Top-100 Prospect List Showdown: NL East

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 had just over a week between S2S Team Prospect Lists, I wanted to do something a little different while I have this small window at my disposal. 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 NL East – which had 23 players make a Top-100 – and see how each list stacks up next to the others on a team-by-team basis.

Atlanta Braves [6]

Position	Player	S2S	BI	MLB	Port	Proj	SC
RHP	Julio Teheran	7	6	4	6	20	4
RHP	Randall Delgado	21	52	42	29	23	55
RHP	Arodys Vizcaino	55	59	36	34	68	21
SS	Tyler Pastornicky	100				84
C	Christian Bethancourt		81	91	100	55	37
SS	Andrelton Simmons			65		64

Three consensus picks for the Braves. They’re all right-handed pitchers, they all made their major league debut and they all had some semblance of success. It’s completely unrelated, but I applaud Scout.com’s aggressive ranking of Bethancourt.

Most curious ranking(s): Every source thinks Teheran is easily a top-10 prospect except for one …

Miami Marlins [4]

Position	Player	S2S	BI	MLB	Port	Proj	SC
OF	Marcell Ozuna	71
OF	Christian Yelich	94	35	35	35	42	75
3B	Matt Dominguez			87
RHP	Jose Fernandez		79

When the rallying cry of your team is “at least we have Yelich” you have a bottom 5 farm system on your hands. Speaking of Yelich, the odds of any player being ranked at exactly the same spot on 3 of the 6 lists is at least 55,000 to 1 (and that makes several assumptions and locks in a number of variables).

Most curious ranking(s): The lack of love for Ozuna who is probably Miami’s 2nd best prospect right now.

New York Mets [3]

Position	Player	S2S	BI	MLB	Port	Proj	SC
RHP	Matt Harvey	45	26	38	26	25	52
RHP	Zack Wheeler	51	36	28	32	31	53
RHP	Jeurys Familia	54	66	90	78	71

Almost 3 for 3 in the consensus category for the Mets, but Scout.com didn’t get the memo. Harvey and Familia have both already survived the jump to Double-A and Wheeler will take that step in 2012. All in all it’s an impressive trio of pitching prospects. Unfortunately for Mets fans, things drop off pretty quickly and the major league roster isn’t looking too rosy.

Most curious ranking(s): I thought it would be a given that at least one source would toss Bradon Nimmo onto the back end of of their list.

Philadelphia Phillies [4]

Position	Player	S2S	BI	MLB	Port	Proj	SC
RHP	Trevor May	34	28	54	31	82	74
RHP	Julio Rodriguez	67
LHP	Jesse Biddle		67	78	62
RHP	Brody Colvin			80

If you’re looking for position players, this is not the list for you. The Phillies have one of the game’s weaker systems these days and a rapidly aging major league roster. No need for panic though as they also have lots of money to play with and are an attractive destination for free agents. Julio Rodriguez is going to have to prove himself at every level, and by extension will never be highly regarded as a prospect but I’m a huge fan.

Most curious ranking(s): May slipping past #60 on not one but two lists.

Washington Nationals [6]

Position	Player	S2S	BI	MLB	Port	Proj	SC
OF	Bryce Harper	3	1	2	1	2	3
3B	Anthony Rendon	10	18	27	12	9	56
2B	Steve Lombardozzi	66
LHP	Robbie Ray	81
RHP	Alex Meyer			83
LHP	Sammy Solis			86

The Nationals gave up a lot of prospect quality to get their hands on Gio Gonzalez from the A’s but they still have one of the games’ best position prospects in Harper. Dame fortune also smiled upon them when Anthony Rendon, the best and most advanced bat in the 2011 draft class, was still on the board at #6. Things get dicey after their two consensus players but you have to give up quality to get quality and I applaud them for their willingness to pull the trigger on the Gio trade, and overpay in the process to get their man.

Most curious ranking(s): On the surface, it’s Steve Lombardozzi at #66 on the S2S list, but when you factor in that Nathaniel loves middle infielders that can hit and are close to the majors (see Dozier, Brian) it fits within his rankings.

~~~~~

For a truly great resource for all your prospect rankings be sure to check out Fantasy Rundown.

You can follow us on Twitter @Seedlings2Stars and yours truly @thebaseballfish. You can also keep up to date with all things S2S by liking our Facebook page.

Home/MLB Prospects