Name: Jackson Melian
Position: OF
Vitals: 6'2", 200 lbs
Bats/Throws: R/R
Born: January 7th, 1980
Hometown: Barcelona, Venezuela
Signed: As an undrafted free agent (1996). Received a $1,600,000 bonus.

Background: Even though his father Vincent named him after some dude named Reggie, baseball was not always Melian's calling in life. Melian was a supremely skilled swimmer - at age 12 he set the Central American record in the 50-meter freestyle - with Olympic success in his not-to-distant future. However, he quit swimming after the Venezuelan national team asked him to move to it's new training facility, at which point he went from speedos to spikes. Barely a year later Melian had transformed himself into a 7-figure bonus baby and the best outfield prospect in the system of his father's beloved Yankees. Melian's family followed him throughout his career, traveling ahead of the team bus to be at each of his games. However, both Melian's parents were tragically killed in a car accident in just his second pro season, an accident that occurred directly in front of the bus carrying Jackson. Melian handled the adversity tremendously, never allowing the tragedy to affect his on-the-field performance.

Strengths: Just about everything. Melian was fast, powerful and graceful all at the same time. At the plate he made hard contact thanks to excellent bat speed, sending balls into the gaps with regularity. He was outstanding in the field, using his speed to cover plenty of ground in the outfield and firing balls back to the infield with a cannon that he kept attached to his right shoulder. He utilized his speed to terrorize pitchers as well, teasing them with big leads before stealing bases almost at will.

Weaknesses: Melian's biggest deficiency was his inability to control the strike zone. Although he drew a respectable amount of walks, his walk totals paled in comparison to his strike out numbers. Melian was always young for his league, which in turn hindered the development of his ability to make consistent contact.

Stats: Immediately after signing, Melian became a regular on Baseball America's Top 100 Prospects lists, placing 40th in 1997, 98th in 1998, and 72nd in 1999. Jackson's talents were well-sought after as he was routinely asked for in trade talks - including a 2000 rumor that had him headed to the Cubs as part of a package for Sammy Sosa.

	Team	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	K-BB	BA	OPS
1997	GCL Yankees	213	56	11	2	3	36	52-20	.263	.707
1998	Greensboro	467	119	18	2	8	45	120-41	.255	.673
1999	Tampa	467	132	17	13	6	61	98-49	.283	.768
2000	Norwich	290	73	8	4	9	38	69-18	.252	.699
	Chattanooga (CIN)	6	1	0	0	0	0	0-0	.167	.334
2001	Chattanooga (CIN)	426	101	22	0	16	52	95-36	.237	.703
2002	Huntsville (MIL)	184	41	6	1	6	24	63-35	.223	.726
	West Tennessee (CHN)	234	72	17	0	4	26	62-17	.308	.807
2003	West Tennessee (CHN)	252	65	8	3	7	28	47-20	.258	.715
	Iowa (CHN)	129	23	4	0	3	9	27-8	.178	.505
2004	Greenville (ATL)	161	31	8	3	3	13	38-14	.193	.602
	Trenton	121	32	6	3	3	15	31-13	.264	.781
	Columbus	30	9	4	2	0	4	7-4	.300	.967
2005	Erie (DET)	23	6	2	0	0	1	5-1	.261	.628
2006	Lakeland (DET)	31	7	0	1	0	3	6-0	.226	.532
	Toledo (DET)	8	1	1	0	0	0	4-1	.125	.472

What Happened? In the midst of a run to their third straight World Series title and fourth in 5 years, the Yankees packaged Melian along with Drew Henson, Ed Yarnall and Brian Reith in a mid-season trade with the Reds for Denny Neagle and Mike Frank. After the trade, Melian joined then prospects Adam Dunn and Austin Kearns to form the "Gen-X" outfield, however Melian's bat never came around and he has not come close to reaching his enormous ceiling.

Melian was placed on waivers by the Reds to make room for Joey Hamilton after the 2001 season, at which point he was claimed by the Brewers, who soon after traded him to the Cubs for Robert Machado. Melian has bounced around from organization to organization since 2000, playing for a total of 6 different organizations and 11 different teams, including a second stint with the Bombers.

Melian is currently playing the Detroit Tigers system, where he began the year playing for High-A Lakeland before being promoted to Triple-A Toledo on April 16th. Melian is fulfilling DH duties, and as of April 19th he has a .205-.225-.282-.507 combined line to go along with zero SBs and a 10-1 K/BB ratio. Still only 26 years old, Melian will likely never reach the majors with any staying power.