One of my favorite articles from Baseball Notebook; its a MUST read.

One thing I have talked about before here is the learned minority theory. one guy that fits the description is David Luciani over at Baseball Notebook. David is an excellent analyst and has a very different type of analysis of up and coming major leaguers.

Most sites publish their “prospect list,” which generally contains a list of their top 100 or so prospects. The problem with this list is that it is not very useful to most fantasy leaguers. If you play in very deep leagues they are great but for the vast majority of players there is no need to consider a prospect like Lars Anderson or Justin Masterson, for example.

What David does is give us his analysis of those guys that should/could help within a season or two. These are not necessarily long term guys but the best of those that will be coming up and performing well right from the start, we hope. It is a far more useful exercise than reviewing a prospect list, and David takes great pains to emphasize that what he is putting out is NOT a prospect list!!

Here is a link to his article. Here are some of my thoughts:

The top guy on the list is a guy that should be up this year, Brent Lillibridge. Yunel Escobar is an iffy hitter at best and though many view him as a sleeper in my view I think there is an excellent chance Lillibridge gets the job by the end of the year. He is a good defender who can hit; he profiles like Marcus Giles when he was a hot prospect.

What you can discern from the fact that Lillibridge is number one is exactly what David is trying to do with his list.

Eugenio Velez is really starting to get some play. I really hadn’t heard too many people touting him aside from the Generals and Lenny Melnick, but now he is starting to be taken seriously, especially with Frandsen’s injury. Velez would almost certainly be higher than #17 if David made the list today.

Ben Francisco is a guy that I bet the Mets would love to have right now, or many other teams for that matter. The Cleveland outfield is stacked, but he is a major league hitter right now and could help a lot of teams. If you subscribe to the “draft skills not roles” mantra he is a guy worthy of consideration.

In terms of pitchers, one name that stands out is Jacob McGee. David has him at #6. I am betting that David is thinking like me and that McGee may end up being in the pen and possibly getting a shot at the closer’s job. Their rotation is crowded enough, and McGee has the repertoire to be a top notch closer. There is no shortage of opportunity in the Tampa pen. Even if David doesn’t have this rationale, I think his ranking is appropriate given the flux of the Tampa pen.

In short I think that fantasy players can get a lot of mileage out of this list and it is far better than the typical top 50 list. Take a look and tell me what you think.