The good folks over at BA made it, shipped it, and today it arrived–the greatest book of all time–The Baseball America Prospect Handbook 2008. It has Jay Bruce of the Louisville Bats (AAA Cincinnati Reds affiliate) on the front in full, with little pictures of Franklin Morales of the Colorado Rockies, Clayton Kershaw of the Jacksonville Suns (AA affiliate of the LA Dodgers), and Cameron Maybin of the Lakeland Flying Tigers (High A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers, though he has since been traded to the Florida Marlins for the D-Train and Cabrera) on the right-hand side. the cover features a red and blue color scheme that sort of “melt into each other”, because that is the scheme of the Bats.

Anyways, on to the good parts. It has a neat new feature that shows who the staff thinks is the team’s top 08 rookie (Josh Outman, P was predicted to crack the rotation by midseason), breakout prospect (Freddy Galvis, SS), and the sleeper prospect (Freddy Ballestas, SP). Among other things, it also has the projected lineup for 2011.

Lou Marson, C

Ryan Howard, 1B

Chase Utley, 2B

Travis Mattair, 3B

MVP, SS

Pat Burrell, LF

Dominic Brown, CF

Adrian Cardenas, RF

Cole Hamels, Brett Myers, Carlos Carrasco, Joe Savery, Josh Outman are all in the rotation and Brad Lidge closes.

Included with the top 30 is the position and level played at in 2007:

  1. Carrasco, SP, Hi A/AA
  2. Cardenas, 2B, Lo A
  3. Savery, SP, R
  4. Outman, SP, Hi A/AA
  5. Kyle Drabek, SP, Lo A
  6. Brown, OF, Hi A/Rook
  7. Greg Golson, OF, Hi A/AA
  8. Marson, C, Hi A
  9. Drew Carpenter, SP, Hi A
  10. Rounding out the top 10 is Jason Jaramillo, C, AAA.
  11. JA Happ, SP, AAA/Maj
  12. Scott Matheison, SP, Rook/Hi A/AA (all on rehab from Tommy John Surgery)
  13. Galvis, SS, R
  14. Edgar Garcia, SP, Rook/Lo A
  15. Jason Donald, SS, Lo A/Hi A
  16. Travis d’Arnaud, C, GCL
  17. Heitor Correa, SP, GCL
  18. Mattair, 3B, GCL
  19. Julian Sampson, RP, GCL
  20. Brad Harman, MI, Hi A
  21. d’Arby Myers, OF, R
  22. Carlos Monasterios, SP, Lo A
  23. Quintin Berry, OF, Lo A
  24. Joe Bisenius, RP, AAA/Maj
  25. Tyler Mach, 2B, R
  26. Antonio Bastardo, SP, Lo A/Hi A
  27. Mike Zagurski, RP, Hi A/AA/AAA/Maj
  28. Matt Spencer, OF, R
  29. Drew Naylor, SP, R
  30. Lincoln Holdzkom, RP, AA/AAA (spent year with Red Sox).