John, before we begin, we'd like to thank you for your in-depth coverage of the Yankees.   While we may not always agree with everything you say, your reporting never goes unappreciated. Your honesty and objectivity with regards to the Yankees system is always welcome, and we continually look forward to your Yankee-related content. Thanks for being fair and level with the Yankees farm system, and we hope you continue to report on them for years to come.

1) When you write about Mark Melancon, very frequently you say that he's gotten as positive a report as you have ever seen regarding his makeup. What specifically do these reports say that make him so impressive?

Just that he's as hard a worker, as much of a baseball guy, as good a person, as driven a competitor . . . those are the phrases thrown around, not just by the Yankees, but by scouts in Arizona when he came out of college and by coaches and scouts who have known him since his prep days in Colorado. Sounds like a very interesting person to get to know off the field. He earns a lot of respect from scouts and coaches.
 

2) George Kontos is a very polarizing prospect. He's had a K rate over 9 at every stop he's made in the minors, yet he's giving up nearly a hit an inning, too. You've said in the past that he possibly isnt as focused as necessary when out on the mound - what can you tell us about Kontos from a physical standpoint, and also from a mental one?

I root for the guy as a fellow Greek-American; let's start there. If Greece got to be in the World Baseball Classic in '09 (it won't), he'd be the team's best starting pitcher. So that's out of the way . . . he just never has performed up to the quality of his stuff, getting hit a lot in college at Northwestern and still not missing a ton of bats in pro ball. His fastball velocity is mostly average, not plus, and some in the organization told me they thought he'd end up in the bullpen.  He seems to lack "pitchability," a knack for pitching, for knowing hitters, for the nuances of when to change speeds and when to attack. He's learning that, but he's just not on the fast track, and I don't think you can ignore the long history he has of being good but never great.
 

3) There were rumors cited in a Cleveland newspaper's blog a couple of days ago that the Yankees were now joining the Indians in pursuit of the Loch Ness Monster known as Edward Salcedo. The report said that the Yankees may have offered $5 million. Have you heard anything at all, rumor or otherwise, about the Yankees being in the mix for the youngster?

I have not other than to know that Salcedo has been regarded as the top international prospect on the market and that it is logical for the Yankees to be in the hunt for the top international player, and that price really isn't an obstacle.
 

4) Angel Reyes has as much raw talent as you could hope for from a LHP prospect. What went wrong with him last year, and is he going to be Abel Gomezed, or does he have a shot at bouncing back?

He has raw talent, but it's not otherworldly talent, and it's not enough talent to get away with trying to take shortcuts and not being as professional as necessary. He needs to do a lot more than throw hard or spin a ball to be a professional. Plus, when he did pitch, he didn't throw strikes. He's got a long, long way to go. He has more talent than Abel Gomez, who just threw hard and was lefthanded and otherwise had little going for him. Did anyone know Abel Gomez before I ranked him too high a few years ago? Amazing how these names stick around . . . the Yankees didn't really have 30 guys to rank a few years ago; we had to rank someone. Now you could go 40 deep in the system, easy.
 

5) Damon Sublett and Justin Snyder both showed intriguing, multi-faceted offensive skills (power, average, discipline, speed) at Staten Island in 2007, and we included both in our NoMaas Top-5 Most Intriguing Prospects To Watch in 2008. Do you think either will continue to progress to the point that they could find themselves in the Yankees Top-10 at this time next year? What are their shortcomings that would prevent this from happenning?

Being in the Top 10 implies being an everyday regular. I don't see that for either of those guys but maybe I'm selling them short. Sublett is in their top 30 internally, as is Brad Suttle.  I heard bad reports on Suttle from Hawaii (very bad actually) so I left him out, and didn't see that I could rank Sublett or Laird or Snyder -- lower draft guys who got considerably less money than Suttle -- ahead of Suttle at this point.  Sublett has to do it at higher levels, as he has an unorthodox hitting approach that scouts tend to doubt. It doesn't mean he CAN'T do it; it means scouts wouldn't want to see someone taught to hit like he hits. But it works for him, and he has other tools (some athleticism & speed, arm strength). Snyder seems to also fit the utility profile but he had a great, great debut. He's not the runner most teams like to see from a reserve so maybe he's a second baseman if he's a regular. Both of those guys are atypical for the Yankees; they are not "profile" guys.  All of these guys very well could be top 30 guys next year but I was a little conservative on this year's guys.
 

6) Although it's not a great league to gauge future performance by, Brandon Laird put up massive numbers in the GCL after being drafted. What led to his lasting so long in the draft (especially since he already has a brother in the Majors), and what type of prospect can you draw a comparison of him to if he continues to progress?

He's a guy that frankly I need more information on. I have talked to his junior college coach but that was in 2006, and I am not sure why he lasted so long in the draft. I do know the Yankees are excited about his hitting ability and that they see him as a possible impact corner bat. I'm as interested to see what he does for 2008 as any Yankees prospect, because I'd like more info.
 

7) Zach McAllister and Ivan Nova are two pitching prospects that have not had as much helium as guys like Betances and Heredia. Z-Mac posted insane GB/FB ratios at SI, and while Nova hasn't posted great numbers, you've said that he has outstanding stuff. From your conversations with scouts and Yankee people, what do you see as the outlook for these two under-the-radar pitchers?

McAllister was a second-round pick, hardly under the radar, but I see your point in that he hasn't put up the stats to make bloggers notice him. Same for Nova. All the answers to this are in BA's Prospect Handbook or in my Yankees chat from January. I had two scouts outside the organization and one in the system tell me Nova has shown three plus pitches at times. McAllister is a work in progress as the Yankees try to convert him from sinker-slider guy to using more of a four-seamer. They've experimented with him because that's what you do in player development--the goal is not to get outs at Staten Island, but in the Bronx.  Optimally you'd have someone who does both but the Yankees are much, much more concerned with the latter.
 

8) Just seeing images of Andrew Brackman at ST has us awed. Like you, we at NoMaas placed him in the Top-10 this year despite him undergoing major arm surgery. When talking to talent evaluators, what is/was the buzz about Brackman (not including the rumors of his injury), and what was it that led you to put him in the Top-10 in the end?

I've said many times, he had either the highest ceiling in the '07 draft class or the No. 2 ceiling behind David Price. That said, he got paid too much (whether they had to buy him out of the NBA or not, it was too much), and the other buzz always has been, is this guy going to be the kind of guy who thrives with this target on his back from this contract, in that media market? He seems to be a guy who does not want attention called to himself. That's the half-empty read on him. There are a lot of negatives if you want to nitpick. Bottom line is, he's got an 80 fastball and 70 breaking ball when he's right with sick athleticism and size that can't be taught. He's the classic high-risk, high-reward guy, and the Yankees really believe in him.
 

9) Now that the Yankees are extensively cultivating their farm system, older, more "average" prospects like Colin Curtis and Seth Fortenberry are getting overlooked. For the everyday fan, is it worth paying attention to these types of guys, or are the bonus-baby, cream of the crop IFA/draftees always going to overshadow them going forward?

The everyday fan pays little attention to the minor leagues, especially to guys like these. It's a compliment to Fortenberry to put him in the discussion with Curtis, but I actually think Fortenberry has bigger tools. Curtis is a better hitter, though, and that's the most important tool by far. The Yanks think Curtis can be an everyday guy; I have my doubts. To me both profile best as extra outfielders. I do believe those kinds of players will get overshadowed by, you know, better players.
 

10) Ryan Pope was seen as a sleeper by many coming into the 2007 draft. He showed solid mechanics and stuff at Staten Island, yet he still isn't talked about much in prospect discussions. What have you heard about him, and what is your personal opinion about him in 2008 and beyond?

He didn't have the kind of velocity the Yankees hoped to see after they signed him but they chalked that up to a "dead arm" from a long season, his first as a full-time pitcher if I recall correctly. I didn't rank him because the Yankees don't quite know what they have and neither do I, but he's very interesting. From what we had on him going into the draft, my hunch is he's a back-of-the-rotation type, he almost sounds like Jeff Karstens in some ways to me.
 

And some general questions...

11) Which Yankees prospects have turned out to be legit, despite not being liked by other team's scouts?

I think that's kind of obvious--we kept hearing from other clubs that Robby Cano would move to 3b or wouldn't be good enough to start for the Yanks, but he's a stud, he can flat hit and he's good enough at second. We ranked him second coming into 2005 and we were on him early in his career, but we ranked him second in '05 behind Eric Duncan. That's a pretty big miss on my part.
 

12) What's the most important thing you've learned about evaluating prospects?

Wow, that's a little too zen for me. Work hard and talk to as many people as you can--the first year I did a top 30, I talked to three people in one club's front office, and that was it. That was eight years ago. For the Yankees, I talked to maybe five people in the org and three outside this year. For the Mets I had 11 sources  this fall; that was excruciating but I felt pretty informed after doing it.
 

13) When evaluating prospects, how much weight do you give to performance?

A lot; it's not all about projection. But I don't give performance ALL the weight, and the scale is a sliding one. The higher up the ladder you go the more performance matters.
 

14) Have their been any prospects, either Yankees or non-Yankees, that you ended up being dead wrong about?  What about a player that you were spot-on about?

Biggest right I should mention unfortunately is a negative.  I never believed Andy Marte would be a star and that looks good in retrospect. I missed the boat on Adam Wainwright, thought his breaking ball was too slow to work, but Carlos Beltran and others have proved me wrong.

Eric Duncan's a wrong one. I thought Josh Phelps would be better back in the day when I ranked Blue Jays prospects. Steven White's another I thought would be better, he missed his window of opportunity, it appears. I was right on Tyler Clippard so far--I got very, very tired of Yankees fans talking about his fastball and how great he was. I know he's only 22-23, but I hope people realize that we were right on Clippard; he racked up huge K numbers in the minors by pitching backwards, and that doesn't fly as much at upper levels. I guess the main thing is here that it's not ME that's right, it's the reporting. These rankings aren't about me and what I know, it's about talking to the right sources and working hard. Guys I was right on . . . When they were with the Giants I always liked Jonathan Sanchez (ranked him in his draft year as a 27th-round pick out of an NAIA school) and Jeremy Accardo (ranked him as a nondrafted free agent and first-time full-time pitcher) . . . I stuck my neck out with the Twins this year on Nick Blackburn and Jason Pridie; we'll see how those turn out.

John Manuel has worked at Baseball America since September 1996.  He covered the college beat from 1998-2004 and minor league prospects from 2004-2005.  He was named co-Editor-in-Chief in April 2006.  John has developed the Yankees Top 30 Prospects list since the 2005 Prospect Handbook.