The official Logo of the St. Louis Prospects. Apropos to this post.
Since we’ve been talking a lot about prospects, i thought i’d note that I’ve been catching up the Master Prospect rankings list (here’s the direct Google xls link) that I maintain. Major edits lately:
- I’ve noted those who have lost Rookie status in 2016: Trea Turner and Wilmer Difo, even if Baseball America and MinorLeagueBall insist on ranking him. I’m not sure what to do with A.J Cole in this regard, nor Pedro Severino. Koda Glover still seems to be a “prospect” by everyone’ standards so he’s still ranked.
- I’ve noted those traded in 2016: Taylor Hearn, Max “future hall of famer” Schrock, Chris Bostick
- I’ve noted those former “prospects” who were DFA/Waived/released in 2016: Abel de los Santos, Matthew Spann, Cutter Dykstra
- I’ve noted those post-2016 MLFAs who at some point were ranked: Erik Davis, Paolo Espino, Kevin Keyes, Jason Martinson, Drew Vettleson, Neil Holland, Michael Brady. If they re-sign, i’ll un-do the “out of the system” categorization.
- Lastly, we’ve noted those prospects traded in the Winter Meetings: Dane Dunning, Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez
- I’ve now put in a couple of the early rankings from major pundits that have come out post-2016: BA top 10, minor league ball top 30, MLBpipeline’s top 30 as of the end of the 2016 season, and JP Schwartz’ post-2016 list. We expect a ton more to hit in the Jan/Feb time-frame.
The Spreadsheet now has more than 100 “lists” from various sources dating to the beginning of the Nats franchise (Nov 2004 BA list, ahead of 2005 system).
Each off-season I generally expect to get 7-8 rankings lists from what I call the “major pundits” who follow prospects:
- Baseball America/BA Prospect Handbook (J.J. Cooper, John Manuel, formerly Aaron Fitt)
- Baseball Prospectus (Chris Mellon/Jason Parks/Ezra Wise):
- MLB/MLBpipeline.com (Jim Callis/Jonathan Mayo/Mike Rosenbaum)
- MinorLeagueBall.com (John Sickels/Nick Melotte)
- Fangraphs (Dan Farnsworth, formerly Marc Hulet/Kiley McDaniel)
- ESPN (Keith Law)
- Prospect Digest ( Joseph Werner)
- TopProspectAlert.com (J.P. Schwartz)
I’ve seen other pundits rankings in the past but not consistently year over year like the above seven lists. If you know of any pundits who i’m missing, please let me know.
This year we’ll start to see a new #1 prospect in Victor Robles, after seeing 47 straight lists with Giolito ranked #1. Robles becomes the 11th distinct player to be ranked #1 in our farm system at any point.
Enjoy!