A few comments from a chat

This was the Q&A with JJ Cooper after he released the Top 10 prospects in Independent Baseball for the 2009 season at Baseball America.com.

An ex-Rattler was discussed:

Magic Mike (New York, NY): Thanks for taking my question. It is a three part question. How come Bryan Sabatella can make the list as the #3 prospect in 2008, not get signed, and play in the Independent leagues again this year, and not make the list. Why do you think he couldn't get a shot during spring training in affiliated ball this past spring? Is there something someone at BA has heard about him that would make a team not want to at least give him a shot during spring training?

J.J. Cooper: I haven't heard anything in particular, although Satabella's lack of power this year (two home runs in 400 at-bats) probably played a part in him staying in indy ball. Last year he was a plus runner who also showed some pop. Back when I ranked him in 2008 there were a couple of concerns that his bat was solid but not special because of his bat speed. This year he has a solid but unspectacular year that helped feed into those concerns, which is why he wasn't back on the list.

Sabatella was a Rattler at the beginning of 2006.

The other comment that caught my attention from this chat was this exchange.

Joe (Newport News, VA): How would a team composed of the 20 or so best independent league prospects on your list fare in the NY-Penn lor Northwest leagues? The Midwest or Sally Leagues?

J.J. Cooper: I really like this question. I get asked all the time "what level is indy ball" which is a hard one to answer, but this is a much better way of looking at it. If you put together a team of the 25 best independent league players they should win a Sally League or Midwest League title because you'd have so many veterans who are just much more experienced than Class A players. You could have Jose Lima, Mac Suzuki, Armando Benitez and Bill Simas toying with 18-year-olds. If you took a team of "indy league prospects" I'd say they'd struggle because the indy league's 21-to-24 year olds are not nearly as deep as indy ball's depth of 26-to-30-year-old minor league veterans.

This is about right. The age/experience difference would be huge if you took all of the former major league/AAAA players in the independent leagues. But, it's nothing that we need to worry about.