Yes, I'm old enough to remember Todd Demeter. The son of the great Don Demeter.

Maybe it's just me but if a guy is destined to be a DH, even if he's an outstanding hitter, then doesn't that kind of preclude the straight A? I think of A prospects as being good all-around players.

And it's not like Montero has blazing speed either.

Maybe it's just me...

No, it's not just you. It's just that Montero is a Yankee prospect. A hitter like that coming up in another organization would have people on this site drooling, defense be damned. If the Mariners had taken the Yankees' offer for Lee instead of the Rangers', Montero would have been a perfectly cromulent starting 1Bman in MLB at the age of 21.

Yeah, I understand that Sickels' grading does not necessarily mean that Montero is Bryce Harper's equal, but I still find it a bit strange that they both received the same grade.

In the comments on MinorLeagueBall, you can predict what people will post simply by reading their user name. Shockingly, the Red Sox fans are outraged by overrating and the Yankees fans are outraged that more guys didn't get Bs and B+s.

Anyways, if you're going to rank Montero as if he's a DH, then you need to give his a bat a boost to adjust for the negative effect on offensive performance from playing C. IIRC from the Tom Tango study, it's a pretty big boost. Agreed that Montero is no Trout or Bryce Harper, but it sure looks like he'll be able to 380/490 in his sleep for about 15 years, which is worth a heck of a lot in this era.

I don't see what's wrong with the A for Montero if Sickels believes he currently has a plus MLB bat. That's a top prospect. If there are 10 or so As, there's going to be significant variation between the As.

And Sickels might think he is at least playable at 1B.

If there are 10 or so As, there's going to be significant variation between the As.

But should there be? Assuming the letter grades are the end product of numerical grades, all of the players with any specific letter grade — i.e., any of the nine letter grades Sickels uses (A+, A, A-, etc.) — should fall within no more than about a 5-point range.

Sickels doesn't give A+'s, so Harper could be a 99 and Montero a 93 or so.

He doesn't give A+ and I don't recall him giving minus, so that's five total grades (A, B+, B, C+, C). How much of an air of science do you want for this highly speculative exercise.

I teach and find myself giving a wide range of A grades, they vary from the textbook version of what an A paper is at my institution to the occasional paper that leaves me asking, "why don't you teach the course net time?"

He doesn't give A+ and I don't recall him giving minus, so that's five total grades (A, B+, B, C+, C). How much of an air of science do you want for this highly speculative exercise.

I forgot about the "no A+" policy, but he definitely uses minuses, so it's an eight-variant system.

Is Montero at 1B not practical? I thought it was only due to Teixeira that he wouldn't play there for the Yankees. Also I think Sickels should give A+ grades to people like Bryce Harper and even Matt Moore to differentiate them from others like Montero.

He's pretty much said that an A+ prospect would have to be Bryce Harper with plus-plus speed and a perfect personality with gold-glove defense at shortstop.

Unless I remembered wrong, Billy Butler was an A or B+ prospect?. Though I guess Butler would be the lower end of Montero's outcome bat wise. a good but not spetacular hitter. (though it's hard to compare in earnest, the park effect between the two in the minors is about as extreme as it can get.)

He's pretty much said that an A+ prospect would have to be Bryce Harper with plus-plus speed and a perfect personality with gold-glove defense at shortstop.

So Alex Rodriguez wouldn't have qualified and gotten the same A as Ruben Rivera? Amazing.

1. Let's not get too carried away on Betances. He'll be 24 and ZiPS projects him to a 79 OPS+ with an 85/72 K/BB ratio. 24 is not that young and he's in Ollie Perez territory. Banuelos projects much the same but he'll be just 21.

2. Let's not get too carried away on Montero. He'll be 22 and is projected to a 112 OPS+ ... which is awfully good for a 22-year old but nothing historic. Heyward will also be 22 and is projected to about the same ... and his career projection end up at about the same place. It would be better than Butler at 22 but Butler has progressed to a 128 OPS+ from 23-25 ... nothing great but a pretty reasonable expectation for Montero, not a downside. This is not to deny that Montero could be the next Thome, Delgado or Prince or something.

ZiPS is big on position and comps him to Zeile, Mike Sweeney (both still Cs at the time I think) and somebody named Mike Bishop. Sweeney and Butler are pretty much the same guy and Zeile never hit as well as either of them.

Bishop looks an odd case -- excellent minor-league numbers (at least I assume given the era but maybe the park effects are huge). Got his cup of coffee at age 24 and never played again majors or minor. And I happened to notice he died at age 46. I assume something really crappy happened.

Let's not get too carried away on

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