I think this is a little optimistic for Lowrie. I'm a Sox fan, and I acknowledge that his year at Wilmington, which everybody says was a down year, is actually a very good showing, but I still don't see him as this good.

I think he's a solid above average hitter, even good hitter for middle infield, but his defense at SS is a little questionable.

If he could play third, he might be better offensively than Lowell right now.

As for Bailey. I'd take the position prospect over the pitching prospect any day. I just have a bad feeling about Homer.

people having a hissy fit about Pedroia's grade and John stuck with him and called him one of his "favorites."  Pedroia's looking like an A these days.

Maybe John is on to something.

Or maybe the $20 check cleared from ALSKOR.

but Joba is a solid grade A:
-control
-dominant performance in more innings and in more situations and against more hitters than Bucholz
-stuff
-command
-losing weight, so not a concern
-sound mechanics
-projects as ace or ace closer

If Clay Buchholz isn't an A prospect, no pitcher is.

I've been watching baseball for 45 years and I'm not willing to name a pitcher whose change and curve were both clearly better.

Watching him in MLB, it was very obvious that his #1 priority in AAA hadn't been simply getting hitters out, but working on his fastball command.  If he'd thrown twice as many breaking pitches, he would have been essentially unhittable, but it it would have hampered his development severely.

I wouldn't be surprised in the least if he won the CY in 2009.

I think all your other A-s are better than your A's. Id honestly take any of the bottom five above the top 3 on your list... and Im a big Maybin fan.

How can Homer Bailey be an A and all those other pitchers A-s? What's the basis for that. Joba and Clay both have done more than Kershaw and Bailey and have higher upsides. Ill throw McGee in as an A too.

?  

My impression of Lowrie up until now has been that he's a player with a very good chance at becoming a solid regular -- high floor, moderate ceiling.

Now, another impression I've been operating under is that guys who get "A" grades have a good chance at becoming star or superstar caliber players.

If that's the case and Lowrie really does have that kind of ceiling then what's taking the Twins so long?

You can't leave us hanging here, John!  Fill in the blanks for us... please.

You said "aside from his year, he really doesn't jump out at you", but what other years are there to look at??

He was drafted in 2005 and put up a line of 328/429/448 in 200 at bats, a pretty nice average and very good discipline, and passable power for someone going from metal bats to wood bats

2006 he hurt his ankle during spring training and it effected him all year long

Then this year he puts up a .910 OPS in AA and a .860 OPS in AAA, neither of which were batting average dependent.

Additionally, all of BA's chats regarding Lowrie indicated he was showing enough range to stick at shortstop, surprising a lot of people who probably didn't take his ankle injury into account last year

So all in all, you've got a middle infielder (likely SS) with a 13.4% career walk rate and .100 career IsoD, with a 165/186 BB/K rate (excellent), as well as 68 extra-base hits in 497 AB's (13.7% XBH%), who has had success in the high minors

If you want to argue whether an A- or a B+ is right for him, I'll listen.  But I think Lowrie has been one of the most underrated prospects both on this site and in the prospect community in general.  

He's got a wonderful blend of ability, likeliness to reach his ceiling, value via position, and batting-average independent skills (I feel like I'm talking about a good wine...)

No control of secondary pitches, poor control of fastball. no command.

Just another guy with electric stuff that hasnt put it together yet and may never.

Id give him a C- until he shows me a full year of something useful.

Ton of talent... but he cant break this list. If he was a Tigers minor leaguer he'd be top 15... or more probably traded already.

Sorry

Well, he could feasibly start for an < 85-win team...that's always been the case. I guess I don't really see how he raised his profile last year. Strikeouts became even more of a problem, though he maintained a solid BA thanks to an extremely high BABIP. Didn't take a huge step forward with his rates, though he saw a slight boost in slugging, which one would imagine is mostly thanks to getting out of the EL. For his value to really take a step forward, one would imagine he would need to be viewed as a potentially above-average regular. I don't really see the evidence for this, either in terms of inquiries about him or in his track record. 4th OF who if everything breaks right can put together a few average years as a regular.

Also, I disagree that Moss as the 2008 4th OF will "never happen". Unless the Sox for some reason think he's a starting OF for the team in 2009, there's nothing left to groom him for. Trade him, or integrate him into the team now. It's his age 24 season, after all - even if he uncharacteristically put up a monster year at AAA this season playing full-time, do you think he's really going to be a hot target as a 25 year old next winter?