Wilmington Prospects in Baseball America’s Top 20

As Baseball America continues to run through each level and league in Minor League Baseball, names of Royals prospects keep popping up.

Recently, they covered the Carolina League, home of the Wilmington Blue Rocks, the High A affiiliate of the Kansas City Royals.  Of BA’s top 20 prospects in the league, the Royals placed five Blue Rocks on  the list, all within the top 10.

They are: 1B Eric Hosmer (2), LHP John Lamb (3), catcher Wil Myers (4), LHP Chris Dwyer (7), and SS Christian Colon (9).

Hosmer, Lamb and Myers are no surprise.  Hosmer had an incredible offensive season, despite low homerun numbers in Wilmington.  He’s among the best first baseman prospects in the game and one of the better hitters as well.  Some scouts consider Myers the top prospect in the Royals system and Baseball America’s Prospect Handbook called him the Royals best pure minor league hitter.  John Lamb has really elevated his status on prospect lists with strong performances in both A levels of the minors and started to pitch well towards the end of the year in Double A after a rocky start.

I’m not surprised that Dwyer is on the list, but I’m surprised he’s so high.  Colon as well seems like a high ranking for what many would consider a pedestrian first pro season.

The fun part as a fan will be checking their Texas League rankings to see how many Royals make it onto that list.  The Royals Double A affiliate Northwest Arkansas Naturals won the Texas League championship with a lineup that looked almost like an all-star roster.

The accolades keep coming in, and for good reason.  When the 2011 Prospect Handbook comes out this winter, I expect the Royals to be listed as the #1 minor league system in baseball.

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