Project Prospect 2011 Digital Prospect Guide

Adam Foster and the great folks over at Project Prospect have released their 2011 Digital Prospect Guide. If you follow the link you can see some free samples from last year's DPG. It doesn't cost much, $19.99 for the video version and only $9.99 for the text-only version. Here is their description of what you will be getting:

This year's Digital Prospect Guide will feature 100 prospects. Thirty prospects were chosen as the game's truly elite and given more write-up space and longer videos than the other 70. Videos for top 30 prospects are approximately one minute, with write-ups ranging from 225 to 400 words. Videos for prospects in the 31-100 range are approximately 30 seconds, with write-ups ranging from 90 to 150 words.

Most of the videos were taken by Adam Foster and the Project Prospect team. Other skilled videographers provided clips of players that we were unable to see in person. We have video of all of our top 30 prospects and should have footage of 90-percent of our top 100 prospects. We strive to provide the highest quality prospect videos possible.

Adam Foster, Lincoln Hamilton and Steve Carter, along with help from dozens of trusted scouting sources, have seen every player who will be in this year's guide in person. Write-ups combine as many scout takes on a prospect as we could get. Info from some player write-ups came from as many as a half dozen scouts.

I don't promote a lot of things here (and Adam didn't ask me to, I asked him), but Adam is a really nice guy and PP provides great information and is a personal favorite of mine, so I wanted to make everyone aware of it.

Adam was kind enough to let me have a sneak peek at the 2011 DPG and share some Rays-related content here. Lots to choose from: Moore, Sale, Lee, etc. But I chose a passage from the write-up on Jeremy Hellickson, since we're all focused on how he will do as he debuts in the Rays starting rotation this season. After reviewing his basic bio, stats, a scouting summary, and discussing his repertoire pitch-by-pitch, they add this cautionary note:

Despite his solid stuff, advanced command, and outstanding performance, the outlook for Hellickson isn’t all rosy. He’s had three separate arm injuries in the past, two of which were shoulder injuries that didn’t require surgery and one a fractured growth plate in high school. His motion is inefficient and we believe it increases the chance of injury. His arm action is long and he gets the ball in the driveline late. His hips open early and there isn’t much forward drive from his lower half. His arm is left to do a lot of hard work. To his credit, Hellickson is well balanced and repeats his delivery well, a big reason for his plus command.

They end up ranking Hellickson as the #21 overall prospect entering 2011. While this is the lowest I've seen him ranked anywhere, I have to say they are objective about it and aren't afraid to go against the grain. No echo chamber concerns in this publication.

The video version of the DPG is incredible, but if you're on a tight budget the text-only version is very informative and well worth your ten bucks. Again, you can order the 2011 DPG here, and you can follow Adam at @AdamWFoster on twitter.