[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

Yeah, just look at the list of previous Baseball America MLPOY prospects:

PREVIOUS WINNERS
1990 Frank Thomas, 1b, White Sox
1991 Derek Bell, of, Blue Jays
1992 Tim Salmon, of, Angels
1993 Manny Ramirez, of, Indians
1994 Derek Jeter, ss, Yankees
1995 Andruw Jones, of, Braves
1996 Andruw Jones, of, Braves
1997 Paul Konerko, 1b, Dodgers
1998 Eric Chavez, 3b, Athletics
2002 Rocco Baldelli, of, Devil Rays
2003 Joe Mauer, c, Twins
2005 Delmon Young, of, Devil Rays
2006 Alex Gordon, 3b, Royals
2007 Jay Bruce, of, Reds
2008 Matt Wieters, c, Orioles
2009 Jason Heyward, of, Braves
2011 Mike Trout, of, Angels

Here's the list whittled down to just position players over the last 20 years.

You have 1 extremely underwhelming player in Young, who had serious attitude problems; really 2 guys fall in this category when you include Derek Bell as well. Then you have Baldelli, who was on his way to being a great player until a genetic disease robbed him of his power.

Every other player on that list is a more valuable player than James Shields.

So if you're the Baseball America's player of the year and you're a position player that isn't an asshole and doesn't have a degenerative genetic condition, you're almost certainly going to be a very very good baseball player. Oh, and if you'll notice, BA is also getting better at making these picks as their projection tools and methodologies are improving.