MW: That’s not why it’s not a valued source on this blog. No projections are valued sources because that’s all they are – projections. It amazes me that you can say that a top prospect list is “fact” – it can’t possibly be, no matter who puts it together.

Marginal players don’t play more then 1000 games and do you actually expect to find more then one or two elite players every year?..These guys aren’t elite players but certainlly not marginal..

In 1997 BA’s top 2 Jays prospects were Halladay and Carpenter..Both of them have won Cy Young awards..So its much more common then you think..

These rankings are not perfect but as you go through each teams top 10 prospects you will see some big names..Certainlly they mean something and are a good indication as to what teams have in their system..

MW: Maybe “marginal” means something different to me than it does to you. Both Lopez and Izturis wound up being OK major-leaguers, and maybe Lopez has wound up being even average, but neither of them turned out to be guys you’d want back as key pieces in a trade for something major. For example, let’s say that back in 2001, the Expos, unable to meet his contract demands, traded Vladimir Guerrero and got the Jays’ second- and third-best prospects, Lopez and Izturis. Is that the kind of impact return the Expos would have wanted? Probably not.

Like you said we have to rank things and the Jays are ranked in the bottom 3rd..

So lets look at Baseball Americas top 10 prospects in 2000..

1 Vernon Wells 1236G/.280BA/.325OBP..Longest seving Jay and up until the last few seasons,the Jays best offensive player..

2 Felipe Lopez..

1024/.269/.338..Bounced around a bit but 8 seasons and an all-star game in 2005..He finished last season with a .320 BA and a .401OBP

3 Caesar Izturis..Remember Chad Ricketts??

1017/.252/.298..Won a gold glove in 2004 and one of the rare cases of Tommy John surgery performed on a SS..

4 Michael Young..traded for Loiaza..Ouch

1351/.302/.349..2005 batting champion, 6x all star, gold glove..The Jays have been searching for a SS since 1997..Smooth move Mr Ash..

5 Josh Phelps..One year wonder..

465/.273/.343..Good power but SO are pretty high..

6 Gary Glover..

.503 ERA in 263 games isn’t so impressive but the guy has hung around for a bit not bad for 426th overall pick..

7 Brent Abernathy..

232/.244/.297..Most people expected more from him..

8,9.10 Andy Thompson, Kevin Whitt and John Sneed Didn’t do much at all..

I’d have to say the ranking of these propects, in this year was very good..M Young is an outstanding SS and Wells didn’t sign a monster deal for nothing..

The top 5 prospects have played more then 5000 games at the major league level and 2 of them are or have been elite MLB players..

Not sure how this helps your plight much..I think I’ll stick to BA’s rankings..Because hey, we have rank things right??

MW: It’s very rare that you get two elites in the top five of any team any year, but look at the overall rankings. Young should have been second, and Lopez and Izturis have been marginal guys for most of their careers. The other six didn’t really wind up doing anything.

But J.P took over this team with Halladay and AA started out trading him because J.P was unable to bring the Jays to the next level..

Let’s not forget wad of dough owed to B.J Ryan and the 20 million bucks plus owed to Wells for the next few years..So AA inherited a team similar to the one J.P did both in W-L record, talent and contracts..AA inherited a team 75-87 and J.P 80-82..J.P was left with the Mondesi contact and AA with the Wells contact..

I think this team was short on young talent when AA took over but the Halladay and League trades have helped in that area..But they are still thin in the minor leagues and I think minor league rankings mean something or why would they even have them?..

8 years from now most if not all of the players in the minors today will be gone or on other teams..

Players are ranked and classified by some very good baseball scouts to help GM’s rate and trade for players..If minor league rankings mean diddly squat then why bother having them at all?

MW: Because we have to rank things. Fans need as much information as they can get, and there are people who can make a living providing such information. As I’ve said before, go back and look at Baseball America’s Top 10 Prospects list for each team from before the 2001 season, and see how many of the guys on that list actually made an impact, and how many impact players were completely missed. Eight years from now is when you want the guys who are currently in A-ball and AA to be impact players in the major leagues – if you think they’re all going to be gone or on other teams by then, then why are you concerned at all with minor-league rankings?

I know this sounds a little extreme, but this really ticked me off. I guess we’ll have to double the fan voting for Tom next year, and do a letter writing campaign or something. None of the other members of the shortlist deserve it half as much as Tom does.

MW: A lot of the members of the short list deserve it almost as much as Tom does, and that’s the problem.

I don’t get how the Jays minor league system is rated in the bottom 5. I don’t know if there is an organization with more pitching depth than the Jays, they are going into next season with more than 15 guys who can conceivably make the starting rotation.

Is there a groupthink going on about the Jays minor league system or are they legitmately this bad?

MW: I don’t think the Blue Jays actually have 15 guys who would be good starting pitchers at the major-league level. I don’t really buy the minor-league ranking thing – as I’ve said many times, the best way to rate a team’s minor-league system is to wait 8-10 years, and then check.

What about if the ticket prices of the Leafs were the price of the Jays? I could then easily seem them getting 50,000. However, if the Jays had the prices of the Leafs they would be lucky to draw 5,000.

MW: This is true. Hockey prices are outrageous.

MW: All the good young ones.

After watching Burkie dump several deadwood yesterday, it made me think, how long do you forsee the Jays will be bogged down by the work JP did? How many years has he put this franchise behind? Do you think AA has the ability to make a similar type move?

MW: The Jays aren’t bogged down at all with the work that J.P. did. What deadwood do you see that the Jays have to move?

MW: So do I.