As winter becomes a distant memory, and flowers start to bloom with spring's arrival, baseball comes back into the American limelight.

With spring training ending, it brings the beginning of the 2005 MLB and Minor League seasons.  Many blue chip prospects found themselves headed back to the farm for another season of minor league baseball.  Throughout the course of the 2005 minor league season, I will report to you once a week on the production or the lack thereof by some key prospects or on little known players that are having breakout seasons like Ian Kinsler (TEX) and Jason Kubel (MIN) did last year.

IMPRESSIVE:

Ryan Howard-1B (PHI):  With off the field distractions between his agent and the Phillies, Howard has still had a solid first week of baseball.  Coming into the season, one of the huge knocks on Ryan was that he struck out too much and he had an all or nothing swing that would lead to poor major league statistics.  Well to open the season, he has walked 11 times while only striking out 8 times.  He has a .433 batting average and put up 6 doubles.  The only thing I can see that he hasn't produced is homeruns, which is his strength.  I look for him to continue to have a stellar year in Scranton and put a lot of pressure on Philadelphia to do something either via trade or promoting him to the major league club.

Robinson Cano-2B (NYY):  Cano starts the season in Columbus where he has quickly put up big numbers.  In the league’s first week, he has started by leading the league in homeruns with 4, and is second in RBI with 12.  Add in his league leading 37 total bases and .405 batting average and its easy to see why Tony Womack is in some serious trouble.

Carlos Quentin-OF (ARI):  The 22 year old has started the 2005 season off red hot.  He has put together a .423 batting average, 4 homeruns, and 25 total bases.  With this success comes an 11:3 BB:K ratio which shows his great plate discipline.  He might be called up soon if Arizona falters like it did in the 2004 season.

Hanley Ramirez-SS (BOS):  Hanley hit .351 in his first week, displaying great speed with 4 triples, and 2 stolen bases.  With the Red Sox signing Renteria this off-season, many have expected Hanley to be shipped to the OF.  We can only watch and see but thus far, he has started the season playing SS for the Sea Dogs.

Felix Pie-OF (CHC):  Felix has shown why Chicago has thought so highly of him the past few years.  He is off to a great start with West Tennessee in the Southern League, hitting .353 with 2 HR.  What is amazing though is the speed he has shown, hitting for 6 doubles and swiping 5 bases in six tries in only 34 ABs.

DISAPPOINTING:

BJ Upton-SS (TB):  BJ has started the 2005 season off in a huge funk both offensively and defensively.  Offensively, he has hit .225 with

11 strikeouts and only 5 bases on balls.  He has only produced ten total bases and 2 RBI. Defensively, he leads the team with eight errors in only ten games.

Brandon Phillips-2B (CLE):  Brandon was in a spring training battle for the everyday starting SS job for the Cleveland Indians until a disappointing spring sent him back to Buffalo where he spent most of the 2004 season.  He is batting .200 and has only 13 total bases in 40 ABs.  One thing that pops out at me is Brandon's strike zone judgement, which in the first week had him with 9 walks and no strikeouts.

Ryan Garko-UTL (CLE):  Ryan blossomed into one of Cleveland's top prospects in the 2004 season only to hit a wall to start out the 2005 season.  He started spring training hitting the cover off the ball only to be sent down to Buffalo where he finished leading the Bisons to the Governors cup.  This year however, he has started off hitting below the Mendoza line with a .194 batting average with 1 HR.  Unlike teammate Phillips, Garko only has 3 walks with 12 strikeouts.

With many intriguing match-ups to come in the following weeks of action, I will report back to you with different guys who have shown their team that maybe they should have started the 2005 campaign at a higher level.  Hopefully the guys that I have listed that thus far have been disappointing, can turn things around and show why their clubs have such high expectations for them.

Ross Keyser is an independant minor league analyst.  His opinions do not necessarily reflect those of rotochamps.com