2018 Midseason Baseball America Prospect Rankings

[Seth Stohs]

Baseball America has updated its Prospect rankings. (paywall; https://www.baseballamerica.com/rankings/2018-top-100-prospects/)

 

Royce Lewis #16 (up from 21)

Alex Kirilloff #88 (wasn't rated preseason, but was in the 90s the year before)

Brusdar Graterol #92 (previously unrated)

Brent Rooker #94 (down from 86)

Nick Gordon #100 (down from 88)

 

Here's a quick look at the Top 5 picks from 2017:

 

https://twitter.com/SethTweets/status/1002599196736749568 

 

 

Kirilloff could continue to move up. Graterol... well, in my head I go back and forth about whether I will rank Lewis or Graterol as the Twins top prospect, so I think he should be higher. Rooker basically stays the same. Gordon dropping makes no sense. He's playing well and he moved up and continues to play well.

 

Also of note... Gonsalves and Javier drop out of the Top 100 (They were both in the 90s preseason).

 

And, Romero is not a guy that Baseball America ranks real high and continues not to. 

[gunnarthor]

Thanks for sharing. I'm glad that they are still high on Rooker.

[Ben Noble]

I'd guess Gordon is a victim of new guys moving onto the list as much as anything...guys like Kirilloff and Graterol. Seems like you could shuffle around the 20 or so guys at the back end of the top 100 most years, kinda depends on what you value and how you weight it.

 

But yeah, the Romero omission makes zero sense.

[70charger]

Kirilloff seems to deserve to be back in the rankings. Not sure what Gordon did or didn’t do to drop. He seems more or less ready and is doing well.

[dgwills]

Honestly, I trust the Twins Daily rankings a lot more.  I remember Keith Law ranked Engelb Vielma as one of the Twin's top prospects, seriously undervalued Berrios, and overvalued Kohl Stewart.  It just makes it hard to trust national writers.  It's not that don't value their opinion at all, but they cast a wide net. That is going to lead to a lot of misses.

Still great to see Twins prospects getting some national attention though.

[ashbury]

I remember Keith Law ranked Engelb Vielma as one of the Twin's top prospects

What are you talking about, he's one of the most sought-after players in the game! From b-r.com:

 

September 14, 2017: Selected off waivers by the San Francisco Giants from the Minnesota Twins.

November 20, 2017: Selected off waivers by the Philadelphia Phillies from the San Francisco Giants.

December 11, 2017: Selected off waivers by the Pittsburgh Pirates from the Philadelphia Phillies.

January 18, 2018: Selected off waivers by the San Francisco Giants from the Pittsburgh Pirates.

January 26, 2018: Traded by the San Francisco Giants to the Baltimore Orioles for player to be named or cash.

 

Just one off-season!

[Seth Stohs]

 

Honestly, I trust the Twins Daily rankings a lot more.  I remember Keith Law ranked Engelb Vielma as one of the Twin's top prospects, seriously undervalued Berrios, and overvalued Kohl Stewart.  It just makes it hard to trust national writers.  It's not that don't value their opinion at all, but they cast a wide net. That is going to lead to a lot of misses.

Still great to see Twins prospects getting some national attention though.

 

I'd say Law was higher on Vielma than most, but he had him appropriately ranked for a guy who will likely spend the next several years moving up and down between AAA and the big leagues. He had him in the low-teens, if I remember. That's about where "we" had him too (We being local types). 

 

Everyone was high on Stewart for awhile... No harm there... Keith does a good job. Baseball America does a good job. John Sickels is good. Especially when you consider they're writing about 20-30-40 guys from 30 organizations... 

 

But, I do feel good about our Twins Daily rankings because I focus on 150 Twins minor leaguers and really don't care much about the rest.  

 

 

[jkcarew]

So, they looked at the first halves of Rooker and Gordon and INCREASED the gap between the two from Rooker +2, to Rooker +6. I get that probably no real difference in expectations from 70 to 100....but that still looks mighty foolish.

[Monkeypaws]

Wow. Hunter Greene is off to less than stellar start:

 

http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?player_id=668881#/career/R/pitching/2018/ALL

 

45 hits and 15 walks in 30 innings pitched in the minors. 42 Ks.

[AZTwin]

Wow. Hunter Greene is off to less than stellar start:

 

http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?player_id=668881#/career/R/pitching/2018/ALL

 

45 hits and 15 walks in 30 innings pitched in the minors. 42 Ks.

Yep. Looks like their Eval was right. Good stuff but more of thrower than pitcher

[diehardtwinsfan]

yeah but sorry, no way Gordon should be below Rooker.

[Mike Sixel]

Honestly, I trust the Twins Daily rankings a lot more. I remember Keith Law ranked Engelb Vielma as one of the Twin's top prospects, seriously undervalued Berrios, and overvalued Kohl Stewart. It just makes it hard to trust national writers. It's not that don't value their opinion at all, but they cast a wide net. That is going to lead to a lot of misses.

Still great to see Twins prospects getting some national attention though.

You trust the Twins' evaluators to rank twins'prospects better against other national prospects?

 

Or just relative to each other?

[Mike Sixel]

Yep. Looks like their Eval was right. Good stuff but more of thrower than pitcher

Whose eval? And we've decided on a first year player being just that, versus, say, giving Buxton more time? I think it is early to decide on anyone drafted last year with any certainty.