2009 Performance Evaluations - The Best of the Best

It is rare that a player achieves the highest score in two leagues in the same season

Now that the 2009 Performance Evaluations are in the books, I thought we’d take a look at the story told by the collective efforts of evaluating 19 different leagues. First let me get the obligatory disclaimers out of the way. Our Performance Evaluations are not the same as prospect rankings. While it is fair to assume that the best prospects will put up the best performances, these evaluations focus only on a player’s offensive performance while they were in the league during the 2009 season. They do not consider things like defensive ability, offense vs. required offense for a given position, how they performed in other leagues during the season or projectability. Prospect evaluation is a combination of art and science and this is the science part of that equation. Later in the fall, we will breakdown each team’s ‘prospects’ and rank them in ‘prospect value’ order.

Some general comments about the evaluations…Approximately 260 players received positive scores, and 500 scored better than -0.40. Years ago we used to produce a top 300 prospect list and we have tried to scale our methodology in that direction. Of that 260, approximately 61% are hitters and 39% pitchers. Again this is an outgrowth of research that we have done that has historically shown that pitchers have more inherit risks (especially injury-wise) and therefore, in general, can’t have the same value as a position player prospect.

Listed below are the top forty hitting scores and the top thirty pitching scores. A couple of general notes: It was a strong year for hitters in the MWL, FSL, ESL, CAL and SOL, as each league placed five players on this list. The INT (5), SAL (4) and FSL (4) had strong pitching performances. At an individual level, Jason Heyward accomplished a rare feat by leading both the CAR and the SOL, but Jesus Montero barely missed the same thing, as he was runner-up to Mike Stanton in the FSL.

Top Hitters

Name , Org , POS ( LEAGUE ) - Total

1 ) Jason Heyward , ATL , RF ( SOL ) - 2.15
2 ) Mike Stanton , FLA , RF ( FSL ) - 1.94
3 ) Jesus Montero , NYY , C ( FSL ) - 1.90
4 ) Jesus Montero , NYY , C ( ESL ) - 1.86
5 ) Jason Heyward , ATL , RF ( CAR ) - 1.68
6 ) Ryan Westmoreland , BOS , OF ( NYP ) - 1.53
7 ) Nolan Reimold , BAL , OF ( INT ) - 1.41
8 ) Carlos Ramirez , LAA , C ( PIO ) - 1.40
9 ) Jaff Decker , SDP , LF ( MWL ) - 1.36
10 ) Josh Vitters , CHN , 3B ( MWL ) - 1.29
11 ) Ryan Kalish , BOS , RF ( CAR ) - 1.20
12 ) Travis Snider , TOR , LF ( PCL ) - 1.11
13 ) Desmond Jennings , TBR , CF ( INT ) - 1.10
14 ) Buster Posey , SFG , C ( CAL ) - 1.03
15 ) Oswaldo Arcia , MIN , RF ( GCL ) - 0.99
16 ) Caleb Gindl , MIL , RF ( FSL ) - 0.96
17 ) Ruben Tejada , NYM , SS ( ESL ) - 0.92
18 ) Edinson Rincon , SDP , 3B ( NWL ) - 0.90
19 ) Brandon Allen , ARZ , 1B ( PCL ) - 0.88
20 ) Gerardo Parra , ARZ , CF ( SOL ) - 0.86
21 ) Brett Jackson , CHN , CF ( MWL ) - 0.85
22 ) Brett Lawrie , MIL , 2B ( MWL ) - 0.85
23 ) Jake Fox , CHN , 1B ( PCL ) - 0.84
24 ) Domonic Brown , PHI , RF ( FSL ) - 0.83
25 ) Alex Liddi , SEA , 3B ( CAL ) - 0.83
26 ) Tyson Gillies , SEA , CF ( CAL ) - 0.83
27 ) Hak-Ju Lee , CHN , SS ( NWL ) - 0.80
28 ) Kyler Burke , CHN , RF ( MWL ) - 0.80
29 ) Michael Brantley , CLE , CF ( INT ) - 0.79
30 ) Eric Avila , PIT , 3B ( DSL ) - 0.78
31 ) Pedro Alvarez , PIT , 3B ( ESL ) - 0.76
32 ) Thomas Neal , SFG , LF ( CAL ) - 0.75
33 ) Derek Norris , WSN , C ( SAL ) - 0.75
34 ) Desmond Jennings , TBR , CF ( SOL ) - 0.74
35 ) Carlos Santana , CLE , C ( ESL ) - 0.74
36 ) Logan Morrison , FLA , 1B ( SOL ) - 0.74
37 ) Michael Taylor , PHI , LF ( ESL ) - 0.73
38 ) Matthew Sweeney , LAA , 3B ( CAL ) - 0.73
39 ) Matt Dominguez , FLA , 3B ( FSL ) - 0.72
40 ) Chris Heisey , CIN , CF ( SOL ) - 0.71

Top Pitchers

Name , ORG , POS ( LEAGUE ) - Total

1 ) Tommy Hanson , ATL , R ( INT ) - 1.38
2 ) Jeremy Hellickson , TBR , R ( INT ) - 1.35
3 ) Daniel Hudson , CHA , R ( SOL ) - 1.17
4 ) Kris Medlen , ATL , R ( INT ) - 0.97
5 ) Mat Latos , SDP , R ( TXL ) - 0.94
6 ) Juan Oramas , SDP , L ( MXL ) - 0.92
7 ) Kyle Drabek , PHI , R ( FSL ) - 0.91
8 ) Tim Collins , TOR , L ( FSL ) - 0.91
9 ) Jordan Lyles , HOU , R ( SAL ) - 0.85
10 ) Michael Montgomery , KCR , L ( CAR ) - 0.81
11 ) Jenrry Mejia , NYM , R ( FSL ) - 0.80
12 ) Chris Tillman , BAL , R ( INT ) - 0.78
13 ) Jenrry Mejia , NYM , R ( ESL ) - 0.75
14 ) David Hernandez , BAL , R ( INT ) - 0.72
15 ) Martin Perez , TEX , L ( SAL ) - 0.68
16 ) Jason Knapp , CLE , R ( SAL ) - 0.68
17 ) Hector Rondon , CLE , R ( ESL ) - 0.66
18 ) Michael Pineda , SEA , R ( CAL ) - 0.59
19 ) Jeffry Antigua , CHN , L ( NWL ) - 0.57
20 ) Brian Matusz , BAL , L ( ESL ) - 0.57
21 ) Arodys Vizcaino , NYY , R ( NYP ) - 0.56
22 ) Jarrod Parker , ARZ , R ( SOL ) - 0.55
23 ) Jay Jackson , CHN , R ( FSL ) - 0.55
24 ) Jeremy Hellickson , TBR , R ( SOL ) - 0.54
25 ) Henderson Alvarez , TOR , R ( MWL ) - 0.53
26 ) Matthew Moore , TBR , L ( SAL ) - 0.47
27 ) Chris Withrow , LAD , R ( CAL ) - 0.46
28 ) Andy Otero , ATL , L ( DSL ) - 0.44
29 ) Erasmo Ramirez , SEA , R ( VSL ) - 0.44
30 ) Gio Gonzalez , OAK , L ( PCL ) - 0.44