|  | | Number one. | | By Jamey Newberg January 15, 2009 | If your interest in the Rangers goes back 20 years, take a look at this list of what, in 1990, was considered by Baseball America to be the organization’s top 10 prospects:
1. Juan Gonzalez, OF
2. Robb Nen, RHP
3. Donald Harris, OF
4. Dean Palmer, 3B
5. Brian Bohanon, LHP
6. Kevin Belcher, OF
7. Dan Peltier, OF
8. Scott Coolbaugh, 3B
9. Monty Fariss, SS
10. Eric McCray, LHP
Then take a look at BA’s 2009 ranking of the Rangers’ top 10 prospects:
1. Neftali Feliz, RHP
2. Derek Holland, LHP
3. Justin Smoak, 1B
4. Elvis Andrus, SS
5. Martin Perez, LHP
6. Taylor Teagarden, C
7. Engel Beltre, OF
8. Michael Main, RHP
9. Julio Borbon, OF
10. Max Ramirez, C/1B
If you’re able to remember what you thought the ceilings of guys like Harris, Bohanon, and the rest were, which of these groups resonates more with you:
Gonzalez, Harris, Palmer, Belcher, Peltier, Coolbaugh, and Farris – not in retrospect, but going into the 1990 season?
Or Smoak, Andrus, Teagarden, Beltre, Borbon, and Ramirez – today?
On to the pitchers:
Nen, Bohanon, and McCray?
Or Feliz, Holland, Perez, and Main?
No comparison, right?
Even in the hitters’ group.
But dramatically so in the pitchers.
No matter how you felt about this club’s farm system in 1990, you have to admit that the 2009 crop is significantly deeper and offers more potential impact than the list from 19 years ago.
Right?
Baseball America confirmed yesterday that it ranks the 2009 Texas Rangers farm system as the best in baseball.
The only other time that the publication ranked Texas number one?
1990.
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 Scott Lucas Scott Lucas was born in Arlington, Texas, to Richard and Becky Lucas. He lived mostly in Arlington before moving to Austin, where he graduated from The University of Texas. Scott works for Austin Valuation Consultants, Ltd., and has published several boring articles about real estate appraisal and environmental contamination. He makes a swell margarita and refuses to run longer than ten kilometres. |
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