My post on what happened to the 2004 Top 20 list was well received so I decided to do one more update this off season. Let's look at the 2005 Baseball America Appy League Top 20.
Here is the summary:
To date, six players have made their MLB debut, with Colby Rasmus being the most notable position player and Jesse Litsch being the most notable pitcher. Five players topped out at AAA, with Brandon Erbe being the only one who has a contract for 2013. Seven players have made it as high as AA. Tyler Herron is the lone one of that group who is still in affiliated ball after signing with the Nationals after a successful stint in Indy Ball in 2012 and a good winter ball season in Puerto Rico. One player made it just to High A ball and one player never made it out of rookie ball.
Max Ramirez gets the award for most frequent flier miles. He has been drafted, traded, waived and signed with a total of eight teams. Aaron Cunningham is a close second with six teams.
Sometimes players paths cross. In spring training, Cunningham and Brandon Snyder will be competing for OF playing time with the Rangers. Last year, Herron and Eric Campbell were on the same indy ball team in the Northern League.
Here is the full list and update on each player:
In addition to the six who have made the MLB debut, 19 others have had at least a cup of coffee in the bigs. The 2005 list of players who didn't qualify for the Appy list because of lack of playing time in the league is impressive: Elvis Andrus, Yunel Escobar, Jeremy Hellickson, Matt Garza, and Kevin Slowey. Each either got to the Appy too late in the season or left too early. The one player who played the full year with descent numbers that might have been missed on the list is Chris Carter who made the Baseball America Top 100 Prospects list in 2009 (#76), 2010 (#28) and 2011 (#91). He hit .283 with an OPS of .835 as an 18 year old with Bristol. He struck out 64 times in 65 games. A trend that has followed him as he has climbed up the baseball career ladder.
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