2011 Baseball Prospect List-- Atlanta Braves

Name	Pos	Age	Significant AU	Significant RC	Ebay Search	Milb Stats	Key Atttibute
Julio Teheran	RHP	19	2010 BC1	2009 BC1	http://0rz.com/cZvv94	http://0rz.com/aJMJXG	Dominate
Freddie Freeman	1B	21	2009 BC1	2007 BCDP	http://0rz.com/svqyHg	http://0rz.com/NT9EVH	Contact
Mike Minor	LHP	23	2009 BDP	2010 TU	http://0rz.com/6dznsQ	http://0rz.com/hTtqF2	KKK
Randall Delgado	RHP	21	2011 ITG	2010 BC1	http://0rz.com/hzysYw	http://0rz.com/IKjQRg	KKK
Arodys Vizcaino	RHP	20	2010 BC	2010 BC	http://0rz.com/n1wdmt	http://0rz.com/MXNpbf	Dominate
Craig Kimbrel	RHP	22		2010 ProDebut1	http://0rz.com/rN8Ojn	http://0rz.com/GCjvDO	RP
Carlos Perez	LHP	19			http://0rz.com/FuQrIQ	http://0rz.com/bKh5uw	Dominate
Matt Lipka	SS	19	2010 BDP	2010 BDP	http://0rz.com/NYhu8T	http://0rz.com/NAhgVi	Speed
Andrelton Simmons	SS	21		2010 BDP	http://0rz.com/heZUJR	http://0rz.com/hdd1Cj	Speed
Brandon Beachy	RHP	24		2011 Heritage	http://0rz.com/MK3kp2	http://0rz.com/2e7N1c	KKK
Edward Salcedo	SS	19		2010 ProDebut2	http://0rz.com/QQoiUN	http://0rz.com/Y1hVAl	Speed
J.J. Hoover	RHP	23		2010 BC1	http://0rz.com/lr6zA4	http://0rz.com/UkSUwE	Dominate
Todd Cunningham	OF	22	2010 Elite		http://0rz.com/dUgE91	http://0rz.com/WU4wJa	Speed

1. Julio Tehran: Best pitching prospect coming into this year, a top 10 in 5 of six lists, should be in the rotation as late as September this year, if not sooner. Only has one BC AU card, so it ideal for price explosion, price is already risen to $50 a pop.Although if he has another good season and gets called up, this well easily crack a hundred, the best time to buy in has past. Still a very good buy a current price as with all the reviews and hypes his card is very likely to see at least a few month of upward movement. Because he's probably continue to succeed in the minor, and is going to be watched plenty, providing the helium for price inflation. BINBO price on high end stuff has already reflected the hype, and is safe to assume they will soon be fulfilled. (short term: A, long term: B+, spike rate: B)

2. Freddie Freeman: One of the best and hyped hitting prospect, top 30 in 5 of six lists. Already had brief stint in Atlanta last year, and likely to start the season in the line-up. Has power and nice contact, should be a capable first baseman. Has unsigned RC in 2007 BDP and Sterling, and auto in 2009 BC1 and 2010 Platinum. Not ideal combination, but still very nice. His price trend will be defined within the month of season starts. His price will jump through the roof with a hot start, because he will remind people the success of Jason Heyward last year. Price has already risen to the hype like Teheran if not more. More risk of price slipping but also higher spike if he does well in the major. (short term: B+, long term: B, spike rate: A)

3. Mike Minor: Already in Atlanta rotation and seems to know his stuff in the major. Initial called up spike has ended, so in order for the price to rise more he needs to perform well in the major instead of just dominating in the minor, making the condition harder to accomplish. Has autograph in Chrome, Sterling, and Elite, also plenty of USA autos. Not saying he's not going to be a good pitcher, but there's just too many stuff to buy and too little room to grow in. (short term: B-, long term: B+, spike rate: C)

4. Randell Delgado: Another great pitcher product of Atlanta farm system. Progress is right behind Teheran, hit some bump comming into AA, but should be smooth this year. Has several nice auto in ITG trading in the twenties, but could be easily caught up by any Chrome autograph within the next couple of year he's going to be in the minor. I think the better buy at the time would be the unsigned issue in BC1. Should see some more nice upward action as he progress through the system, but don't expect anything too exciting to happen this year. (short term: B, long term: B+, spike rate: C+)

5. Arodys Vizcaino: Yet one more pitcher, I guess they do know how to make them as this list is flooded with pitching prospects. Has both BC and Elite auto, and seeing he's still in A-ball, I don't think anything too exciting will happen to his card price, although with likely good performance this year, steady rise can be expected. (short term: B, long term: B, spike rate: B)

6. Craig Kimbrel: (short term: B-, long term: C, spike rate: B)
7. Carlos Perez: (short term: NA, long term: NA, spike rate: NA)
8. Matt Lipka: (short term: C+, long term: B-, spike rate: C+)
9. Andrelton Simmons: (short term: B-, long term: C+, spike rate: B-)
10. Brandon Beachy: (short term: B, long term: B-, spike rate: A-)
11. Edward Salcedo: (short term: B-, long term: C, spike rate: B-)
12. J.J. Hoover: (short term: B, long term: B-, spike rate: B)
13. Todd Cunningham: (short term: B-, long term: C, spike rate: B-)

2011 Baseball Prospect List-- Who's in and Why

The complete list consists of players named in 7 different lists, Baseball America Top 100, Baseball Prospectous Top 101, ESPN Top 100, Project Prospect Top 100, AOL Top 100, MLB Top 50, and Minorleague Balls, the last list doesn't consists of an overall ranking but rather a top 20 list for each team with a grading system. All names included in each of the six ranking lists are included, and every with grade B- or above in the final lists, summing up to 349 players.

The six Top 100/50 ranking lists is pretty consistent and consists of only 160 players, spreading out to around 6 years of cards published. I believe this is not enough to cover my basis because the 3 Bowman set each year already put more than 100 new prospect autograph into the field each year, and Elite's got more than 200. Although some of these are just fillers to pump up the set and press, obviously more than 30~50 of them deserves attentions, but if I only use the Top 100/50 lists, that'll be the only ones I can cover. So the Minorleague Balls grading system is a wonderful and nessesary implement to the list. I did add the BP star ranking lists of two stars and above, but it turns out they are almost all included in the MB list. I know BA also does a Top 10 list for each team with additional Best Tools list, which could add plenty more names to my list. But these lists are by teams, and doesn't provide a comparison between teams on a overall league level, also the tools list consists of some players with obviously no trait for success instead of the one that helped them make the list, making them marginal prospect with minimum potential at best, so I decide to leave this list out.

More than 90 percent of the players in my list already has mainstream cards out there to buy, which is important to me bacause the purpose of my list is to provide informations for sports card investment and not just how they might contribute to their teams. A player can have a great season in the minor and red hot during his initial month of called up, but it would not be very useful for the card community if he's got no cards out there to buy and sell.

The lists from other mainstream sites are useful not only because they provide a great insight on prospect scouting, but also because they provide the named player with publicity in the prospecting community, which might just be as important to his card value as his on field performance. So my list should cover most if not all prospects that would perform well, and gather enough hype to reflect on the baseball card market during the present season. Which I hope will be useful information to myself and fellow prospectors.

2011 Baseball Prospect List-- Before it Starts

I've decided to start a new project, to do a new baseball prospect list, derived from all the conventional prospect lists. But instead of a list that based on the players' future preformance prospect on the baseball field, my list should aim for the player's trading card prospect in the market. As such, although most of the elements affecting this is still based on the player's on field performance, based on my experience, there's more to a player's card price than just how good he is as a baseball player.

Thus, I've gather several different ranking and grading lists and combine them for my own larger list, although smaller than some larger lists, with combined ranking. The list is larger than all the Top 100 or 50 ranking list, so I might not miss anyone with prospecting potential, but smaller than most of the team lists, to cut down on some of the marginal prospects with minimum potential, at least in the field of baseball cards.

Although the system is still under work, but I think I will start posting the list by team and implement it along the way. It's still far from a perfect or even proven system, but I believe it's better to start first, otherwise I'd probably giveup when the lazy bug bites and it will amounts to nothing.

Anyhow, I will post the team lists alphabetically and explained my calculating system along the way.

2011 Baseball Prospect List-- Baltimore Orioles

Name	Pos	Age	Significant AU	Significant RC	Ebay Search	Milb Stats	Key Atttibute
Zach Britton	LHP	23	2007 Elite	2008 BC	http://0rz.com/KdcgMt	http://0rz.com/koLj1G	Dominate
Manny Machado	SS	18	2010 BCDP	2010 BCDP	http://0rz.com/0RJifZ	http://0rz.com/dwfIw4	Hype
Dan Klein	RHP	22	2010 Elite	2010 Elite	http://0rz.com/gnjzMF	http://0rz.com/okvrow	KKK
Mychal Givens	SS	20	2009 Elite		http://0rz.com/iURRPb	http://0rz.com/KrrMoN	Eye
Jonathan Schoop	SS	19			http://0rz.com/F46TPo	http://0rz.com/eyTBKP	Contact
L.J. Hoes	2B	21	2008 Elite	2008 BDP	http://0rz.com/OFgieG	http://0rz.com/kaRQvi	Eye
Xavier Avery	OF	21	2008 Elite	2008 BDP	http://0rz.com/qAacBd	http://0rz.com/i8je90	Eye

1. Zach Britton: Over the years, I've always wonder what's the problem with Orioles pitchers, namely their pitching prospects. They always seems fine in the minor, but when called up, none of them seem to succeed, not even for a brief period. I understand that AL East is a tough division and minor league performance don't always trasnform into big club outcome, but come on, one, not even one?! I'm not even talking about becoming a franchise player, just a month or two of fluke so I can unload the stuff is fine, but not even that! Britton's outlook is nice seeing he's got nothing more to proof in AAA, but with the Orioles' past history, I'd probably try to lose all the stuff at the time of his call up. It's usually better for a player to start the season in the MLB roaster, but in this case, some more time for him to dominate in AAA might be a blessing for card price. (short term: B-, long term: C+, spike rate: B+)

2. Manny Machado: His card price is already up in the air and behind only Harper in the class of 2010. Although he's in a very premium position and if he become the next Ripken, just the Baltimore fan base will be enough to lift his price to outer space, as they are already in the air, I'm never a believer in investment in the highest price prospect. Even if he does become the next Ripken, which is still way to early to tell, current price and hype will be very hard to maintain because he's more likely to be in the minor and out of spotlight for the next year or two at least. Already have a Chrome AU so the card to buy is easy choice, other than that, I don't see him as a good investment at the time. (short term: C-, long term: B, spike rate: C)

3. Dan Klein: Another pitching prospect, the good news is that he's a colleage draft pick, so the outcome of your investment should come very fast, also he is dirt cheap. Elite AU is limited to only #/599, which means even with all the different parallel and insert AU they put out, it's going to be less than 1000, which is less than any player's BC non-refractor Auto. I can't tell if he's going to be good in the long run, but with the current price, limited supply, and the short period needed for potential return, He's a good buy. (short term: B+, long term: C+, spike rate: B+)

4. Mychal Givens: Another short stop like Machado. With the hype and investment Orioles put into Machado, I don't think Givens will be given much if any fair shot at the big league position. He's two years older, which is suppose to give him a head start to Machado, but more likely he's going to be in A-ball this year, which is easily off set if Machdo gets a good start. It seems Givens got good eye for the ball but limited power potential, add that with his overlap with Machdo, his future card price is dim. (short term: C+, long term: C, spike rate: C)

5. Jonathan Schoop: (short term: NA, long term: NA, spike rate: NA)

6. L.J. Hoes: (short term: C+, long term: C+, spike rate: C+)

7. Xavier Avery: (short term: C+, long term: C+, spike rate: C+)