1 Oriole's prospect total on BA Carolina, Eastern and International Leagues top 20 Prospect lists

I got my BA in the mail yesterday and the Orioles only got 1 prospect combined on this years BA Top 20 prospect lists for the Carolina, Eastern and International leagues. That was Chance Sisco at #16 in the Eastern League.

I got my BA in the mail yesterday and the Orioles only got 1 prospect combined on this years BA Top 20 prospect lists for the Carolina, Eastern and International leagues. That was Chance Sisco at #16 in the Eastern League.

I'm not too surprised by this, though I might have expected Sisco to be higher than 16th.

He could hit 8-12 homeruns a year and still be one of the best catchers in the game given his other offensive skills. All reports are that his defense is coming around.

So why is he only the 16th best prospect in the Eastern League? The managers in that league do not think he will become the player you say he "could" be.

Considering we landed no other prospects in High A through Triple A on any lists, I consider a 16th ranking to mean something.

Based on the numbers, he can flat out hit. Leading the Eastern League in OBP as a 21 year old is not insignificant. I don't see why he can't be a similar hitter to Kim, no matter where he plays. Hopefully he can stick at catcher.

I'm not sure what our lack or prospects on top 20 lists has to do with what a 16th ranking in in the Eastern League has to do with Chance Sisco. Is it better that he's ranked at #16 than not at all? Sure. Does a #16 ranking mean that he won't become an All star catcher in the majors? No. What a #16 ranking for a 21 one year old catcher in the Easter League tells me is that he is not HIGHLY regarded by the folks who voted for this list. Otherwise, he'd be top 10 and probably top 5. There must be serious questions about his defense and probably also about his power potential. Sisco has age on his side. Otherwise there is a lot of Steve Clevenger/Josh Thole comparisons to be made. Catchers who could hit for average, had little power, and were questionable defensively.

I was referring to the relative difficulty of making these lists. Regardless, I don't really care about the rankings. The numbers he put up in Double A relative to his age, are impressive.

Not surprised. I can't think of anyone other than Sisco that was worthy of making the cut for any of these lists. At least we got four on the New York Penn league list. That's encouraging for next year.

They are impressive which begs the question, "Why is he only ranked #16?". That's a normal question. You may think he's a great prospect. It appears that the people who put together this list do not think so. A #16 ranking tells me that they think he's an okay prospect.

Great prospect? No. Never said that. I expected to see him somewhere around no. 10 for that league, to be honest.

Promising prospect? Yes. And I think it's likely he can be a positive contributor to the big league team as an everyday player sometime within the next two years.

No love for Mancini either? Are we to assume both he and Sisco will be packaged this winter?

I think Mancini is your DH next season and Sisco is up in 2018. These ratings are meaningless.

They are impressive which begs the question, "Why is he only ranked #16?". That's a normal question. You may think he's a great prospect. It appears that the people who put together this list do not think so. A #16 ranking tells me that they think he's an okay prospect.

Wonder what he would be ranked if he were playing in the Cubs or Red Sox organization? Highly underrated on this list.

From baseball America:

The list wasn't done by ESPN or some organization that has an allegiance to Boston, NY, or Chicago. A lot of input was put in by the managers in the league who saw these guys play. It will be very interesting to see if there are any comments on Sisco when the list comes out. I have the online subscription and will post. Perhaps the fellow who already has the hard copy can paraphrase any comments, if there are any, pertaining to Sisco.

Didn't realize it was up online. To paraphrase. Sisco has some pop but his swing, at this point, his swing his geared more towards line drives. He is weak against LHP. He had a .210 average and a .685 OPS against LHP's in AA. He needs a lot of work on throwing runners and and his transfer. He also needs improvement on blocking balls in the dirt. With some improvement he has a chance to be the long term answer at catcher for the Orioles.

It was only 99 at bats against lefties. Hard to draw a lot of conclusions from that small sample. He did hit .343 against right handers.

Sounds like a platoon with a right handed hitting catcher like Caleb might make sense. Will also limit his exposure some behind the plate. His passed ball number this year was very low, especially for a minor leaguer so I'm not sure that comment on his blocking is accurate.

It was only 99 at bats against lefties. Hard to draw a lot of conclusions from that small sample. He did hit .343 against right handers.

Sounds like a platoon with a right handed hitting catcher like Caleb might make sense. Will also limit his exposure some behind the plate. His passed ball number this year was very low, especially for a minor leaguer so I'm not sure that comment on his blocking is accurate.

Usually pitches in the dirt that get by the catcher will be called wild pitches. Really his passed ball number has very little to do with it.

Usually pitches in the dirt that get by the catcher will be called wild pitches. Really his passed ball number has very little to do with it.

It makes sense to me that there would be a correlation. Someone who has a lot of passed balls is likely going to have more wild pitches get behind him.

I agree that offensively, he might be a perfect platoon candidate for Joseph or Pena. He might even be better at blocking pitches. The 100 steals against at a 75% success rate is the biggest red flag. I can't see Showalter being on board with Sisco unless he can control a running game.

Well, Buck had Nick Hundley starting plenty of games for us: Career 27 percent and 19 percent with us.

Buck seems like the kind of manager who might care more about game calling and pitch blocking. I'm going to give Sisco the benefit of the doubt considering he has only been catching for a few years. Isn't the major league average CS rate around 30 percent? That's not far off from 25. Might be the difference of one or two runs over the course of a season.

Edit: I just checked the league average CS % and it's 27 percent. So maybe we are making too big of a deal out of the 25 percent number.

Well, Buck had Nick Hundley starting plenty of games for us: Career 27 percent and 19 percent with us.

Buck seems like the kind of manager who might care more about game calling and pitch blocking. I'm going to give Sisco the benefit of the doubt considering he has only been catching for a few years. Isn't the major league average CS rate around 30 percent? That's not far off from 25. Might be the difference of one or two runs over the course of a season.

Edit: I just checked the league average CS % and it's 27 percent. So maybe we are making too big of a deal out of the 25 percent number.

Hundley started 45 games while Wieters was on the DL and the Orioles were in a bind.

I think Mancini is your DH next season and Sisco is up in 2018. These ratings are meaningless.

I do not think they are meaningless at all. They are imperfect. That's very different.

Mancini is going to be interesting. We all saw that he has very good power. Whether he'll hit the ball consistently once the pitchers have seen him and figured him out is an open question. I'm thinking he will have an offensive profile along the lines of Mitch Moreland (.254/.315/.438 lifetime, good for 22-23 homers a year).