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Baseball America's Top 100 List: Reactions and Musings

Baseball America has released their top 100 prospects list, and there's a ton of fantasy goodness here to look at.

By Jason Hunt
USA TODAY Sports

Baseball America's top 100 prospect list was released yesterday, and there aren't really too many surprises here:

Rank Name Position Organization
1 Jurickson Profar SS TEX
2 Dylan Bundy SP BAL
3 Oscar Taveras OF STL
4 Wil Myers OF TAM
5 Jose Fernandez SP MIA
6 Shelby Miller SP STL
7 Gerrit Cole SP PIT
8 Xander Bogaerts SS BOS
9 Miguel Sano 3B MIN
10 Byron Buxton OF MIN

You can find the full list here, and of course a ton more analysis about the list from Baseball America themselves. There are a number of articles available from BA for free related to the top 100, including tools grades for each of the top 100, and some interesting top 100 statistics as well.

Some of my other thoughts about the list:

  • Andrew Heaney at #43 jumped out at me a bit, as he really hadn't been getting a lot of buzz about the potential to be a top 100 prospect. BA's report from their handbook was extremely glowing on Heaney, so this probably shouldn't be that much of a surprise. I'm planning on writing up a post looking at him specifically either later this week or early next week.
  • I thought that the Addison Russell ranking (#48) was a bit low, but I also know that I'm unable to be completely objective about him at this point. He seemed like he would jump into the 30-40 range myself, so I guess it's not really that far down the list in comparison.
  • Aaron Sanchez (#65) seems low compared to some of the other rankings we've seen so far, and I would have to guess that has most to do with the control issues that Sanchez has shown. It seems like it really comes down to whether you think he will iron them out sooner rather than later.
  • Another surprise was the higher than anticipated ranking of Astros' prospect Lance McCullers (#50). McCullers is considered to be a potential top of the rotation starter, but his floor is that of a shutdown reliever rather than a mid or back of the rotation starting pitcher.
  • They rated Jurickson Profar's power as the same grade as Oscar Taveras (60 for both), which leads me to ask whether I may be underrating Profar's power potential or overrating Taveras'. Tough to tell from just this, but it's possible on both accounts.
  • Heaney stood out again on the tools projections, as they are projecting him to have three above-average pitches, along with above-average command and control.
  • The Cardinals, Marlins, and Twins led the way with 6 prospects each in the top 100, while five teams had a single prospect each.
The key to remember with their list (and most of the other lists as well) is that it includes as a part of the process their defense, which can make a non-factor for fantasy extremely valuable (see Jose Iglesias). But the information we find out from them still has a ton of value, especially when attempting to value potential trades in dynasty formats. You can also follow along the discussion with the group over at Minor League Ball as well.