For people who love minor league baseball and looking at their team's future down the road, this time of the year is one of the better ones. Football is over, which means Spring Training is coming closer, and with it the baseball season. There also are the annual Top 100 Prospect lists that come out where many different sources create their lists of the best players that minor league baseball has to offer based on projection and future value. The top 5 prospects in the game are usually a consensus list, while the rest is up for debate based on personal bias and views. Every major independent scouting source is going to have different views and opinions of players and with it come different lists.
The ones that I pay particular attention to are Kevin Goldstein (Baseball Prospectus), Keith Law (ESPN), Baseball America, Jonathan Mayo (MLB.com), and Scout.com. I enjoy John Sickel's opinions as well. His list of top 20 prospects in the Texas Rangers can be found here.
I recently put together a spreadsheet of seven different top 100 prospect lists. Baseball America has not come out with their list yet, so it will eventually be 8 different lists. In the seven that have been done so far, there have been 194 different players rated in the top 100 prospect lists. The sources are:
Kevin Goldstein (BP)
Keith Law (ESPN)
Jonathan Mayo (MLB.com)
Scout.com (magazine)
Project Prospect
Scouting Book
Seedlings to Stars
The Texas Rangers once again have a highly rated farm system by virtually everybody and with it, the versatility and depth that an organization wants. Below is a listing of the top 5 teams with the most prospects in the top 100 prospects lists (out of 194 players remember):
1. San Diego- 15
2. Boston- 11
3. Toronto- 11
4. St. Louis- 10
5. Texas- 10
Two of the Texas Ranger's prospects, Jurickson Profar and Martin Perez, were also rated in the top 100 by every source. Another, third baseman Mike Olt, was rated in the top 100 by 6 of the 7 lists. Pitcher Neil Ramirez and outfielder Leonys Martin made at least 3 of the 7 lists.
Taking the first four sources that I pay attention to (Kevin Goldstein, Keith Law, MLB.com, and Scout.com), I also put together a list of the 68 players that came in every top 100 list of those four sources. I then took the 68 players and put together the list by average ranking. The list is as follows, with Texas Rangers prospects in bold:
1. LHP Matt Moore, Tampa Bay
2. OF Mike Trout, Los Angeles (A)
3. OF Bryce Harper, Washington
4. SS Jurickson Profar, Texas
5. RHP Shelby Miller, St. Louis
6. SS Manny Machado, Baltimore
7. RHP Julio Teheran, Atlanta
8. C Jesus Montero, Seattle
9. RHP Gerrit Cole, Pittsburgh
10. RHP Jameson Taillon, Pittsburgh
11. RHP Dylan Bundy, Baltimore
12. C Devin Mesoraco, Cincinnati
13. OF Wil Myers, Kansas City
14. RHP Jacob Turner, Detroit
15. RHP Manny Banuelos, New York (A)
16. RHP Trevor Bauer, Arizona
17. 3B Nolan Arenado, Colorado
18. 3B Miguel Sano, Minnesota
19. C Travis D'Arnaud, Toronto
20. LHP Danny Hultzen, Seattle
21. LHP Martin Perez, Texas
22. OF Bubba Starling, Kansas City
23. RHP Carlos Martinez, St. Louis
24. RHP Archie Bradley, Arizona
25. LHP Drew Pomeranz, Colorado
26. 3B Anthony Rendon, Washington
27. RHP Jarrod Parker, Oakland
28. RHP Taijuan Walker, Seattle
29. RHP Arodyz Vizcaino, Atlanta
30. RHP Zack Wheeler, New York (N)
31. SS Hak-Ju Lee, Tampa Bay
32. SS Francisco Lindor, Cleveland
33. RHP Matt Harvey, New York (N)
34. OF Jake Marisnick, Toronto
35. SS Jean Segura, Los Angeles (A)
36. SS Billy Hamilton, Cincinnati
37. OF Gary Brown, San Francisco
38. OF Christian Yelich, Florida
39. 1B Anthony Rizzo, Chicago (N)
40. C Gary Sanchez, New York (A)
41. OF Brett Jackson, Chicago (N)
42. 1B Jonathan Singleton, Houston
43. OF Michael Choice, Oakland
44. RHP Jarred Cosart, Houston
45. SS Xander Bogaerts, Boston
46. RHP Zach Lee, Los Angeles (N)
47. RHP Dellin Betances, New York (A)
48. RHP Jake Odorizzi, Kansas City
49. 3B Mike Olt, Texas
50. OF George Springer, Houston
51. RHP Wily Peralta, Milwaukee
52. 3B Nick Castellanos, Detroit
53. OF Anthony Gose, Toronto
54. RHP Randall Delgado, Atlanta
55. RHP Casey Kelly, San Diego
56. OF Rymer Liriano, San Diego
57. OF Starling Marte, Pittsburgh
58. RHP Trevor May, Philadelphia
59. RHP A.J. Cole, Oakland
60. LHP James Paxton, Seattle
61. RHP Sonny Gray, Oakland
62. C Yasmani Grandal, San Diego
63. OF Josh Bell, Pittsburgh
64. SS Javier Baez, Chicago (N)
65. 1B Yonder Alonso, San Diego
66. OF Mason Williams, New York (A)
67. 3B Jedd Gyorko, San Diego
68. RHP Addison Reed, Chicago (A)
In case you had missed it as well, I have put out a few tweets over today and on Thursday related to the lists and the Texas League.
Of Keith Law's top 100 prospects, 14 of them played in the Texas League in 2011. When the rosters are put out, likely late in Spring Training or after it's over altogether, I will have a list of the top prospects in the league put together as well.
Of Kevin Goldstein's top 101 prospects, 18 of them played in the Texas League in 2011. Five Texas Ranger's (Jurickson Profar at #4, Martin Perez at #36, Mike Olt at #45, Neil Ramirez at #77, and Jorge Alfaro at #101) were in Kevin Goldstein's top 100 prospect list. You can find the list at the link above.
- Michael Damman
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