Prospect Rankings Discussion: John Sickels' Top 120 Prospect List

For the first time this year, John Sickels of SBNation's Minor League Ball has released a top overall prospect list. He went to 120 for this year's list, and you can find the whole list here. John mentions that he leans a bit towards proximity to the bigs when ranking, and also that the grades he gives may not necessarily finish in the order you would anticipate.

It reflects what I write in the book every year, that a letter grade is merely a shorthand notation, and that grades for pitchers do not always directly correspond with grades for hitters.

With that in mind, here's John's top 10, as well as my own thoughts after the jump:

1) Bryce Harper, OF, Washington Nationals
2) Matt Moore, LHP, Tampa Bay Rays
3) Mike Trout, OF, Los Angeles Angels
4) Yu Darvish, RHP, Texas Rangers
5) Jurickson Profar, SS, Texas Rangers

6) Shelby Miller, RHP, St. Louis Cardinals
7) Trevor Bauer, RHP, Arizona Diamondbacks
8) Manny Machado, SS, Baltimore Orioles
9) Jesus Montero, C, Seattle Mariners
10) Julio Teheran, RHP, Atlanta Braves

• I liked the aggressive rankings of Xander Bogaerts and Brett Jackson. It sounds more and moer like Bogaerts could be in the top 10 next year for a lot of people, and Jackson seems like he won't need more than a half season in AAA before being ready to roam CF on the North Side.
• Sickels was also one of the lowest on Bubba Starling. He remains extremely raw, but a lot of upside there.
• Ranking Justin Nicolino at #68 was extremely aggresive, but the more I have been reading about Nicolino, the more this may turn out to be a great ranking in retrospect.
• John is also the lowest thus far on Martin Perez, and in the comments John said he struggled with him due to the inconsistency of performance from Perez thus far.
• John is the first top 100 I've seen thus far that had either Brandon Nimmo (NYM) or Trevor Story (COL) on the list. Both were 2011 draftees, and I'll be interested to see what they do this year.

See someone specifically you think was ranked too highly or too lowly on the list? Think someone else should have broken into the top 10? Start the discussion below.

The best lineup available based on his prospect rankings:

C - Jesus Montero, SEA

1B - Yonder Alonso, SD

2B - Kolten Wong, STL

3B - Nolan Arenado, COL

SS - Jurickson Profar, TEX

COF - Wil Myers, KCR

CF - Mike Trout, LAA

COF - Bryce Harper, WAS

DH - Manny Machado, BAL (Best hitter left)

SP1 - Matt Moore, TAM

SP2 - Yu Darvish, TEX

SP3 - Shelby Miller, STL

SP4 - Trevor Bauer, ARI

SP5 - Julio Teheran, ATL

RP - Addison Reed, CHW