Baseball America Top 100 Prospects

Could anyone give me the website? i don't know how to watch.

I actually don't think Xander Bogaerts at #1 is THAT absurd, although we all know it's going to be Buxton at #1. Buxton may be more of an all around talent, but you don't get a much higher offensive ceiling than Bogaerts has. They both play a defensive premium position although Buxton has an edge on defense and has good speed. Depending on how you weight ceiling vs. proximity to the majors I think you could make the argument that Bogaerts should be at #1. Because he has reached the majors and contributed at the top level on the biggest stage last year (after breezing through every other level) while Buxton barely had half a season above low A.

Castellanos is the #20 prospect but I honestly think Middlebrooks is a better overall talent.

LOL, so much for having a shot at 10 or 11. (Workman was eligible for BA, I believe).

Buxton's tools set him apart. It's near universal that he is the most toolsy guy in mlb ( I would think ).

I find the discrepancies between all the different lists to be fascinating, though I wonder if there is an element of the organizations wanting to be unique in their prospect evaluation.  The differences between BP and BA really are amazing though.  BPhad JBJ at 23, ahead of both Almora and Polanco, while BA had JBJ at 50, and Polanco at 10. Maybe I am grossly overestimating the difference between the 50th and 10th ranked prospects, but it just seems like a huge difference to me.  And it crops up all throughout the list.  CJ Edwards at 28 for BA, 81 for BP.

It says a lot about the Red Sox system though that even with the differences in evaluation, they still manage to nab 6-8 spots on every top 100 list, and all are made up of different guys.

Honestly that 40 position gap doesn't matter at all. Meadows is definitely a solid prospect, but Ball is only beginning to focus on pitching full-time, and has a frame with tons of room for growth and development. Even the hundreds of scouts that weighed in on this list cant know, for sure, how Ball will transition into pitching full time. The sky's the limit for him, we could very well see Ball ranked in the top 50 after this season w/ Meadows looming behind. Just looking at last years draft, Lucas Sims (57), Max Fried (53), Lucas Giolito (21) were the 3 ranked HS pitchers from the 2012 1st round.

Here are the To-do comments:

#2 Xander Bogaerts . Seize a starting job in Boston. Whether it’s at shortstop or third base likely depends on Stephen Drew’s status.

#40 Henry Owens . The long, lanky Owens keeps adding strength and needs it to better repeat his delivery and throw more strikes, especially with his offspeed stuff.

#50 Jackie Bradley . Bradley failed his first test when major league pitchers challenged him inside last year. He’ll have to adjust to hard stuff in to replace Jacoby Ellsbury in Fenway’s middle garden.

#73 Blake Swihart . Athletic and still new to catching, Swihart has taken to his defensive responsibilities. Pairing power production with catching every day is the next step.

#74 Garin Cecchini . Cecchini’s polished hitting approach needs few adjustments. His athleticism doesn’t leave him much margin for error, particularly with his defense at third base, so he’ll have to keep at it to avoid a move to left field or first base.

#75 Mookie Betts . Betts showed all five tools last season, including the arm strength to make a move back to shortstop possible. With Dustin Pedroia locked in at the keystone in Boston, Betts should make it a priority.

#88 Allen Webster . Webster’s big league struggles last season likely dented his confidence, but he’ll need to have the conviction to pitch in the strike zone with his plus fastball and changeup when he gets another chance in Boston.

#89 Trey Ball . The Red Sox’s highest draft pick since Trot Nixon, Ball has put away his bat to focus on pitching. Just adopting a routine as a full-time pitcher will lay a strong foundation for the athletic southpaw

A little odd that they do not mention the other central question about Cecchini: hitting the ball over the fence.

As it is, the Red Sox were the only club with 8 players on the list. The Cubs and Pirates had 7, Astros 6, Rangers 5.

Manuel Margot listed as a player who could climb into the top 50 next year: www.baseballamerica.com/minors/future-top-100-prospects/ (sub. req'd)

These guys are ranked in sequential order? Then two more Sox right in a row later?

Clearly, the fact that they are all Red Sox prospects has *some* bearing on their rankings in the top 100. I'm sure Eric's right that on some level, they just wouldn't put someone like Workman into the Top 100 because when you get to the back end of it, it's all pretty subjective and marginal, and there's just no reason to pile in more Sox players in that context. Doesn't mean Workman *should* be there or got robbed, just that he (or Barnes for that matter) could be there just as easily as someone else, and it's understandable for BA to err on the side of including other teams' prospects. And 8 Top 100 is amazing for the Sox ... yay, team.

I think Bradley's underrated, though, (Cecchini, too) and while it's certainly fine to put Buxton as #1, the "bigger gap between 1 and 2 than between 2 and 14" comment is probably just about the grades, and if someone thinks the grades have a 1-to-1 relationship to the value of a prospect, that'd be pretty silly.

In non-Red Sox news, I am very surprised how low Mark Appel (39th) is in the rankings. Especially compared to Gray (12th).