-MetA4- wrote:And I'm going to repeat myself from literally years ago when I already explained this, because I notice you clowns are repeating the same FALSE arguments over and over again:
Moreno was NOT the "#1 prospect in baseball" at the time of the trade. He was TEMPORARILY named #1 on a mid-season update after several players above him graduated off of the list, months before he was actually traded. These mid-season lists are hardly full rankings. More importantly, he fell back another 6-7 slots on the actual FINAL year-end rankings in the same year where he was temporality ranked #1, and then fell another few slots in the preseason 2023 rankings. So nobody had him anywhere near #1 after his entire season was evaluated.
The Moreno trade happened in the offseason on December 23rd, AFTER he hit for just .105 ISO in 62 games in AAA, and then for .058 ISO in 25 games in Toronto to conclude the season. This noticeable drop in his power was reflected in the final updates to the prospect lists (hence why he didn't finish the season as anyone's #1 overall prospect), but more importantly it was clearly observed by both the Blue Jays (who were trading him), and likely other smart evaluating organizations as well.
MLB front offices do their own player evaluations; they do not log onto MLB.com or Baseball America and look at their current rankings when evaluating talent. MLB front offices are in fact always AHEAD of the publication rankings in terms of actual prospect stock evaluation, because those publication rankings are created primarily using feedback FROM MLB scouts and front office evaluators. They talk to as many scouts and evaluators as they can, and then move players up or down depending on what they hear. This means that they are always BEHIND the actual industry consensus.
On their final 2022 update, Moreno ranked #7 on BA. In January of 2023 they released their pre-season 2023 rankings (basically right after Moreno was traded), and he ranked #13 on this list. This would be the most relevant up-to-date ranking on his prospect status to use in this discussion, given that it came right when he was traded. And its very likely that certain teams who value metrics like exit velocity, barrel%, and hard hit% would have had him ranked even lower than that given that he was below average in all of those except exit velocity (where he was only league average) in his 25-game MLB stint in 2022. He did nothing but slap the ball around in AAA and in those 25 MLB games he played. Teams who value power would reflect that in their own internal rankings.
Long story short, his stock had already fallen outside the Top 10 range when he was actually traded, and its highly improbable that ANY team was valuing him as the "#1 prospect in baseball" in December 2022. Which means that while he was a very very good prospect, it is a giant leap to pretend like he had so much value that the Jays should have been able to dangle him for any MLB All-Star with control.
Who mentioned him being the #1 prospect in baseball recently? Him being one of the top prospects in baseball at the time, and top prospect for the Jays holds true, but I think you went on a tangent all by yourself.
