Article:Baseball America releases Top 100 Prospects List

Baseball America recently released its list] of the Top 100 Minor League Prospects. There are really no surprises as far as I can tell, maybe some players ranked lower than expected, while some are not ranked at all. BA offered some interesting breakdowns of the list, which I'll share for you.

There are 23 outfielders listed, with three leftfielders, Fernando Martinez, Matt LaPorta and Brandon Jones, twelve centerfielders and seven rightfielders. The Brewers have recently moved LaPorta to rightfield, since the list was published first I'll keep him in left. In the infield, there are nine thirdbaseman, five shortstops, eight first baseman and just two second baseman, Matt Antonelli and Adrian Cardenas. Position changes abound here as well, although most are temporary at best. The Padres have experimented with Chase Headley in left field, where he will start the season, but will remain for only as long as it takes the Pads to move Kevin Kouzmanoff. I watched a Padres "B" game the other day in which Matt Antonelli played center. Drafted as shortstops originally, Carlos Triunfel, Jed Lowrie and Mike Moustakas all should make the move to third before reaching Triple A. Listed here as a firstbaseman, Steve Pearce is playing rightfield in Florida, with Angel Villalona expected to move from third to first eventually.

The battery has seven catchers, thirty-four righthanded starters, 12 lefty starters and three relievers, Max Scherzer, Tim Alderson and Chris Perez.

From an organizational standpoint, both the Tampa Bay Rays and Boston Red Sox have seven players each listed, with seven teams each having five. On the bottom end of the spectrum, the Blue Jays, Astros, Tigers and Mets each have one player, and the lowly Chicago White Sox being the only team without a representation.

Showing possibly how overrated the college game is, forty-six of the players were high school draftees, with 25 coming from the college ranks. Also showing importance is draft position, with 49% being either first round or first round supplemental picks.

For the first time in its history, the staff at BA used a ballot system instead of taking the players directly from the individual prospect rankings. BA Editor in Chief Will Lingo, along with staffers John Manuel, Jim Callis and Chris Kline submitted ballots with 150 names each, with the highest vote total and ranks indicating the final placement. Among the list of players from 101-150 who received the required four votes but not a high enough average to be listed were Brian Barton, Wladimir Balentien, Madison Baumgarner, Michael Burgess, Trevor Cahill, Brett Cecil, Jose Ceda, Hiroki Kuroda, Brent Lillibridge, Michael Main, Kevin Mulvey, Aaron Poreda, and Wilson Ramos.