The following listing is our ranking of our Top Prospects. It includes some players that are currently
in the major leagues, but with short tenures. Many of those players will probably be purged from
the list as soon as we become more confident that they're not in danger of being sent back down to
the minors. You can sort on our list by rank, by player, by position, or by age. "Rank" is overall MLB rank
for that prospect.
Players who have exceeded rookie qualifications (130 at-bats, 50 innings) are not included. Players dropped from the list for this reason include: Eric Hosmer, Wilson Ramos and others.
1. I tilt more toward fantasy potential than MLB potential (and, yes, there is a difference)
2. I take positional history into play (please refer to last month's column for explanation)
3. I give those who have played in full-season leagues preference over players with only short-season league history and discount recent draftees that have not yet played in the minors.
4. I do not rank import players.
5. I do not consider college players prospects until they are signed with their major league organization and start producing in the minors. Sorry, no Anthony Rendon here.
6. I do not consider relievers top 100 prospects because nearly all of them need to fail as starting prospects first.
7. I do not rank anyone that has already hit the majors this year as I am assuming that someone in your league has grabbed them on the waiver wire.
To expand upon point seven, 16 of the 100 players that John ranked before the season started have already made their major league debut this season and I expect that by the time we revisit my list this time next month, another 7-8 guys will have made their debut as we will be near the floating Super Two deadline at that time.
Without further delay, here is my latest Top 100 list. I plan on updating this the first Tuesday of each month for the rest of the season but please feel free to use the comments section to ask questions in between time.
Last update: 1/20/2012
* Any player who wouldn't qualify for rookie of the year (i.e. too much major league service time) isn't included.
SAMPLE LIMITED TO TOP 10 - Click here to subcribe now to see the full 100+ player list of fantasy baseball minor league prospects.
