I agree, especially since, as stated by Adam below, the run-offs are close.

You could do an MVP style vote—10 points for first, 9 for second, and so on. But that would muddy the discussion. Maybe you could do 3 at a time—5 points for 1st, 3 for second, 1 for third.

I’ve had to force myself to look well beyond next season, and instead try and envision twenty years from now—will we remember Mijares (or even Valencia?) Or will we be talking about Revere hitting .400, Hicks winning the triple crown, Morales slugging 50 homers, and Ramos throwing out 50% of basestealers while having a 1.000 OPS?

OK, perhaps a bit of a stretch, but they are young enough to still hope, whereas with the higher level guys, you know what you are getting.

I’ve been thinking about a three-tiered prospect list. Tier 1 would be already major leaguers like Gomez and Young who still have tremendous tools and upside. Will they make it? Seems like their upsides are still every bit as good as Hicks or Morales.

Then you’ve got the guys on the slow track. AA and AAA guys who are moving slowly, but still may become very good players. Guys like Baker or more recently Blackburn and Span (although Span is maybe more of a Tier 1 guy.) Maybe Valencia and Plouffe would be guys at the top of this tier, with lesser prospects like Pridie and Duensing and Humber included as well.

Then finally at Tier 3 you’ve got guys with tremendous upside who may move quickly but still may flame out into anonimity. By default they are lower level and young and more often then not hitters. If Ramos is the real deal, he’ll skip Tier 2 and move to the big leagues as a Tier 1 guy (or even better, a ‘made man’, as I would refer Mauer, Baker, Liriano, Slowey, etc.) And that would have to happen within 3 years max, and probably less. Anyway, with this tier we could protect ourselves from having to admit three years from now that once upon a time we thought some guy named Aaron Hicks was the top prospect in the system, even though he was never able to hit at High-A.