ProjectProspect.com is a site dedicated to...you guessed it...baseball prospects. The founder of the site, Adam Foster, interned for Baseball America and I like reading their content. Those guys put in a lot of hard work and churn out some good material.

They just released their Top 150 prospect list and, while I have some minor quibbles like Ian Kennedy and Aaron Laffey being ranked too high and Taylor Teagarden being too low, my biggest beef as a Mariners fan is Carlos Triunfel is ranked all the way down at number 80.

I’ve been voicing my disapproval of the ranking on ProjectProspect’s message board, but haven’t been able to sway anyone’s opinion. Here’s the case I’ve been making…

I always find it interesting to see where Triunfel ranks on prospect lists compared to other teenage SS/3B like Mike Moustakas, Josh Vitters and Angel Villalona. ProjectProspect ranked Moustakas 25th, Villalona was 29th, Vitters was at 32 and then Triunfel was all the way down at 80, behind guys like Greg Reynolds, James Simmons, Nick Weglarz and Sean O’Sullivan. I don’t understand why Triunfel is so low.

Let’s look at Moustakas, Vitters, Villalona and Triunfel, side-by-side…

Player: Age, B/T, Height, Weight
Moustakas: 19.4, L/R, 6-0, 195
Vitters: 18.4, R/R, 6-3, 195
Villalona: 17.5, R/R, 6-3, 210
Triunfel: 17.9, R/R, 5-11, 180

Now, let's see how they performed last year...
Moustakas: .293/.383/.439 over 41 ABs in Rookie ball
Vitters: .118/.164/.118 over 51 AB in Rookie/SS
Villalona: .278/.338/.434 in 212 ABs (200 in Rookie ball)
Triunfel: .296/.333/.367 over 371 ABs split between A/A+

Vitters, Moustakas and Villalona are already at third base, where Triunfel will probably end up. Villalona, with his body, will almost certainly move across the diamond to first base and some have said Moustakas will be moved to second base (because of Alex Gordon), but I think his lower half is just too thick. So, why does Triunfel get knocked so badly? Why is there such a huge difference between him and the grouping of Moustakas, Vitters and Villalona? A lot is made of the fact that Triunfel didn't hit any HRs last year, but…guess what...neither did Moustakas or Vitters.

Villalona didn’t exactly tear the cover off the ball. His line of .278/.338/.434 is solid for a stateside debut, but it’s not eye popping. He hit five home runs in rookie ball. It doesn’t make your jaw drop and granted, there's no way to prove such a thing, but I would bet that Triunfel would have hit better than Villalona had he played in rookie ball all year.

But he didn’t.

If Triunfel were born in the US, he would be a high school senior this year. Think about that for a minute. The fact that Triunfel even held his own as a 17-year-old in the Cal League is outstanding. Especially considering the M’s promoted him after coming off the DL when he broke his thumb in the Midwest League. When a kid is 17 years old in High A, you have to look past the numbers a little bit. A 17-year-old even reaching High A is rare. How rare? Good question…

Since 1992 (as far back as Baseball-Reference minor league data goes), there have been only six 17-year-olds to get more than 50 ABs in High A (Cal League, Carolina League, Florida State League): Triunfel, Fernando Martinez, Derrek Lee, Adrian Beltre, Karim Garcia and some guy named Joandry Berroa. Lee and Beltre have been very good Major Leaguers, F-Mart's a top prospect, Garcia was a bust, but was a top prospect and Berroa must have been just minor-league filler, as he only played one season.

How did they do?

Triunfel: .288/.333/.356 over 208 ABs
Martinez: .193/.254/.387 over 119 ABs
Lee: .274/.361/.411 over 71 ABs
Beltre: .261/.315/.450 over 238 ABs
Garcia: .241/.298/.448 over 460 ABs
Berroa: .231/.266/.279 over 251 ABs

Of that group, Triunfel had the best batting average and the second-best on-base percentage. Others had a better slugging percentage, but, like I said, I’m not concerned about Triunfel’s (lack of) power. It will come. Power is typically the last tool to develop for hitters, so the fact that Triunfel didn’t go deep seems to be nitpicking. When Miguel Cabrera was 17 he was hitting .259/.326/.347 in rookie ball and low A. When he was 18, he hit just .268/.327/.382 in the Midwest League.

ProjectProspect’s ranking of Carlos Triunfel as the 80th-best prospect is way too low and he’s going to make them regret it. Kevin Goldstein’s list at Baseball Prospectus is the next lowest I’ve seen Triunfel — and he was still 55th. The highest I’ve seen is Keith Law’s list at ESPN.com where Triunfel was ranked 18th. While I’m not 100% sure how I would rank Triunfel in comparison to Moustakas, Vitters and Villalona, he certainly deserves to be in the same sentence.