Orange County Register

First-round draft pick Mike Trout, who made his Midwest (low-A) League debut just weeks after he turned 18, is the Angels’ top prospect, according to prospect maven John Sickels.

Scanning the rest of Sickels’ top 20:

• He likes Hank Conger (No. 2) as a breakout candidate in 2010;
• he has former top prospect Jordan Walden falling to No. 8 after an injury-riddled season;
• Alexia Amarista, the second baseman who won his league’s batting title, is No. 16 after “he hit the hell out of the ball in Cedar Rapids”;
• the Angels’ other top pick, Randal Grichuk, is No. 11 with “very strong power potential”;
• he has no A’s but 11 B’s in the Angels’ system. That’s a lot;
• Trout, Conger and Trevor Reckling all look like potential candidates for the top 100 prospect lists that we’ll see from ESPN and Baseball America this winter;
• Will Smith drops from No. 5 to No. 20, though really that’s because the Angels’ system is so much stronger. Sickels gives him a C+, compared to B- last year.
• and former 1B-of-the-future Mark Trumbo is all the way down to honorable mention after struggling in Double A.

Last year, Sickels rated just five Angels minor leaguers as B’s, so this represents something of a resurgence for the Angels’ system (according to Sickels). While he dings them a bit for lack of offensive depth, he praises their pitching at multiple levels, and says “the Angels have more interesting prospects than I expected when I first began this.”

Here’s his list. For fun, here’s his 2009 list.

Previously:

• Ryan Ghan’s list of top minor league performances.
• A conversation with Ryan Ghan.

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