Baseball America’s Top 10 Prospects: Angels

Uncover greatness. Who’s next?

1. Kaleb Cowart, 3b
2. Nick Maronde, lhp
3. C.J. Cron, 1b
4. Mike Clevinger, rhp
5. Austin Wood, rhp
6. Randal Grichuk, of
7. Taylor Lindsey, 2b
8. R.J. Alvarez, rhp
9. Mark Sappington, rhp
10. Alex Yarbrough, 2b

There isn’t another Trout in the farm system, which is now one of the worst in baseball. Third baseman Kaleb Cowart stands out as the organization’s best prospect, but behind him the system lacks both impact talent and depth—though there are reasons for that beyond talent evaluation.

A 2009 high school first-round pick, Trout zipped to the big leagues. The Angels used three players who would have ranked among their Top 10 Prospects (shortstop Jean Segura, righthanders Johnny Hellweg and Ariel Pena) in a July trade with the Brewers to acquire Zack Greinke, who became a free agent after the season. Righthander Donn Roach also would have been in the Top 10 had they not included him in a May deal with the Padres for Ernesto Frieri.