Top 100 Prospects Review (Offense)

Minor league production is a polarizing topic when it comes to prospect development. Throughout their career, players learn critical skills that sometime don't always show up in a box score. Some of these are intangibles like leadership, handling failure, or growing comfortable in a foreign culture and aren't always evident to us stat junkies. But physical growth can also be masked by poor stat lines, like when a pitcher establishes feel for his change-up after not being allowed to throw his wipeout slider for an entire game. The end line might be ugly, but growth is evident and the player is one step closer to fulfilling his dream. On the flip side, there is a lot of reasons to put stock into a prospects statistical profile. Producing gaudy numbers is the best sign that a player is ready for the next challenge. A player can talk all he wants about being ready for a promotion, but the diamond is the great equalizer and is surprisingly efficient in separating the men from the boys.

This article is going to focus on the production of minor leaguers, more specifically how top rated prospects of the past few years have performed relative to their peers. The visualization presented below attempts to answer a few questions:

• Are Top-100 prospects truly more productive?
• Which Top 100 prospects in 2014 are living up to the hype?
• Which Top 100 prospects in 2014 are seeing their star fade?
• How did 2012 & 2013 Top 100 prospects produce in comparison to the 2014 crop?
• Are there any non-Top 100 prospects that deserve further consideration in dynasty leagues?

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So what do you see? Anything worth note? Let's discuss in the comments.

Please reach out on Twitter (@BrianCreagh) for suggestions, questions, and general comments. I always love hearing from you guys.