Written by Jay Yencich | 26 September 2010

I suppose I’m a few days late on this one, but here’s the Baseball America Appalachian League Top 20, followed by the chat. More importantly, the M’s had two reps in the group, with 3B Ramon Morla ranking sixth and RHP Richard Vargas coming in at eighteenth. There was a mention of Mieses and I think that if the list had gone on another two or three, George would have made it. Vargas ended up taking the spot over him in part for the acknowledgment of the oblique strain messing him up midseason and that he seems to have a greater feel for the strikeout, albeit with less command.

I’d prefer to talk about Morla, who found himself slotted between two first-round picks from this past year and ahead of an assortment of second, third, and fourth-round picks. After so many years of having the higher-end international signings not quite panning out in the way we thought they would, it’s nice to see Morla seem to catch lightning in a bottle. The strikeouts aren’t great, but everything else in his profile is drawing rave reviews right now, from his power, to his approach, to his defense (Mario Martinez would still rank ahead of him in system). I’m looking forward to him starting out in Clinton next season and maybe pushing a midseason promotion if he’s up to it. The system is not necessarily lacking for third base prospects at the moment, but I’d say Morla is probably the most exciting of the bunch.

If the present schedule holds, we’ll see the Northwest League Top 20 on Wednesday and then the Midwest League on Friday, where despite the increase in teams, we’ll expect to see at least Nick Franklin.

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