Deric McKamey has
been BaseballHQ’s
Director of Minor League Analysis for ten years now and a
baseball analyst for twenty. A long-time disciple of Bill
James and formally trained by MLB Scout School, McKamey is
uniquely skilled to integrate sabermetrics and scouting. His
prospect evaluation skills and many contacts have served him
well in all aspects of his job, including advising the St. Louis Cardinals
since 2004.
McKamey and BaseballHQ publish their Organizational Ratings for all 30 major
league teams annually, ranking and analyzing each organization’s top 15 prospects,
as well as scoring each organization
in the areas of hitting, pitching, and top-end talent.
McKamey takes his work much further in print
form. Year three of
the
Minor League Baseball Analyst is available to
order. In this book, McKamey
profiles 1000 prospects from across the game with in-depth
scouting reports and stats that include batter skills
ratings, runner speed, pitch repertoires, major league
equivalents, ultimate potential, and much more. If
readers order the Minor League Baseball Analyst from
HQ directly, McKamey will include online updates in March.
Through the generosity of McKamey and BaseballHQ,
following is a subset of their rankings, which covers their
top 15 Diamondbacks prospects, along with the rating system
used to elucidate the rankings.
Note: As a supplement to this list, McKamey will respond to your
questions about these Diamondbacks prospects and any others
you might have on Arizona's farm system. To participate,
either send your questions to
future_backs@yahoo.com or post them on our FutureBacks
message board. We’ll collect them all and publish his
answers in a subsequent article. We will also publish a premium
feature comparing his rankings to our own.
TOP 15 DIAMONDBACKS PROSPECTS
As Ranked by Deric McKamey
1. Max Scherzer (RHP) - 9C
PLAYER POTENTIAL RATING
Scale of (1-10) representing
a player’s upside potential
10 – Hall of Fame-type
player
9 – Elite player
8 – Solid regular
7 – Average regular
6 – Platoon player
5 – Major league reserve player
4 - Top minor league player
3 - Average minor league player
2 - Minor league reserve player
1 - Minor league roster filler
PROBABILITY RATING
Scale of (A-E) representing
the player’s realistic chances of achieving their potential
A - 90% probability of
reaching potential
B - 70% probability of reaching potential
C - 50% probability of reaching potential
D - 30% probability of reaching potential
E - 10% probability of reaching potential
Minor League Baseball
Analyst profiles over 1000
minor league prospects and includes detailed scouting
reports, sabermetrics, major league equivalencies,
organizational lists, a top 100 list, and potential ratings.
The book can be purchased through
Baseball HQ where the purchaser will
also receive a free online update to the lists in the book.
You may also purchase the book through any of the
major on-line bookstores. The
Minor League Baseball Analyst
is expected to
arrive mid-January.