Eastern League MVP Darin Ruf Is Not One of Eastern League's Top Prospects

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The Reading Phillies have three players on a list of the Eastern League's Top 20 Prospects according to Baseball America. Catcher Tommy Joseph, third baseman Cody Asche, and pitcher Jon Pettibone all made the cut. Home run king Darin "Babe" Ruf did not.

Ruf bashed his way into Reading's record books over the summer and to an Eastern League MVP award, yet there are 20 or more young better prospects at that level? Via Beerleaguer, BA explains:

Reading first baseman/outfielder Darin Ruf won the EL MVP award, almost took the league's triple crown and led the minors with 38 homers (including 20 in July) but didn't crack the Top 20. He's 26 and scouts aren't sold that he'll be able to handle major league pitching.

We have to concede age is always going to be a factor when discussing prospects, but Ruf's exemption from this list altogether might raise some eyebrows. In an admittedly small sample size over the final few weeks of the season, he seemed to handle the show just fine.

As for the rest of the Phillies, Joseph -- acquired from San Francisco in the Hunter Pence trade -- is 10th, Asche is 17th, and Pettibone 19th.

Back to Ruf, what are your thoughts on this slight? Granted it doesn't mean much in the grand scheme -- we are still waiting for Dom Brown to live up to that pre-2011 ranking of fourth-best prospect in all of baseball -- but should we be concerned Ruf is still being overlooked by the scouting community?

>> 2012 Eastern League Top 20 Prospects [BA]

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