- Ian Stewart, 3B - A unanimous selection, Stewart still figures to be a foundation of our future with his forty plus homer pop, his adequate glove and his off the charts make-up.
- Ubaldo Jimenez, RHP - U-ball has a mid nineties fastball and a plus hook, as well as an average change-up. All that he lacks to be a true number one is plus command of his pitches and smoother mechanics. I figure at Tulsa and the Springs with the coaching staffs we have in place, he should be well on his way. Jimenez's lowest ranking was fifth, and only two ballots thought he wasn't the second best Rockies prospect.
- Juan Morillo, RHP - His fastball could be the best anywhere, he needs to work on his control, however, and using both sides of the plate. Once he masters the art of pitching, he'll be a devastating force for our team, and despite what you may hear otherwise, his smooth as silk mechanics make moving him to the pen a foolish choice at this point. Morillo was in the top five of every ballot, and the two that didn't pick U-ball at second had him there instead.
- (tie)Troy Tulowitzki, SS and Chris Iannetta, C -Tulo, our number one pick of this year, has been compared to Oakland's Bobby Crosby. He started off slow, got injured, came back hot, got injured again, and is now on the shelf for the rest of the season. He has the bat and glove to be a middle of the lineup shortstop. In the balloting, he ranked as high as third and only as low as eighth but was number five or six on five of the nine ballots submitted.
Iannetta, meanwhile, never looked as good in college as he has as a professional. After debuting at Asheville last year, he showed good defense behind the plate, and patience and an ability to make good contact when he was at it. This year, he's kept all of that, and in stops in Modesto and Tulsa added a new dimension: power, cranking out a .585 slugging percentage in just over forty AB's for the Drillers thus far. We seem a little more split on Chris' future as his value ranged as high as number three also, but he also dropped as low as number ten. On six of the ballots he was either number four or five.
- Ryan Shealy, 1B - Shealy has received a lot of support from the Purple Row community, but unfortunately, we can't give him what he really needs, an open position he can play on the big league club. We aren't sure of how long his future with the team will be, but in this writer's opinion he has been doing well enough in his audition in Todd Helton's absence to attract the attention of opponents, and will probably find his way to another franchise this offseason. In the voting Shealy was all over the top of our charts. Three ballots had Ryan as number three but a ten and a twelve vote show that his uncertainty in the Rox future limits his appeal for us as fans.
- Chris Nelson, SS - Nelson played sparingly the first month and a half of the season due to hamstring issues, and hasn't been the sparkling gem he was last year in his return. Don't write off his bat just yet, though, he's just nineteen and has plenty of time to correct himself and return to prospect superstardom. He should take a story of caution, however, in the foibles of #22 on this list, Jayson Nix. Prospects who can't make the needed corrections slowly fade away. Three times Nelson ranked as our sixth best prospect and he was in the top ten in all but one.
- Jeff Baker, 3B - His bat has never been disappointing, except perhaps in his brief, unready cameo at Coors to start the season. What remains in question unfortunately, is his ability to maintain his health for a full season. Baker received a break a month ago when an MRI revealed he didn't have one (a break that is, in his thumb, which would have ended his season) and he has taken advantage of the situation by picking up his pace at the plate.
- Omar Quintanilla, SS/2B - Talk about taking advantage of his situation, Q! has jumped from AA to the bigs in style since being traded over from Oakland in the Joe Kennedy/Jay Witasick deal. He has given the Rockies spark and vitality both on offense and defense that they have sorely missed since Clint Barmes had a venison related run-in with a staircase.
- Samuel Deduno, RHP - Deduno's a darling of Rockies prospect fans because of his unreal K rates. He does it with a wicked 90+ mph cut fastball that reminds me, at least, of Mariano Rivera's. If Deduno can get Rivera's pinpoint control, who knows what we'll have on our hands.
- Franklin Morales, LHP - What do you call a left handed nineteen year old who works in the mid nineties? A primetime PuRP, that's what. Morales is easily the best LHP prospect we've got and since his mid-May season debut at Asheville, he's shown why, racking up the second highest K/9 rate and second lowest BAA of the Tourists while being two years younger than the guy ahead (Deduno). We'll try and pump up his value for the next poll, because honestly, this is a little low for the talent we've got in our hands here.
- Jeff Salazar, CF - Salazar should be the best centerfield option for the team right now, and the sooner the Rockies realize this, the better for us.
- (tie)Seth Smith, OF and James Miller, RHP - Smith has racked up an astonishing number of doubles and strikeouts for Modesto. After he gets corrective laser eye surgery in the offseason, hopefully they'll turn to an astonishing number of homeruns, and well, he can keep the doubles, but also more walks would be great.
Miller has three nasty pitches, a 97 mph fastball, a filthy slider and a pretty decent change-up he can throw anytime. He's slotted as a closer, and he should be a very good one if he lives up to his potential.
- Matt Macri, SS/2B - Another middle of the order middle infielder, Macri hasn't gotten off at Tulsa yet as he battles an inflamed wrist. The Rockies were unwise to move him off of short in the first place when they drafted him last year, but now that they have come to their senses, all is right with the world.
- Shane Lindsay, RHP - Lindsay started his season at Tri-City with a bang, and although he has since slowed with control issues, he certainly deserves the attention we are giving him here. Still Lindsay is the first prospect on this list not to be included in all nine ballots, but he ranked as high as eleventh and never lower than eighteenth on the ballots he was included on. Shane uses a 92-96 mph fastball to do most of his damage, and is working on his changeup and a knuckle curve which shows a lot of promise.
- Chaz Roe, RHP - Our supplemental round pick we got for accquiring Vinny Castilla, Roe's frame and stuff suggest he can be a dominant starter someday. Roe's very raw, but his recent outings at Casper have been electrifying and we should be excited he slipped that far in the draft to us. Roe is the lowest ranked prospect listed on all nine ballots, being placed as high as eleven on one and as low as twenty-two.
- Joe Gaetti, OF - Before this year, in fact before May of this year, Gaetti was a promising slugger who was pull happy at the plate and struck out way too much and that was about it. However, Gaetti has suddenly turned a corner in his development and his prospect status is rising because of it. Not trying to do too much with pitches, working the count, taking outside pitches to the opposite field, he's become a much more complete hitter. His defense is still solid and he has a lot of pop in the bat already, as well as a big league pedigree. Gaetti is rising and gives us a nice secondary option for a corner post should Smith falter. Gaetti ranked as high as number seven, and wasn't ranked at all on one ballot as his recent performance may be construed still as possibly a fluke.
- Dexter Fowler, CF - He's young, fast, has some pop and plays some sweet defense in center. Fowler only lacks professional experience and probably some patience at the plate. Fowler ranked as high as thirteenth and went unranked on one ballot.
- Joe Koshansky, 1B - Joe Koshansky hitting homeruns is as uncommon as rainy days in March in Asheville, he's popping them out at an impressive clip and taking an occasional walk as well. Defensively, he's as stuck as Ryan Shealy to first and as blocked in the system as well. Still, his age suggests he should be a more viable candidate to succeed Helton a few years down the road. He was mentioned on all but one ballot, with a fairly tight range going only as high as fifteen and as low as twenty-four on those where he was ranked. Was dropping him justified? With two quality first basemen above him, his future is a bit murky with us, so I'd say so.
- Matt Miller, OF - I am the only one who remains unimpressed by Miller's Asheville performance as all the other ballots at least think he's top thirty good. His batting average is high, his homeruns are high, what's not to like? Well, my only thing is for someone with that much going for him at the plate to not take enough walks to crack a .400 OBP is troubling in my book. But patience can be taught so I'm deferring to the community here. Miller's play has been solid and he does deserve watching.
- Jayson Nix, 2B - Nix has entered a sort of prospect purgatory as far as his future as a Rockie is concerned. With the acquisition of Q! and the solid play at the start of the year by Clint Barmes, plus the fact that he has Tulo and Macri knocking on the door at his own level, Nix is clearly no longer the second baseman of the future for Colorado, and yet he's still young enough to have some projectability left. What to do? Well, let the fates decide, the way the injury bug has hit the system at all levels this year, Nix's durability at least has to be seen as an asset worth keeping around for awhile longer.
- Ching-Lung (Dragon) Lo, RHP - The Dragon still sleeps, but is slowly waking up. Still just nineteen, Lo hasn't shown the potential of Franklin Morales or even the older Samuel Deduno, and yet, he hasn't shown that he's a complete wash as a prospect either. Truth be told we still can't tell what exactly he is going to be at the top level, but at the moment, I see him working his way back into the bullpen at some point down the line.
- Aneury Rodriguez, RHP - Re-rod is another story as phenoms like this don't come along that often. Wicked high nineties heat, seventeen years old, poise and some polish and a lot of raw inexperience, but we've definitely got something here worth watching.
- Zach Simons, RHP - Simons, like Shane Lindsay, is just beginning to learn to use the added heat he's put on his fastball in the past year. Before this collegiate season he was a relative unknown from a small Northwestern school, but after adding twenty pounds to his frame and pushing his fastball into the low to mid-nineties, he got scouts' attentions really quick. He figures to be a project, but coming from Idaho gives him at least some experience at altitude ball and every now and then, that proves handy. The early returns show low K rates, but also a low BAA, and solid GB/FB ratios. It will be interesting to see if more of my readers sour on him at higher levels if he can't push his K rates up to more traditional prospect levels.
- Tony Miller, CF - I was actually surprised Miller would receive this much support as a slightly older outfielder in Tulsa, but the year he's put up merits it. Look beyond the batting average at all the truly important stats and he is playing some remarkable baseball in comparison to his teammates with the exceptions of Jud Thigpen and Chris Ianetta. There's still a little question of his viability in center once or if he gets to Coors, but the pop that's finally showing up could mean that Miller could push Jeff Salazar for the role of "Centerfielder of the future" as early as next Spring, but more likely as a midsummer call-up should Salazar falter.
- (tie)Mike Esposito, RHP and Jason Young, RHP - Also interesting that these two AAA hurlers are bunched together. Esposito is one of my faves because his lack of superior stuff has forced him to be a superior mental pitcher in order to compete at this level. He's very precise with his control, hardly walking anybody anymore and yet still only giving up a few hits to relativley advanced players, and he seems to pick his spots and pitches very well. How this translates to Coors Field has yet to be seen, and most polled are justifiably at least a bit skeptical, but he's learning to use his change-up as an out pitch and the early returns are very solid. Remember when it was Aaron Cook and Jason Young as the twin centerpieces of our future rotation? Ah, good times. Well, Aaron Cook lived up to his promise, but Young's stats always merited caution and when the pair got to AA it became apparent why. Young just didn't have enough in his arsenal to fool advanced hitters and he would get hammered regularly. Enter Bob McClure and a different armslot and Jason Young's hope is back in the nick of time for his MLB career.
- Travis Becktel, OF - He gets a ton of hits. He walks as much as he strikes out. He doesn't hit a lot of homeruns, but he's not a slap hitter either. Becktel has proven to be a true student at the plate and it looks like he's going to be the steal of this year's draft for us. By the way, he's also got a cannon of an arm and his defense shouldn't have anybody worried about whether he can hack Coors Field.
- Jason Burch, RHP - Burch in his career so far lives and dies by his filthy slider, and while it's a great pitch, I'm worried that a pitcher who relies almost exclusively on breaking stuff and altitude baseball aren't going to get along that well. If Burch's agent, Dave Stewart, can teach him anything though, he might turn out alright after all.