Selecting hitters -- and pitchers, for that matter -- for SportsTicker's annual All-Prospect Team is always a difficult task. That is why names such as A.J. Hinch and Butch Huskey are included on past teams along with such big-league stars as Todd Helton, Miguel Tejada, Derek Jeter and others.

Last year's edition has already yielded one bona fide big-league superstar in Cincinnati Reds phenom Adam Dunn. Dunn, who belted over 50 homers between three levels -- including the big leagues -- last season, is having a phenomenal season and would be a shoo-in for NL Rookie of the Year were he eligible. Dunn, still just 22 years of age, ranks second only to Barry Bonds in NL on-base percentage and is on pace for a 30-homer, 90-RBI season in his first full year with Cincinnati.

The outfielders are clearly the biggest winners from last year's class, led by Dunn, but the others in the outfield are not far behind.

Marlon Byrd of the Phillies wowed the Double-A Eastern League last summer by nearly reaching the 30-homer, 30 steals plateau. Clearly the top hitting prospect in the system, Byrd ranks among the Triple-A International League leaders in several offensive categories and should be playing in Philadelphia by April.

The third member of the talented outfield triumvirate, Australian-born Chris Snelling of the Mariners, is resting his surgically-repaired knee. Snelling, a talented but oft-injured pure hitter, missed the first month of the season with a broken hand which he suffered in spring training. Snelling then went 5-for-6 in his first-ever Double-A game and was in the big leagues by the end of May. But, his season ended after just eight games with a torn ACL.

The infielders have not fared as well as their counterparts from the outfield. Third baseman Sean Burroughs, a two-time All-Prospect selection at the hot corner, was everyone's pre-season pick as the NL's Rookie of the Year. But, six weeks of struggling in the big leagues and a subsequent shoulder injury set him back. Burroughs is now biding his time in Triple-A Portland, learning to play second base. The shortstop, Wilson Betemit, missed a month with an ankle injury and is only over the .200 mark thanks to a hot July.

Adrian Gonzalez of the Florida Marlins was named the first baseman for this team, as well as the All-Teen Team. SportsTicker's Teenager of the Year, Gonzalez skipped over high Class A ball and is hitting .264 with 13 homers and 74 RBI for Double-A Portland. Ruben Salazar, the second baseman, is back in Double-A ball this year after starting the season in Triple-A. The Minnesota Twins farmhand has recovered nicely from a rough start and has his average close to .300 heading into the season's final month.

The catcher, Toby Hall, has yet to establish his permanent spot in a weak Tampa Bay lineup. Hall, the International League's MVP a season ago despite playing in just 94 games, has struggled to stay above the .200 mark this season.

American League
The Kansas City Royals may have dismissed farm director Bob Hegman on Thursday, but Hegman had presided over some pretty talented players this season. The most unheralded of these, to be sure, was outfielder David DeJesus from the high Class A Wilmington club. The 22-year-old New Jersey native was a walking Advil for the first two years of his career. He suffered a hairline fracture in a collegiate game, but was still drafted by the Royals in the fourth round of the 2000 draft. Then, that fall, DeJesus suffered a tear in his elbow on the fifth day of instructional league action in Florida. In his first pro season, DeJesus leads the league with 66 runs scored, ranks among the league leaders with a .303 average (ninth), an on-base percentage of .406 (third) and six triples (tied for second). He has walked more times (44) than he has struck out (40), especially impressive for a player making the tough jump from the college game to the high Class A level with nearly a two-year layoff. He has been especially hot of late, reaching base safely in each of his last 26 games.

Toronto Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi has spent the past year cutting payroll and getting his underperforming big-league team younger in the process. That process continued this week with the long-awaited promotion of infielder Orlando Hudson from Triple-A Syracuse. Hudson was leading the International League and tied for third among all Triple-A hitters with 127 hits at the time of his promotion. In the 24-year-old, fast-talking South Carolina native, the Blue Jays get an energetic (and yes, cheap) player who should provide a nice spark to a team desperately in need of it. Hudson, who was a career .274 hitter entering the 2001 season, burst onto the prospect scene by hitting .306 between Double-A and Triple-A. The switch-hitting Hudson then ripped apart the Arizona Fall League to the tune of a .426 average and.524 on-base percentage, both of which would have led that league had Hudson not left early to lead Team USA in the World Cup in November.

National League
The Atlanta Braves have arguably the best young corps of pitchers in Class A of any organization in the game. But, they also have a pair of fine infielders in Kelly Johnson at high Class A and third baseman Andy Marte in low Class A ball. Johnson, a supplemental first-rounder from the 2000 draft who was named the low Class A South Atlantic League's Prospect of the Year last season, has hit safely in each of his last 14 games and has his average up to .261 on the season. He is hitting .345 in July. For the Macon club in the South Atlantic League, Marte hit for the cycle on Wednesday and is tied for the league lead with 16 homers leads the loop with 81 RBI. At just 18 years old, the Dominican Republic native is one of the youngest players in any full-season league.

Florida Marlins Double-A right-hander Justin Wayne on Thursday pitched his first career shutout in Portland's 2-0 victory over Bowie. Wayne yielded just two hits and struck out six batters without issuing a walk in the first nine-inning complete game of his three-year career and third overall. The 23-year-old Honolulu native, who was originally selected fifth overall by the Expos in 2000, came to the Marlins organization as part of the recent deal that sent Cliff Floyd back to Montreal. Wayne, a Stanford product, is 2-1 with a 1.99 ERA in three starts since joining Portland. For the season, he is 7-3 with a 2.30 ERA in 20 starts, with just 89 hits allowed in 112 1/3 innings.

If New York Mets right-hander Aaron Heilman had it his way, he would probably want to spend the rest of his career at the Triple-A level. The 23-year-old Notre Dame product struck out 10 batters (7 IP, 4 H, 1 R) in a 2-0 loss at Louisville on July 23 and yielded just two runs over his first three starts at the Triple-A level. He was 4-4 with a 3.82 ERA and a strikeout per inning while with Double-A Binghamton earlier this season.

The Philadelphia Phillies minor-league people lost the gem of their system to the big-league group when right-hander Brett Myers was promoted from Triple-A Scranton and jumped onto everyone's radar screen with a two-hitter over eight innings on Wednesday night in his major-league debut. But, the Phillies still have another terrific arm that their minor-league people can call their own. He is Gavin Floyd of the Class A Lakewood club who on Wednesday became the third pitcher in the 42-year history of the South Atlantic League to throw a no-hitter in a loss as his BlueClaws dropped a 1-0 decision to Lexington. Floyd, the fourth overall pick in the 2001 draft who spent all of last summer in an extended holdout before finally coming to terms with the Phillies, threw 97 pitches -- 59 for strikes -- and yielded an unearned run while fanning eight and walking one. Floyd, a 19-year-old native of Maryland who hails from the same town as Texas prospect Mark Teixeira, used a steady diet of fastballs through the first six innings and later relied on a nasty breaking ball and strong changeup to keep the hitters off-balance. He needed just 27 pitches to make it through the first three frames. Floyd dropped to 8-7 with the loss but lowered his ERA to 2.88 and has recorded 110 strikeouts in 122 innings this season. He has pitched into the seventh inning in six of his last nine outings, striking out 58 batters while allowing just 45 hits and 19 walks over 64 1/3 frames in that span.