So, you’re diligently preparing for your fantasy draft and searching desperately for this year’s Ryan Braun - the rookie fantasy sleeper stud that takes everyone by surprise and catapults your squad to a championship. Unfortunately, all you can find are experts’ “Top 100 Prospect” lists, which include prospects that are still a year or two away, or so-called “Sleeper” lists consisting of 2nd and 3rd year players that everyone in your league has already heard of (and are already planning to draft before you). What if - hypothetically - someone had organized a constantly updated list of rookie fantasy sleepers, tiered by starting status, ranked by predicted fantasy impact, and linked to recent news on each rookie, that you could have running in the background of your draft as a quick reference?

• Look no further than the MLBProspectNews.com 2008 Rookie Fantasy Sleepers page, located under the MLBPN Features section of our navigation bar.

Around the Grapefruit league:

• Roch Kubatko of the Baltimore Sun reports that Scott Moore, the 8th overall pick in the 2002 draft, has been working at third base, first base, left field, and even gotten some time at second. Combining his utility on defense with a .571 BA and 4 RBI this spring is giving the 24-year-old a good shot at making the Orioles’ 25-man roster.
• Interesting background on speedy, switch-hitting Rays prospect Fernando Perez. Joe Smith of the St. Petersburg Times seems to think that Perez, who has hit over .300 in his past two seasons of class A ball, could start the year in Triple-A.
• Twins prospect Nick Blackburn only needed one inning of work to impress manager Ron Gardenhire on Wednesday, retiring the side in the fourth inning while striking out two. It’s a good thing he did, because the Twins’ skipper has a lot of pitching to choose from.

From the Cactus League:

• 2005 No. 1 overall draft pick Luke Hochevar has been impressive in Royals camp, retiring 11 of 12 in two two-inning appearances. This bodes well for his chances to make the club, although manager Trey Hillman has indicated that Hochevar may not be a candidate for the starting rotation.
• Manny Parra threw 3 scoreless innings with 4 strikeouts Wednesday, furthering his case for a spot in the Brewers’ rotation.

Chase Headley looks to be a strong prospect for the Padres. He played in eight games last year with a .222 avg in 18 at-bats. This spring he is batting .545 in 11 at-bats. Look for Headley to get some outfield play this year or backup Kevin Kouzmanoff at 3B. He got some action in left field yesterday, and said afterwards:

“With the exception of the very first ball, I felt like I did a good job. I think it was a very productive day. It kept me on edge all day.”

Headley will have to battle with Callix Crabbe and other Padres prospects to prove to manager Bud Black that he will be useful to the team.

Outfield prospect Jacoby Ellsbury isn’t as driven by the competition with CoCo Crisp as he was at the end of last season, according to Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald. With a guaranteed roster spot he is instead simply focusing on preparing for the upcoming season.  Part of the reason for this lack of motivation is that Manager Terry Francona said he wouldn’t be naming an outright starter.  Francona says:

“I usually feel like these things work themselves out or have a way of working themselves out, but the guy who doesn’t play on Opening Day, it’s not like he’s relegated. We wouldn’t let that happen. It won’t happen. I don’t want it to happen. I wouldn’t let it happen.”

If I read that correctly, I think what Francona’s trying to say is that he won’t let it happen.  Fantasy owners who reached for Ellsbury in the draft should be a little worried .  There is nothing like a good position battle to bring out the best in players, like batting .360 with four doubles, four RBIs, eight runs, three walks, and two stolen bases in 11 postseason games.  Ellsbury might not play as out-of-his-mind as everyone is predicting this year when he doesn’t have as much pressure on him, especially since he knows the BoSox have been trying to trade of Crisp anyway. If spring training is any indication, he doesn’t have a hit in his first 8 ABs through the first 3 games.  At this point, be weary of overvaluing him and don’t let your fantasy team depend on him.  However, he does have significant upside if you draft him later as a backup outfielder as he should hit for average and give you stolen bases, with no real power so to speak of.

• The Rockies 3B prospect, Ian Stewart, continues to struggle a bit with the transition to 2B. He’ll need to figure this transition out if he plans to make it in Denver any time soon; Atkins has 3B nailed down for the foreseeable future, as does Tulo at SS.
• Great article in the Rocky Mountain News about Dexter Fowler, an early round talent who dropped to the Rox in the 14th round due to signability concerns. He continues to have a great Spring.
• Max Scherzer, The DBacks top draft pick in 2007, pitched two innings today and gave up a monster bomb to Joe Crede. But, it was the only hit he gave up.
• In discussing Rick Porcello’s successful outing yesterday, BA’s John Manuel mentioned that of Porcello, Andrew Brackman, and David Price, the Yankees’ Brackman has the best stuff. Of course Brackman is out this year recovering from TJ surgery.
• The Pirates were impressed with their top prospect’s performance in today’s game. Andrew McCutchen went 2 for 4 with an RBI double and 2 runs scored.
• Mariners’ OF prospect Wladimir Balentien had quite a game today. He hit 2 HR with 3 RBI. In the same game, Padres 3B/OF prospect Chase Headley hit a 2-run HR with 4 RBI.

• With Kevin Kouzmanoff firmly entrenched at 3B for the Padres, top prospect Chase Headley saw some action in left field in San Diego’s 10-3 loss to the Mariners. Headley looked solid making the transition from the infield, going 1-2 with a run scored and making several running and diving catches in left field.
• Andrew Baggarly of the San Jose Mercury News reports that because of the injury to SS Omar Vizquel, Giants INF Eugenio Velez could make the team as a super-utility player. With Kevin Frandsen possibly sliding over to Vizquel’s spot at SS, the 25-year old Velez has been taking ground balls at 3B rather than his regular 2B because his strong arm could make him extremely valuable to the Giants at the hot corner. Velez played 2B and went 1-3 with a run scored and an RBI in yesterday’s 12-6 loss to the Cubs in Arizona.
• On a similar note, Henry Schulman of the SF Chronicle writes that all the injuries to the Giants aging infield are already opening doors for their youngsters.  It looks like Velez and Emmanuel Burriss, arguably the Giants two top IF prospects, will get starts in the upcoming Cactus League games.

We covered the pitching prospects below, now we’ll cover the hitting prospects. As mentioned before, MiLB.com put together a compilation of the best Q&A’s from recent MLB.com Mailbags. The answers are provided by beat writers for each respective team. We’ve summarize some of the more juicy prospect news below:

• Colby Rasmus’ call-up could be delayed for business reasons. A few days ago we discussed how Evan Longoria is in the same position. The Cardinals could gain an extra year of free agency with a short delay, and avoid Super-Two status with a mid-season call-up.
• Dodgers’ SS prospect Chin-Lung Hu will more than likely start the season at Triple-A. But with Rafael Furcal’s contract up after this season, look for Hu to compete for that position next Spring.
• Giants’ IF prospect Eugenio Velez could steal a whole lot of bases if given the opportunity. Velez has 122 stolen bases between the past two seasons.
• The MLB.com author argues that the Braves might be better off keeping BA’s 70th ranked overall Brandon Jones (OF) at Triple-A this season. The thought is that allowing him to play every day will be better for his development than sticking him in a major league platoon with Matt Diaz.
• Jesus Flores has not lost his status as the Catcher of the future for the Nationals; the future has just gotten a little further away. It seems he will spend at least a portion of the season at Triple-A due to the signings of Paul Lo Duca and Johnny Estrada.
• Nolan Reimold could see some playing time in Baltimore this season, just not in April. With CF and RF firmly occupied by Adam Jones and Nick Markakis, the only option for Reimold is in Left. Luke Scott will have to really struggle or get injured for the Orioles to make the call for Reimold this season.
• Look for Jed Lowrie to be this year’s version of Jacoby Ellsbury, a late season call-up with immediate impact. Lowrie is currently playing shortstop, but could probably play any infield position and “can flat-out hit”.