Ramirez (O's '06) tops list

Baseball America
October 6-19, 2008; pp.29, 39, 43, 46

CRSCBL alumni playing professional baseball

Five Cal Ripken, Sr. League alumni have been included in Baseball America's post-season Minor League and College Top Prospects lists. Neil Ramirez (Youse's Orioles 2006), Brett Cecil (Silver Spring-Takoma T-Bolts 2005), LJ Hoes (Youse's Orioles 2007), Derrik Gibson (Youse's Orioles 2007-08), and Ben Tootle (Bethesda Big Trian 2007) are all listed as Top Prospects by the magazine.

Ramirez is listed as the #4 prospect in the Class-A Northwest League in 2008. "As with [Martin] Perez, the [Texas] Rangers challenged Ramirez by sending him to the NWL to make his pro debut as a teenager. He had little trouble over-powering older hitters, holding them to a .166 average while striking out 52 in 44 innings.

"Ramirez attacks hitters with a 90-94 mph fastball that touches 96 mph and has decent life to the arm side. He has shown the ability to change speeds with his fastball, keeping hitters off balance. They can't gear up for it because his curveball is a hard, late-breaking hammer, a true plus pitch.

"At 6-foot-3 and 185 pounds, Ramirez also has projection remaining. He's working on a change-up that showed improvement throughout the summer. He has to improve his command and control, but his pure stuff is exciting." [Text by Nathan Rode]

Ramirez was the top prospect in the Ripken, Sr. League in 2006.

Cecil is rated the 17th best prospect in the Class-AA Eastern League in 2008. Hoes and Gibson each cracked the Top-20 list for the Rookie Level Gulf Coast League in 2008. Baseball America ranks Hoes the 15th and Gibson the 19th best prospect in the league.

Cecil was the top prospect in the Ripken, Sr. League in 2005, while Hoes was the top prospect in the Ripken, Sr. League in 2007.

Tootle is rated the 15th best college prospect for the 2009 Major League Baseball Draft in Baseball America's first poll of the off-season.