Baseball America's Midseason Top 50 Prospect Rankings

Yesterday afternoon, Baseball America published their Midseason Top 50 Prospect Rankings, and there are some surprise names in the bottom half of their Top 10:

1. Dylan Bundy, rhp, Orioles
2. Jurickson Profar, ss, Rangers
3. Wil Myers, of, Royals
4. Taijuan Walker, rhp, Mariners
5. Danny Hultzen, lhp, Mariners
6. Gerrit Cole, rhp, Pirates
7. Tyler Skaggs, lhp, Diamondbacks
8. Jose Fernandez, rhp, Marlins
9. Manny Machado, ss, Orioles
10. Zack Wheeler, rhp, Mets

I have no problems with the first six names on this list, but I am surprised with the "low" ranking of Machado, and the rankings of Tyler Skaggs and Jose Fernandez in their Top 10. Skaggs is close to major league ready, but I am surprised they are so high on him. Fernandez has dominated Low A with a 99-18 strikeout to walk ratio in 79 innings of work, and just recently as promoted to High A.

Skaggs was also promoted recently, to AAA, and could get a look with the big league club should another Diamondbacks starter go down with an injury or struggle.

I don't think there is any question as to who the top 3-4 prospects are right now, as we will probably see Dylan Bundy and Jurickson Profar flip-flopped at 1-2 depending on the prospect expert. Taijuan Walker appears to be the hands down choice as the second best pitching prospect in baseball, but I know of one Fake Teams writer who may argue that he is the best, and he did so here.

It also looks like Kenny was right about Nick Franklin as well:

Kudos to Kenny for believing in Franklin. I admit I was wrong on him. Nice work, Kenny. (Did Kenny have any input into these rankings? ha)