Baseball America Top 20 Arizona Rookie League: Giants Loaded, V for Villalona

{Note: this was at the bottom of the Bonds post but I had a change of heart and gave it its own post}

Baseball America is starting to list their Top 20 prospects in each league and they kindly made the list available to non-subcribers like me, and BA recently listed their Top 20 in the Arizona Rookie League and the Giants have 2 of the Top 3, 3 of the top 6, and 4 of the top 15.

• #1 in 2007 is our Angel Villalona, who hit very well there despite being only 16 years old much of the season. He played 3B and he looked surprisingly slim in the photo on the front page (see above).


• #3 was Nick Noonan, who took to pro baseball pretty easily and well. He did get games at SS, but from what I remember, his defense was as bad as feared and 2B looks to be his future occupation.


• #6 was Wilber Bucardo, RHP. I assume he is from a Latin American country, according to the short article, there were more Latins there this year because most of the top picks didn't sign early enough to get much play. Even Alderson, who signed earlier only got a few innings under his wing.


• #15 was Charlie Culberson, SS. I think he and Noonan split time at SS. I don't recall any mention of his defense, but his offense was OK. That's a pretty good showing given that most pundits called this pick one done to save money, but here he is, one of the top 15 prospects in the Arizona Rookie League.

That's a pretty good showing, particularly considering that Alderson probably could have made the list if he had enough IP under his belt, he did pretty well in his short time there. Hopefully they can all graduate to A-ball with Augusta in 2008.

I assume Villalona will get to skip a level for sure, to A-ball then drop back down to Salem-Keizer if warranted. Alderson and probably Bumgarner will get to start at A-ball. Noonan and Culberson too. I'm not sure about Fairley, I assume it depends on what he shows during spring training. Williams was already at Salem-Keizer this year, so he probably starts in Augusta too. Bucardo probably will end up in Augusta as well. I don't think the Giants will be shy about promoting people to San Jose if they excel early, either.