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As we inch closer to pitchers and catchers reporting, the annual prospect lists have been hitting the bookshelves and interwebs.
While the consensus is the Royals system isn't as strong as the past, there is still plenty for the prospect mavens to dissect and rank. We did a community ranking back in October and were followed in short order by FanGraphs, Baseball Prospectus and Baseball America. John Sickels revised his list in January to reflect The Trade and ESPN's Keith Law rolled out his lists this week.
With so much information scattered throughout the landscape, why not compile one mega-list?
Before we get to the list, you should know I went with a weighted total to give the prospects a final rank. Just like we did back in October for our community projection, first place gets 10 points, second place gets nine... You know what I'm talking about.
Obviously, since these lists come out at different times of the winter, some were published before The Trade. I decided to leave the lists "as is" meaning I didn't remove Wil Myers from the BP ranking and slot Kyle Zimmer into the number one position. It wouldn't have affected the final order, just added a few points to everyone's total. I left Myers and Jake Odorizzi at the top of the table, just so you can see where they landed on the lists that were released while they were still with the team.
What follows is a table with all the aforementioned rankings.
|
Prospect |
RR |
BP |
BA |
FG |
Star |
PTP |
MLB |
Sickels |
Law |
Pts |
|
Wil Myers |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Jake Odorizzi |
2 |
6 |
5 |
4 |
4 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Kyle Zimmer |
4 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
5 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
79 |
|
Bubba Starling |
3 |
3 |
3 |
5 |
2 |
3 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
75 |
|
Y. Ventura |
5 |
5 |
4 |
3 |
6 |
4 |
3 |
3 |
3 |
63 |
|
A. Mondesi |
8 |
4 |
7 |
6 |
7 |
2 |
6 |
5 |
5 |
49 |
|
John Lamb |
6 |
^ |
|
12 |
3 |
5 |
5 |
7 |
6 |
34 |
|
Jorge Bonifacio |
10 |
7 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
6 |
8 |
10 |
4 |
33 |
|
Orlando Calixte |
14 |
|
9 |
11 |
15 |
7 |
4 |
8 |
8 |
19 |
|
Sam Selman |
9 |
* |
8 |
8 |
16 |
10 |
12 |
6 |
|
14 |
|
Jason Adam |
12 |
10 |
10 |
9 |
9 |
8 |
11 |
11 |
7 |
13 |
|
Kyle Smith |
7 |
* |
|
10 |
13 |
13 |
15 |
4 |
|
12 |
|
C. Cuthbert |
13 |
8 |
|
15 |
10 |
12 |
9 |
9 |
9 |
10 |
|
Donnie Joseph |
16 |
|
|
|
19 |
15 |
7 |
17 |
|
4 |
|
Miguel Almonte |
19 |
9 |
|
|
20 |
9 |
|
16 |
10 |
5 |
|
Christian Colon |
11 |
^ |
|
^^ |
14 |
11 |
10 |
20 |
|
1 |
|
C. Gallagher |
20 |
|
|
13 |
18 |
16 |
13 |
12 |
|
-- |
|
B. Brickhouse |
17 |
|
|
14 |
25 |
18 |
|
13 |
|
-- |
|
E. Hernandez |
18 |
|
|
|
11 |
14 |
|
14 |
|
-- |
Notes and random musings:
-- There seems to be a solid consensus on the top three.
-- Professor Parks has impure thoughts about Adalberto Mondesi. I had a couple of adult beverages with the professor over All-Star weekend and he couldn't stop raving about Raul's kid.
-- Same for the gang at Pine Tar Press. Three of the four polled rated Mondesi ahead of Bubba Starling.
-- As you would expect from these rankings, after a "set" top three, things get a little less definitive from the fourth spot down.
-- I doubt we see John Lamb in the majors this year, so this season and his continuing recovery from Tommy John will key his prospect ranking for 2014. He has skeptics.
-- Local product Jason Adam has consistent support across the board. Meanwhile, Kyle Smith and Orlando Calixte bounce around on some individual rankings. Both are rated as high as number four and as low as 15.
-- No one is bullish on Christian Colon.
Links
Royals Review
Pine Tar Press
Baseball Prospectus
Baseball America
FanGraphs
Minor League Ball
ESPN
MLB
KC Star