively
• CONCLUSION: Joseph was a key piece in the Hunter Pence trade that sent him to the Giants. His 2012 season saw his homerun rate drop immensely to 1:36.7 at bats. His approach at the plate improved slightly as he finished with a BB:K of .35. He is starting to look more like a defensive specialist and a liability at the plate.  If he can rediscover his power stroke, he would improve a few spots on the list.

There you have it, a quick little sample on what lies ahead.  Hope this proves to be a fun and informative project for everybody involved!

Part I is in the books.  Click here to read the profiles of players #115-111.