Top-100 Prospect List Showdown: AL Central
By Wally Fish
Putting together a Top-100 prospect list is a massive undertaking and any site that takes on the challenge deserves to be recognized for their efforts. Since I have just over a week before I have to publish my next S2S Team Prospect List, I wanted to do something a little different while I have this small window. The team prospect lists are a grind and require a ton of research and writing time to put together and I thought that comparing various Top-100s would be a good way to change gears and provide a (hopefully) useful services to our readers
I’m not looking to be overly insightful with these six articles – one for each division – or draw any groundbreaking conclusions. Just looking for a way to compare the rankings and give some of the sites that took on the task of producing a Top-100 – like Nathaniel did for S2S – a little extra love.
The sources I have selected for this 6-part miniseries are:
- Baseball Instinct (BI)
- MLB.com (MLB)
- MLB Prospect Portal (Port)
- Project Prospect (Proj)
- Scout.com (SC)
- And of course the S2S rankings (S2S) are included.
So let’s turn to the AL Central – which had 25 players make a Top-100 – and see how each list stacks up next to the others on a team-by-team basis.
Cleveland Indians [3]
Position | Player | S2S | BI | MLB | Port | Proj | SC |
SS | Francisco Lindor | #98 | #32 | #89 | #22 | #60 | |
RHP | Dillon Howard | #99 | |||||
SS | Ronny Rodriguez | #80 |
Cleveland has a very weak farm system and the above grid is further proof. Lindor and Howard were the team’s 1st and 2nd round picks in 2011 and while both have plenty of talent we don’t know how either will transition to professional ball.
Most curious ranking(s): Lindor missing the cut for Baseball Instinct.
Chicago White Sox [2]
Position | Player | S2S | BI | MLB | Port | Proj | SC |
RHP | Addison Reed | #100 | #70 | #58 | |||
RHP | Nestor Molina | #44 | #75 | #91 | #64 |
More proof that the White Sox system remains a cellar dweller in the organizational rankings. Not only do they lack a player capable of making five, let alone all six of the Top-100s included here, the guy that made 4/6 lists (Molina) was acquired via a trade that cost them reliever Sergio Santos.
Addison Reed is a stud, and our own Mr. Stoltz is a huge fan, but it’s hard for relievers to crack rankings such as these.
Most curious ranking(s): The fact that Nathaniel did not include Reed in his Top-100.
Detroit Tigers [4]
Position | Player | S2S | BI | MLB | Port | Proj | SC |
RHP | Jacob Turner | #6 | #15 | #15 | #17 | #33 | #11 |
3B | Nick Castellanos | #49 | #51 | #72 | #52 | #69 | |
LHP | Drew Smyly | #82 | #58 | ||||
LHP | Casey Crosby | #96 |
Project Prospect does an outstanding job with pretty much everything they touch so I’ll give them a mulligan on this, but I don’t understand how Jacob Turner could be ranked any lower than 20th on a list. It’s completely and utterly incomprehensible to me. Speaking of Turner I am surprised that he was outside the Top-10 on all the lists but ours.
Castellanos is probably the biggest snub from the S2S Top-100. I’m personally thrilled that Smyly made a couple lists as I’m very bullish on his future as a quality major league starter.
Most curious ranking(s): Jacob Turner at #33 and the inclusion of Casey Crosby on any list.
Kansas City Royals [8]
Position | Player | S2S | BI | MLB | Port | Proj | SC |
OF | Wil Myers | #16 | #11 | #19 | #18 | #14 | #17 |
RHP | Jake Odorizzi | #32 | #94 | #47 | #44 | #54 | |
OF | Bubba Starling | #52 | #24 | #17 | #43 | #43 | #41 |
RHP | Yordano Ventura | #57 | |||||
3B | Cheslor Cuthbert | #68 | #88 | #65 | #94 | ||
LHP | Mike Montgomery | #84 | #57 | #31 | #46 | #29 | #32 |
LHP | John Lamb | #90 | #100 | #98 | |||
OF | Jorge Bonifacio | #79 |
Myers, Starling and Montgomery were consensus selections and it’s encouraging to see that all lists had Myers in the 10-20 range obviously understanding the context of his season. Nathaniel’s ranking of Ventura and the ranking of Bonifacio by Project Prospect were both bold selections but I think more justifiable than the above table would suggest.
Most curious ranking(s): Mike Montgomery at #84 and Project Prospect’s omission of Odorizzi.
Minnesota Twins [8]
Position | Player | S2S | BI | MLB | Port | Proj | SC |
3B | Miguel Sano | #33 | #19 | #23 | #24 | #66 | #24 |
SS | Brian Dozier | #77 | |||||
RHP | Liam Hendriks | #80 | #98 | ||||
OF | Aaron Hicks | #72 | #84 | #27 | |||
OF | Oswaldo Arcia | #86 | #74 | #51 | |||
RHP | Adrian Salcedo | #81 | |||||
RHP | Kyle Gibson | #80 | |||||
OF/2B | Eddie Rosario | #23 |
Clearly the Twins have a lot of intriguing players in their system. In fact they had the same number of players land on a Top-100 list (8) as the Royals did. The difference of course is the lack of consenus. While the Royals had 3 players make all six lists included – and Odorizzi just missed being the 4th, the Twins have only Miguel Sano represented across the board.
I railed on Nathaniel for a good several hours about how Brian Dozier had no business on a Top-100 and I feel a little justified on that stance. However before I pat myself on the back too much, I also took him to task for leaving Eddie Rosario off the S2S list and as it turns out, only Baseball Instinct would end up including him.
Most curious ranking(s): Aaron Hicks at #27 and Miguel Sano at #66.
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For a truly great resource for all your prospect rankings be sure to check out Fantasy Rundown.
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