Babes in Blue or Trade Bait?

With the Winter Meetings well underway, the Sons of Steve Garvey thought it prudent to post a summary of the Dodgers' prospects who may (or, more likely, may not) make it to Chavez Ravine. Kevin Goldstein at Baseball Prospectus recently ran an article summarizing the Dodgers' Top 10 Prospects. For those BP subscribers out there, you can check out the article here (and click here if you want to subscribe to BP). For those Scrooges out there who are either too cheap (or lazy) to read the article, the following is Kevin's list of the top Dodgers (both in the minors and majors) who are 25 years old or younger:

1. Chad Billingsley, RHP 2. Clayton Kershaw, LHP 3. Matt Kemp, OF 4. Andy LaRoche, 3B 5. Scott Elbert, LHP 6. Russ Martin, C 7.Jonathan Broxton, RHP 8. James Loney, 1B/OF 9. Hong-Chih Kuo, LHP 10. Andre Ethier, LF

Kevin then writes:

If you were saying to yourself that this year's Top 10 prospect list pales in comparison to previous years, now you know why, as this list is a monster. Billingsley had an up-and-down rookie campaign, but the pitcher you saw in August, when he went 3-0 with a 1.50 ERA in five starts, is the real deal and he's poised for a breakout with his No. 1 starter potential. Kemp continues to grow into his remarkable tools, and he did good work at Triple-A in correcting his tendency to chase breaking balls, which led to his big league slump. Martin had a far more consistent rookie campaign, and should gain another 5-8 home runs and 15-25 walks annually in future years, which makes him a star-level player. Broxton is just an improvement in his control away from being a closer candidate, while Kuo has power possibilities as both a starter and reliever. As impressive as Ethier was in his rookie campaign, he's limited to left field, and his secondary skills just don't fit the profile.

So, in the end, the Dodgers are once again loaded, and there are a numbers of impressive players from the last two drafts who could move themselves into next year's top 10 with big performances as the Dodgers track record of scouting and developing impact players is nearly unmatched and will make them a perennial contender in the National League West for many years to come.

While I doubt that Trader Neddie is a regular reader of BP, given his recent history, it wouldn't shock any of us at Sons of Steve Garvey to see Neddie start squandering this vast resource like a wildcatter drooling over the ANWR.