Some Housecleaning

From now to the start of Spring Training is the least active time of year for baseball news. Yeah, the Indians might bring back Dusty Wathan or whoever to be the 5th catcher in camp, but there isn't much going on. I'll use this time to continue ranking the 100 Greatest Indians (the pitchers should appear within the next day or two), post about baseball in general, and get more into what I said on January 2nd. Essentially this is the time of year to do the things I've put off until now.

A couple brief mentions as to some new features. The numbers next to some players' names indicates their rankings on my own unscientific prospect list. No, I don't count Grady Sizemore or Jhonny Peralta as prospects because they've exceeded the threshold for MLB rookie status, which I used to determine prospect status. Here's my list, which for now will remain comment-less:

1. RHP Adam Miller - Age 21 (A+)
2. 1B Michael Aubrey - Age 23 (AA)
3. OF Franklin Gutierrez - Age 22 (AA)
4. C/1B Ryan Garko - Age 24 (AA)
5. RHP Fausto Carmona - Age 21 (AA)
6. OF Brad Snyder - Age 23 (A+)
7. RHP Fernando Cabrera - Age 23 (AAA)
8. RHP Andrew Brown - Age 24 (AA)
9. RHP Jake Dittler - Age 22 (AA)
10. LHP Jeremy Sowers - Age 22 (College)
11. OF Ryan Goleski - Age 23 (A-)
12. RHP Francisco Cruceta - Age 24 (AAA)
13. RHP Nick Pesco - Age 21 (A-)
14. 3B Pat Osborn - Age 24 (A+)
15. OF Jason Cooper - Age 24 (AA)
16. 3B Kevin Kouzmanoff - Age 23 (A-)
17. RHP Justin Hoyman - Age 23 (SSA)
18. LHP Dan Cevette - Age 21 (A-)
19. OF Juan Valdes - Age 20 (A-)
20. LHP Tony Sipp - Age 21 (SSA)

The ages are the players' "baseball ages" for the 2005 season. If the player's birthday is before July 1, his age is 2005-(birth year). If his birthday is July 1 or after, his age is 2005-(birth year)-1. The level in parenthesis is the prospect's highest level of "substantial" playing time. In other words, I count only the levels where there was enough at-bats or innings pitched to make an evaluation. I'll eventually get to comments on each of them, but given that I've only seen about 6 or 7 players in person, what I have to say won't mean that much; I used mainly second-hand reports combined with their statistics to compile this list. If there's a reader who wants to supply a scouting report on any of the above players, by all means send it in, and I'll post your report, giving you the credit.

Also don't forget the Excel worksheet under my 'Links' section. As I continue to rank the 100 Greatest Indians, I'll update the worksheet, so download it early and often (but please but don't use my bandwidth to open it).