How Much Can We Tell From Latin American League Performance

As we have been working ahead to finish the eGuide, there were a couple of overall ranking placements that will likely draw significant criticism because of the player’s limited ‘stateside’ experience—particularly a couple of players with only Dominican Summer League experience—don’t worry they are still a few teams away. As we have repeatedly mentioned, our key statistic comparative player methodology translates well to the Latin American Leagues—providing you know what you are looking for. This wasn’t as big an issue in our 2010 Prospect eGuide, as the highest ranking players from the Latin American summer Leagues were Hector Guevara at #299 from the VSL and the Rockies’ Alving Mejias, who checked in at #349. But this year will see at least two prospects from the region rank considerably higher. As a bit of reference framing, we decided to post our top five hitting prospects and top five pitching prospects from the Dominican Summer League (DSL), for each of the last four seasons. None of these DSL players were previously graded as high as the 2011 DSL Top prospect, and only three previous players received a grade as high as a ‘B’ (Jhoulys Chacin-2007; Abraham Almonte-2007; Adrian Salcedo-2009). Most of these players were 16yo – 18yo when they were graded. Keep all of this in mind when we talk about the players from the DSL in the 2011 guide.

2010 Top 5 DSL Hitting Prospects
1) Yeicock Calderon, NYY
2) Eric Avila, PIT
3) Rafael Ortega, COL
4) Jesus Aguilar, CLE
5) Juan Silverio, CHA

2010 Top 5 DSL Pitching Prospects
1) Alving Mejias, COL
2) Andy Otero, ATL
3) Felix Cespedes, PHI
4) Miguel De Los Santos, TEX
5) Lisaverto Bonilla, PHI

2009 Top 5 DSL Hitting Prospects
1) Eduardo Sosa, NYY
2) Miguel Gonzalez, CHA
3) Eury Perez, WSN
4) Kelvin DeLeon, NYY
5) Tomas Telis, TEX

2009 Top 5 DSL Pitching Prospects
1) Adrian Salcedo, MIN
2) Fabio Martinez-Mesa, LAA
3) Rayni Guichardo, DET
4) Juan Oramas, SDP
5) Baudilo Lopez, LAA

2008 Top 5 DSL Hitting Prospects
1) Sebastian Valle, PHI
2) Starlin Castro, CHN
3) Alexi Amarista, LAA
4) Jean Segura, LAA
5) Edison Rincon, SDP

2008 Top 5 DSL Pitching Prospects
1) Wilfredo Boscan, TEX
2) Randall Delgado, ATL
3) Dimaster Delgado, ATL
4) Matire Garcia, MIN
5) Juan Oramas, SDP

2007 Top 5 DSL Hitting Prospects
1) Abraham Almonte, NYY
2) Kelvin Diaz, CLE
3) Moises Sierra, TOR
4) Yamico Navarro, BOS
5) Juan Ligares, NYM

2007 Top 5 DSL Pitching Prospects
1) Jhoulys Chacin, COL
2) Joel Carreno, TOR
3) Simon Castro, SDP
4) Ariel Alcantara, SEA
5) Luis Marte, DET