Buy BaseballHQ.com's Minor League Baseball Analyst here.  If your psychopathic wife won't thrash you within inches of your life.... wait, that's only in London that occurs, Roger.

We don't need no thought control, but HQ's shtick works Dr. D into the mood to roll off all these meatball Top-20 lists that presume to compete.

The #16-35 from HQ is given alphabetically.

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===  A Right Hand* Mistake Hitter?  Vot Next? ===

I/O HQ:  30% chance to start in the majors, very possibly in CF.

"Terrific" defender even at the 8 slot. 

Has (1) Top-end power, (2) blazing speed, and (3) not the faintest clue of where the strike zone is - expands the zone especially against offspeed (yowch, what a recipe for ugly).

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I/O The Rest:  Not in Hardball Times' top 10.  Not in Baseball Prospectus' top 20.  Not in Fangraphs' top 10.  Not in Jason's 16-30; we'll assume that Almonte isn't in the top 15, either.  :- ) 

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Almonte's Results:  At 19 in low A, at 20 in regular A, and then at 21 in a high-A pinball park, Almonte did the same thing every time.  

• 5 runs per 27 outs
• 0.15 EYE ratio (that's Freddy vs Jason scary, for those who just joined us)
• Flashes of 35-homer power 

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SSI CRUNCH:  Very refreshing.  That HQ doesn't simply write Almonte off, that is. 

Fans get too up on prospects who just did something cool, and too down on those who didn't.  HQ coolly observes that it's possible for Almonte to learn the strike zone.

If he did, he could be a plus center fielder who hit HR's, perhaps in the Torii Hunter or Mike Cameron mold, loosely speaking.

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SSI Sez:  I thought that after Wlad Balentien and Greg Halman, that the M's would be out of "70 PWR" mistake hitters with terrible eyes.  If anything, the Mariners have twice as many of those as they ever did - Almonte, Pimentel, Chavez, Liddi, etc etc etc.

I'm sick to the gut of minor-league mistake hitters.  I thought the M's were too.  Guess not.

At least Almonte's a switch-hitter.  Don't believe everything you read...