Baseball America ran an article ranking all the prospects who have been traded so far during this July 31 deadline period.  So far only two Top 100 prospects have been traded.  There are still rumors out there about the Twins trading Kyle Gibson and Brian Dozer, the Rays trading Chris Archer, the Nationals still don’t know what they are doing with all of their players, and a host of other names so this ranking will change as we head toward Tuesday.

The Royals have acquired five players via trade so far in this deadline period.  Brett Phillips is the highest player for the Royals on this list and comes in third behind only Francisco Mejia and Yusniel Diaz.  In their description, BA refers to him as a “solid starter”.

Farther down on that list is Jorge Lopez at 19 labeled as a role player/far away gamble.  Lopez is more of a role player because that’s what bullpen guys are.  Below Lopez are the three guys the Royals got back in the Kelvin Herrera deal which was interesting to me.  This means BA was much lower on the trade than a lot of us are at Royals Farm Report.  Kelvin Gutierrez comes in at number 24, Yohanse Morel is number 27, and Blake Perkins is number 28.

I’ve watched Gutierrez play several times now at NWA and he seemed like he was trying to hard immediately after the trade.  As he relaxes he will settle in and continue to improve.  Gutierrez has a big frame and is very good with his glove.  He hit a mammoth home run a few nights ago that landed by the inflatables above the left field bullpen at Arvest Stadium just to give you a reference of his power.  Gutierrez seems to be coming along now as he has posted three multi-hit games in a row.  Over the last week he is hitting over .300 with 5 extra base hits.  He has also stolen 13 of 14 bases this season.

Perkins has hit .289 with 7 extra base hits but he has drawn 20 walks compared to 23 strikeouts.  Perkins also has stolen 8 bases in 8 attempts.  Perkins has also played some great defense in CF.  In that time his OBP is 42.9%.

Morel has thrown 24.2 innings in Arizona and has 24 strikeouts compared to just 5 walks.  That’s not bad for a 17 year old making his first appearance in the United States.  Morel has made 5 starts and his WHIP is sitting at 1.22.  With reports that his velo has ticked up, Morel could end up being the best player out of this trade when all is said and done.

Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images and taken from Sports Spectrum website