Cumulative Top Prospect List

Updated 2/6/13 to include MLB's changed list after the trade with the A's and Keith Law's list for ESPN.

I enjoy the top prospect list exercise.  It is interesting to see which players are valued by different analyst.  Every year, I try to keep up with the lists when they come out and compare them to each other.  I also like to see what the consensus thought is about players.

Below is the cumulative rankings that have been compiled thus far.  This includes the list from 14 different sources: Baseball America (top 10), Baseball Prospectus (top 10), The Crawfish Boxes (top 30), Fangraphs (top 15), MLB.com (top 20), MinorLeagueBall (top 20), Bleacher Report (top 10), Baseball Prospect Nation (top15), MLB Dirt (top 15), Scouting Book (top 20), Baseball Instinct (top 21), Perfect Game (top 10), Astros County (top 25) and Keith Law - ESPN (top 10).

I continue to tweak this process.  There are two cumulative ranking orders.  The first is the cumulative ranking based on # of list they appeared on and the average ranking. This list is the true consensus as it rewards a player for making more list and lowers a player who was highly ranked but appeared on very few list.  The second cumulative ranking is based on average ranking and then # of list the player appears on.  This rewards a high ranking regardless of how often a player was ranked.  The color shade of the name indicates how they were obtained. The key is at the bottom of the list. Here is a link to the google drive spreadsheet for those who don't want to scroll in the window.

Here are some observations about the cumulative list thus far (updated 12/31/12):  

• There is consensus on the top 11 players on the list.  Six appear on all 14 list, and the five others appear on at least 10 list. 

• There are a few prospects with wide disparity of ranking:
• Jonathan Villar is ranked #6 (4x), #7, #8, #9, #11 (2x), # 12, #15, and #25. 
• Kevin Comer is ranked #9, #14, and #20.  He was also mentioned as an "others" by John Sickels
• Carlos Perez is ranked as high as #9 and as low as #19.  He appeared on six list. 
• Nolan Fontana is ranked as high as #9 and as low as #19.  He appears on seven list. 
• Joe Musgrove is ranked as high as #10 and as low as #22.  He appeared on five list.
• Teoscar Hernandez, Jose Cisnero, Brad Peacock, and Kyle Weiland all benefit from just appearing on one list. 

•  There are 49 players who have been included on a list at this time.  Here is the break down of how they were acquired:
• Via Luhnow Trade -17
• Via Draft 2012 -11
• Via Wade Trade - 6
• Via Draft 2011 - 3
• Via Draft 2010 -4
• Via Rule 5 Draft 2012 - 2
• Via Draft 2009 - 1
• Via Draft 2008 - 1
• Via International Free Agency (2007,2008, 2010) -4

•  That makes 30 out of the 49 have been acquired since Luhnow took over.

•  12 of the players have played in Greeneville. 

16 former G-Stros on Instructional Roster

Brian McTaggart just released the Astros roster for the fall instructional league. This year, 16 former G-Stros will be spending a few extra weeks in Kissimmee honing their skills.  Here are the former G-Stros based on when they played here:

2008
Zach Grimmett - appeared in 23 games for Lancaster.  Ten of them as a starter and 13 as a reliever. Finished the year with an 8.21 ERA.

2009
Jonathon Meyer - Hit .272 in his second year in Lancaster.

2010
Telvin Nash - Hit .224 with 29 HR and 198 strikeouts in 106 games in Lancaster.

Delino DeShields - Had a break out year.  Started in Lexington and finished the year in Lancaster.  Stole a combined 101 bases on the season.  He raised his slash line from .220/.305/.322 to .287/.389/.428.  Just turned 20 in August.

Roberto Pena - He also started the year in Lexington but moved up to Lancaster to finish the season.  Pena caught 33% of the base stealers (26 out of 78) in Lexington.  His bat showed some improvement but his glove and arm are what have earned him the invite to instructionals.

2012
Three of the players on this list also played in Greeneville in 2011 but we will group them with their most recent cohort.

Ariel Ovando - He showed significant improvement between 2011 (.235/.283/.365) and 2012 (.287/.350/.444).  All the physical tools are present but he is still learning how to get them to do what they need to do.  He turns 19 later this week so we need to have some patience.

Chris Lee - He started the season in the Appy but was sent down to the GCL where he didn't pitch.  So the instructs will give him a chance to get some work in he missed during the season.  He was also on the team in 2011.

Frances Ramirez - He is the other player who was also on the 2011 roster.  He made four starts in '11 verses the 13 he made in 2012.  You can find more of my thoughts on him at my post Season Recap - Starting Pitcher. You can also use that link to get my thoughts on two other 2012 pitchers invited, Michael Feliz & Lance McCullers Jr.

Kevin Comer and Joe Musgrove were acquired during the year and didn't get many chances to pitch which is why they are heading to Florida for the fall.

The other four players are position players who were drafted this year: Carlos Correa, Rio Ruiz, Terrell Joyce, and Angel Ibanez. Of those four, Ibanez is a bit of a surprise due to his low draft slot but he showed a solid bat during the season and 3rd base is a shallow spot in the Astros organization.  
Overall, former Greeneville players made up almost half (16 out of 33) of the players invited.

Eyewitness Report: 8/19/12 Gville 4 - B-Royals 8

The G-Stros couldn't complete the sweep last night.  Here are my observations from the game.

On The Mound: 
Lance McCullers made his third start of the season for Greeneville.  He got off to a great start striking out the first three batters.  The defense was not as crisp behind him and it resulted in extra pitches in innings and that along with his lack of control caused him to just make it through three innings.  I heard a report that McCuller's fast ball was hitting 96 during the game.  

Brad Propst pitched a solid inning in relief.

Kevin Comer came in and pitched three innings for his G-Stro debut.  He got out of a first and second with no on out in the fifth.  He also pitched out of a bases loaded one out situation in the sixth.  He had a clean seventh.  He surrendered one home run to lead off the sixth. 

Richard Rodriguez was okay in the eight but was hit hard in the ninth inning.  Michael Dimock came in to stop the bleeding to get the last out.

In The Field: 
I was surprised to see Marc Wik at second tonight.  He was charged with an error in the second that lead to two unearned runs scoring. 

Ariel Ovando caught my eye again in a negative way.  McCullers attempted to pick off a runner and Michael Martinez was charged with the error on a missed catch.  The ball went up the first base line towards the bullpen area.  Ovando in right field was very late in coming over to back up the play.  The runner advanced from first to third on the error.  In the debate of lack of effort or lack of focus; I am starting to lean towards lack of focus. 

Rio Ruiz continues to impress at third. He made one very nice stop on a ball to his right. 

D'Andre Toney has played a solid center all season and covers a great deal of ground in the outfield.  On back to back nights, he has chased balls to the wall that he couldn't quite catch. The balls have bounced off the wall and he has had to go back and chase them down.  Last night, the result was a triple. I am not sure if this is a case where he should read wall balls better or if it is a case where the corner outfielders are getting over to back up but it wasn't pretty. 

At The Plate: 
Greeneville was no hit until the fifth when Terrell Joyce  smacked a HR to lead off the fifth.  Joyce had his third straight two hit night. 

Ernesto Genoves hit a home run and Jose Fernandez had two hits. 

Ovando hit a double down the right field line.  I was excited that Mike Newman from fangraphs was at the park and was able to get video of Ovando.  The fans here accuse Ovando of not hustling down the line.  I have had that feeling some but I also feel that Ovando's large frame takes a while to get going.  I hope Mike is able to pull a home to first time off the video and will share that will us. 

The Astros were not fond of the home play umps strike zone.  Both Ruiz and Ovando gave dirty looks after called third strikes.  Five of the 10 strike outs were looking. 

Other Observations:
It was reported to me that Brian Blasik took some infield today and is close to being ready to play again. His defense plus his bat have been missed.