Braun, Fielder Award News; Best Young Talent Rankings

[stoops17]

Yovanni finished 8th in the Internet Awards NL Rookie also

[brettac1]

The top 6 on my ballot was identical to the final one, just with Utley and Rollins flipped.

[Brew Man Dan]

When do the Official MLB awards come out?

[Rob]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/baseball/mlb/11/02/billjames.talent/index.html

 

Bill James lists Fielder as the best young player in baseball.

[Mass Haas]

# 39 Corey Hart will be top 10 next year -- that's me, not Bill James.

14. Ryan Braun, Milwaukee third baseman (23).
Harmon Killebrew-type power, a little like a right-handed Jim Thome. He probably won't make it as a third baseman, either, which kind of sets up an interesting quandary for the Brewers, as to where they're going to hide his glove with Fielder over at first. But this guy may be a better hitter than Fielder, and it might be the smart thing for the Brewers to do to say screw the defense, we can give you seven runs and beat you with a football score. They could be the first team ever to have 50 home runs at each corner of the infield.

And the team rankings in young talent:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/baseball/mlb/11/02/billjames.rankings/index.html

6. Milwaukee | Hitters: 1237 | Pitchers: 440 | Total: 1677
They have the best young position players in baseball, and I believe they are the only team that has six Grade A young players (Fielder, Braun, Corey Hart, J. J. Hardy, Yovani Gallardo and Rickie Weeks.) But the great young pitchers they had a couple of years ago all looked at the defense behind them and decided their best shot was to hide out on the disabled list for a couple
of years.

Remind me who the great young pitchers from a couple of tyears ago other than Ben Sheets are. Anyway, Hunter Pence may go down as one of the biggest non-signed Brewer draft picks ever, along with Nomar and Matt Morris. And he's the only name on the last-ranked Astros' list.

[splitterpfj]

I'm not going to argue too much, but I think the Rockies are rated too highly, I like the talent a lot, but not tops among all teams. I also think he's got the Marlins too high, they have a lot of sore arms, and may soon be minus Cabrera, but for the moment this snapshot was taken - OK.

 

If you look closely though, almost all of the talent the Brewers are getting credit for could still improve, nobody's 27, they're all still on the way up. Pittsburgh is the only other NL Central team anywhere near the Brewers, and that's almost completely tied up in pitching - that certainly isn't a bad thing, but it also shows that the organization there has a lot of work left to do. After the Pirates, the division comes in at #23, 26, 29 and 30 - OUCH!

 

What I read is, the Brewers are set up to dominate their division for the next 4-5 years, with most of the division flat on its back for the foreseeable future.

 

Milwaukee could easily be #1 on this list twelve months from now.

[mothershipconnection]

# 39 Corey Hart will be top 10 next year -- that's me, not Bill James.

 

Hart's gonna be 26, though, and James really discounted those ancient over-25 types.

[davemakovec]

I guess I'm not terribly impressed by the Rockies pitchers - it seems to me that they have a lot of B-level talent, but nobody you'd consider an "ace." Francis and Cook are good, but don't seem like they can dominate.