It continues to fascinate me how some guys can kill a AAA league but have a tough time being better than average once they make the majors. A lot of it is proably nerves and just the idea that they've finally made it there.

Yet, some guys like Jered Weaver, just keep playing like they're not at the top level of skill yet. Really puts Weaver into perspective for me.

Any system that has Andy Sonnanstine not being in the top 5 of the Southern League has a flaw.

I'm guessing this was strictly based on K/9, but to say these are the top 5 pitching prospects is erroneous.

Thanks for your feedback. For the record, the screens weren't intended to identify "the top 5 pitching prospects" in each league. I don't think you can do that without establishing a more comprehensive statistical formula, taking into consideration scouting reports, and paying attention to age relative to the level of competition. Instead, the article was simply meant to uncover pitchers who have high K/9 and relatively low HR/9 rates.

Perhaps I should have used the words "based on" rather than "sorted by" in the opening sentence (although it is true that the lists were *ranked by* K/9). I'm quite certain--nor surprised--that many worthy pitching prospects didn't make the cut. In the meantime, I like the fact that these lists include several high-profile prospects as well as some less-known pitchers.

Understood. In that case, thanks for the list.

I'm actually surprised at how dominant Jimenez was compared to the rest of the Texas League. I knew he put up some good lines this year but wow.

I went to Rotowire for some research on Dan Smith, and "their" Dan Smith with the Mississippi AA Braves was born 9/15/75.

http://www.rotowire.com/baseball/player.htm?id=5704

With respect to Rotowire, I don't believe that information is correct. Here is the information from Mississippi's roster (direct from minorleaguebaseball.com):

Num  Name      Pos B T  Ht  Wt Age    DOB  
52   Dan Smith  P  L L 6-5 250  22 09-09-1983

I'm rooting for Boof Bonser to make it to the majors on name value alone.

1) Bonser is in the Twins rotation.

2) The reason some guys fail at the major league level is because major league baseball is really a different game. In the minors you are playing against your peers and most of them will never see the major leagues. And the major league game is a couple steps faster. The average players is faster, arms are stronger and plays are quicker.

There is a reason the players are in the minor leagues. The hitters chase bad pitches, can't hit curve balls, can't get around on a major league fastball without "cheating". The pitchers don't have major league pitches, can't locate them or don't throw them when behind in the count. There aren't extensive scouting reports and players often have seen one another only a handful of times. Sometimes the flaws that will show up in the major leagues are obvious and not fixable. Other times players just need some major league time to learn the new game.

Then they get to the major leagues. Players still have weaknesses but they have learned to compensate for them or they wouldn't be there. The guy who throws his fastball isn't going to get away with just fastballs no matter how hard he throws. Batters aren't going to chase pitches they would in the minors. Hitters who can't hit a curvball will never see a fastball. Guys who can'g get around on a fastball over the inside half of the plate are facing pitchers who can and will throw nothing but fastballs over the inside half of the plate until they show they can hit them.

In short, you move from a game where a few players may have major league skills to a game where almost everyone does.

There have been I think 3 Dan Smiths in recent memory. The one born in 1975 is simply another guy who happens to have the same name and play (or played?) in the same organization as the one mentioned above who was born in 1983

I think the k/9 and HR/9 are important for relievers (maybe substitute SLG against for HR/9) but for starters WHIP is important with an emphasis on w/9 if you put batters on your raising your pitch count and keeping batters off the bases is nessicary.

I respectfully disagree that WHIP and BB/9 are more important than K/9 and HR/9 at the minor league level. I think it is a given that the most important individual stat for predicting future value is K/9. Control is important but a lot of young pitchers struggle with it in the early part of their careers.

Finding pitchers with a high K/9 and low HR/9 and BB/9 rates is the best formula of 'em all. That said, I would rank the ability to miss bats #1 when it comes to evaluating prospects.

I think it is a given that the most important individual stat for predicting future value is K/9.

The problem is that there are a lot of pitchers who have good k/9's but never develop into major league pitchers. There are also a lot of pitchers who don't strike out a lot of batters who do develop into major league pitchers. So, if you are looking at a team's players, its more likely that the guys with the high k/9's are good prospects. But some of them aren't. And some of the players with lower k/9's are.