MLB Prospects

Hot Stove season will get in to full swing on Friday, the first day free agents are allowed to discuss finances with teams other than the one they played for in 2009.

With the market about to open, FanHouse's National Baseball Analyst Frankie Piliere is assembling his list of the top 50 free agents. While he won't unveil the whole thing until Friday, he is ready to talk about the lay of the free-agent landscape, address some of the biggest rumors, size up the intentions of buyers and sellers and, of course, talk prospects.

Piliere chatted live on Wednesday afternoon. After the jump, read a wrapup.

It can be frustrating to be a Florida Marlins fan as star after star is sent on their way to richer organizations. One thing has remained constant, however. The talent continues to flow throughout their player development system. They draft well, coach well, and even without shelling out the big bucks, they find talent through international free agency.

Maybe they have trouble holding onto these guys once they blossom into big-league stars but there is no end in sight to their seemingly endless pipeline of young talent. So, as we continue to examine farm systems that could have an impact on 2009 and beyond, Florida has to be taken into account. No, it will not be dealing away any prospects but the outstanding minor-league depth once again will allow it to sell off its more expensive major leaguers.

Prospects exist to help their team fortify their future, be it years down the road, or, in some cases, the not-so-distant future. These prospects can become valuable chips in blockbuster trades. Each team with a player on the block this offseason will come to the negotiating table with stacks of detailed scouting information on the prospects of buyers out there like the New York Yankees.

So, what should teams like the Blue Jays, Tigers or any other club rumored to be in talks with the Yankees be looking to get in return? We'll take a look from a scouting perspective at just what potential trade partners should be looking for as they sift through the crop of New York prospects, with a focus on some who may be flying under the radar.

With the season wrapped up, we can collectively turn our attention to off-the-field topics. As always, there is plenty to be discussed with the Hot Stove already burning. As each team turns their attention to 2010 there a number of questions to answer. How will each trade and free-agent signing impact the clubs involved? Which prospects, like Washington's Stephen Strasburg pictured on the right, can fans look forward to next year?

MLB FanHouse's Frankie Piliere examined all those questions and more, after the jump, in a live chat on Wednesday afternoon.

Piliere, who spent the last three seasons working as a scout, most recently in the professional scouting department for the Texas Rangers this year, now serves as a National Baseball Analyst for FanHouse.

With the news this week that top Japanese prospect Yusei Kikuchi is contemplating jumping straight from a Japanese high school to American professional baseball, the relationship between Japanese baseball and the major leagues continues to grow complicated. Like Junichi Tazawa last year, Kikuchi is expected to be the first pick in this year's Nippon Pro Baseball (NPB) draft and will probably command a seven-figure bonus in the States.

Like his predecessor, though, Kikuchi is worried about the restrictive transfer agreement between NPB and Major League Baseball hindering his ability to have a full career in America.

In Japan, players are drafted right into NPB after high school, where they remain property of their teams for nine years before declaring free agency. The only way to move to an American team before that deadline is for the player's team to "post" them, allowing American clubs to bid on the rights to negotiate with them.

After being heavily pursued by the Pittsburgh Pirates -- and seemingly no one else -- since early July, Miguel Angel Sano will reportedly sign a $3.15 million deal with the Minnesota Twins. Sano, the 16-year-old Dominican phenom, is a shortstop but is expected to be converted to the outfield eventually.

Pirates general manager Neal Huntington and Latin American scouting director Rene Gayo had been hot on Sano since the international signing period began on July 2. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, though, Sano's agent, Rob Plummer, said the relationship between the two sides became strained in the process.

Every year, the relationship between American baseball and Japanese baseball gets a little more complicated. Reports Tuesday indicate that Yusei Kikuchi, a high school pitcher expected to be the first player picked in Nippon Professional Baseball's amateur draft late next month, is contemplating skipping the draft in favor of coming to America.

Just 21/2 months after the Cardinals agreed to a $3.1 million contract with 16-year old Dominican prospect Wagner Mateo, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch is reporting that the club is voiding the deal due to a pre-existing condition that Cardinals discovered during their physical exam. It was originally reported on Friday by ESPN's Jorge Arangure that the physical turned up vision problems that could potentially affect the signing, though the club had not elaborated beyond that initial report.

It's not immediately clear what Mateo's vision problems are or what the Cardinals' plan is going forward with Mateo. The voiding of the contract suggests that it's a serious condition, but it's also possible that the Cardinals are playing it safe given the amount of money and young age of the player involved. If that's the case, Mateo could potentially sign, for much less money, with another team somewhere down the road.

For the most part, when Cuban baseball players defect from their country in the hopes of one day playing Major League Baseball, they usually end up in one of the many nations surrounding Cuba. That is not the case for recent defector Aroldis Chapman. After leaving Cuba's national team while they were in Holland on July 1 this year, Chapman has moved a bit further east to find his new home.

It's a long way from the island of Cuba to the tiny nation of Andorra, but the little European nation tucked between the borders of France and Spain is the new home of Chapman. He's established residency there already, which is a big first step towards getting to the United States. Even if it is a circuitous route.

Angel Villalona, a highly-touted prospect in the San Francisco Giants' system, is the prime suspect in a killing.

The Associated Press is reporting the 19-year-old has turned himself into authorities in the Dominican Republic. He is a suspect in the shooting death of a 25-year-old man, Mario Felix de Jesus Velete, in a La Romana bar.

Villalona could face up to 20 years in prison, if he's found guilty of the crime. He will have a court appearance Monday.

Villalona first signed with the Giants when he was 16. This past season, in advanced Single-A, Villalona hit .267 with nine home runs, 42 RBI and a .704 OPS in 74 games.