MLN FAB50 Baseball 2008 Picks Mat Gamel as No. 1 | MiLB fan's Blog

Minor League News (MLN Sports) picked Mat Gamel as the No. 1 player in their fifth annual MLN FAB50 Baseball mid-season movement and talent ranking in the current SZ. While this year doesn't have as many of the "name" prospects, they have found a lot of great sleeper picks that probably will end up in the majors. MLN's track record has not been that bad. They positively spank Baseball America. The MLN number one picks have been: B.J. Upton (2004), Felix Hernandez (2005), Stephen Drew (2006), Evan Longoria (2007) and Gamel. While Upton took a bit longer than their 12-18 month window to make it to the majors full time (That's why they call it a movement ranking.. all of it is based not only on player tools, but on their ability to move in the organization or get traded.) They called 2006 and 2006 better than BA, who went with Delmon Young purely on his tools, even though the bat-throwing bad boy was clearly not emotionally or psychologically ready to be a major leaguer.

I think that's what I like about the FAB50 best:They do a lot of what they call "sixth tool" checks to see if the player has their head running all of those tools well.

They also write features on the players for humans. They're not dry and boring. They have big screen-wide photos, and the fifty+ articles in the feature just rock.

It's a reality check on these other ranking systems that clock pitches and complain about bat speed. They also seem to be able to pick out people that the tools types can't seem to stand, but still become major leaguers anyway. Who cares if they don't look like a ballplayer? If they're going to be a ballplayer because someone in their organization sees a use for them, that's the bottom line.

They asked not to run all of their picks, but, for example, I thought that Kershaw as No. 2 made sense. He's not perfect, as has played out, but he's well on his way. Likewise they put a sixth tool flag on Cameron Maybin in the Marlins organiazation. Something is up with that guy. He was supposed to go to Albuquerque and at the last minute they put him back into Double-A. He's had kind of a rocky year so maybe there is something to the suggestion that he didn't start the season with his 6th tool sharp.

Gamel's a decent number one. He can be an immediate contributor in Milwaukee, and he meshes well with Fielder and the others on the top of the 40 man roster.

I like the digital magazine format too. Clean. Nice.