Speaking of my minor leagues, here's a team by team look at my three farm clubs.
SALT LAKE (AAA)
The Sting Rays are scary good. There are eight prospects on the team who are sure fire major leaguers, and seven others who have either played in the bigs or have the talent to (even if they aren't really prospects anymore).
The rotation could compete with some of the worst pitching staffs--in the majors. And unlike those, this one's just on its way to really becoming something. Ervin Santana and Jered Weaver lead the way, and are both potential future aces. They are the top ranekd pitching prospects in the Angels' system. The rotation is rounded out by another bright prospect in lefty Jake Woods, and two older prospects in Eric Cyr and Scott Dunn. Long reliever Chris Bootcheck has started in the bigs.
The pen features Joel Peralta, who shouldn't be held down much longer. He is aided by good older prospects in Greg Jones and Dusty Bergman, both with major elague experience. Aaron Pullin, another solid prospect, rounds out the pen.
Why have one terrific hitting first baseman when you can have two? Casey Kotchman is a nationally-ranked prospect, and Cuban defectee Kendry Morales, who can play three other positions, is also on the squad. They are both just holding down spots until a job opens up in Anaheim. Sweet-hitting 2B Howie Kendrick and great glove man SS Erick Aybar are another pair of top prospect infielders in Salt Lake, and they are joined by Josh LeBlanc, another 2B who would start on many other AAA squads.
Among vets, Rob Quinlan adds power and Josh Paul backstop savvy, and are available for quality injury fill in for the big squad. The outfield is less impressive, but does include Nick Gorneault, who should be able to make contact at a major league rate, and play very good defensive corner outfield.
ARKANSAS (AA)
There is plenty of talent here with the Travellers, too, although it pales in comparison to Salt Lake.
The pitching is very solid and deep. Dustin Mosely and Joe Saunders lead the way, and are young enough (23) to still be on the path to the bigs. It's not so likely for Daniel Davidson, who matches the first two pitch-for-pitch, but is a year older. Waiting in the wings is 2005 first round pick Trevor Bell, holding a spot in the pen. There is a number of higher end pen prospects, but it's tougher to rate them at this point in their development. Aside from Bell, the standouts appear to be setup man Matt Wilhite and closer William Collazo, although Collazo is probably marginal and already 25.
Hitting is not so significantly talented as the big team. The top two hitters are behind the plate, where Jeff Mathis's defensive skills are at war with Mike Napoli's superior plate discipline. Another notable is Ryan Mount, a slick-fielding SS who is also a very consistent hitter at the plate.
This team also has Brandon Wood, a SS who in 2005 led all of baseball in homeruns through the end of the minor league season and in extra base hits as well. Unfortunately, the roster set provided doesn't rate him so high, as this year has been a bit of a surprise. So he is looked upon as a bit of a mediocre prospect.
RANCHO CUCAMONGA (A)
Once again, pitching is strong with the Quakes, although the rotation isn't as strong as the other two farm clubs. The biggest name prospect of the bunch is Steve Shell, and he's really no better than the other starters.
The pen, however, is loaded, and includes Joe Torres, who probably should be starting. Tim Bittner, Karl Gelinas and Chris Hunter are all top notch relief prospects, and closing is handled by another good one, Fernando Rodriguez, although he isn't likely to be a star in the bigs.
Although the hitting is not filled with standouts, it does feature 2B Drew Toussaint, the Angels' best hitting prospect not named McPherson. He has a ways to go, but he looks like a premier talent. SS Sean Rodriguez is the best of the rest, but the lineup is mostly iffy around Toussaint. After Rodriguez, the notable names are prime table setter 2B Nate Sutton, defensive middle infielder Alberto Callaspo, RF Matt Pail and CF Dontavious McDowell, of Tucker HS fame (and, yes, it actually says "Tucker HS" in the game, go tell SkyDog
).