2011 baseball america's top 31 texas rangers prospect's

with less than two weeks until pitchers and catchers, two things get me through these last few days, thumbing through baseball america's prospectus and bill james handbook.

Baseball America’s 2011 Prospect Handbook is out, ranking the Rangers farm
system number 15 in baseball, after having judged Texas as the number 4, number
1, and number 2 system the previous three years.

The pipeline is
strongest at the lower levels right now, and the system has been thinned out by
promotions and trades, many of which directly impacted the World Series club in
2010 – an almost predictable outcome. There were four organizations in the last
decade to finish first or second in BA’s rankings in back-to-back seasons: the
Cubs (second in 2001 and first in 2002), the Dodgers (second in 2004, 2005, and
2006), the Rays (first in 2007 and 2008), and the Rangers (first in 2009 and
second in 2010). All four made playoff appearances either during or shortly
after those rankings.

1. Martin Perez, LHP
2. Jurickson Profar, SS
3. Tanner Scheppers, RHP
4. Robbie Erlin, LHP
5. Engel Beltre, OF
6. Michael Kirkman, LHP
7. Mike Olt, 3B
8. Luis Sardinas, SS
9. Jake Skole, OF
10. Miguel De Los Santos, LHP
11. David Perez, RHP
12. Christian Villanueva, 3B
13. Roman Mendez, RHP
14. Wilmer Font, RHP
15. Leury Garcia, SS
16. Kellin Deglan, C
17. Jorge Alfaro, C
18. Justin Grimm, RHP
19. Robbie Ross, LHP
20. Miguel Velazquez, OF
21. Luke Jackson, RHP
22. Joe Wieland, RHP
23. Fabio Castillo, RHP
24. Barret Loux, RHP
25. Jared Hoying, OF
26. Jose Felix, C
27. Neil Ramirez, RHP
28. Cody Buckel, RHP
29. Josh Richmond, OF
30. Jake Brigham, RHP
31. Carlos Melo, RHP

as you can see the rangers farm system is heavy on pitching prospects and thin on outfield ones. but while the Rangers sit at 15 overall in BA’s rankings, they sit ahead of the angels (16, up from 25 a year ago), mariners (18, down from 11), and a’s (28, down from 12).

you could see september call ups for martin perez, tanner scheppers and micheal kirkman (called up last year and pitched in playoffs) as the rangers hopefully are making another push towards october baseball.