Baseball Prospectus continued the stream of rankings with their annual top 101 prospects in baseball. The list was previously released in the BP Annual but they have put it up on the site free to read. The Phillies have 3 prospects in the rankings with shortstop J.P. Crawford at #36, right handed pitcher Aaron Nola at #60, and third baseman Maikel Franco at #96. I get the rankings on Franco and Nola. Franco has settled in as having a lower ceiling which has affected his ranking on list the more value upside. As for Nola, he is actually the #2 prospect from the 2014 draft on the list behind White Sox LHP Carlos Rodon at #41. This leave’s Nola’s rank as more on an overall ranking style choice.
As for Crawford, I really don’t get this ranking. I think Keith Law’s #7 overall ranking was a bit aggressive, but this is very conservative as Crawford comes in behind a group of players that really puzzles me such as Stephen Piscotty, Jorge Alfaro, AJ Cole, Chi Chi Gonzalez, Raul Mondesi, Jameson Taillon, Aaron Sanchez, and others that I just don’t get. In the Annual itself Crawford is described as marrying an exciting ceiling with a high floor. Overall, for me there is a slight difference from the talent on the field to the reports (but that is fairly subjective), but there is a large disconnect from the reports to the evaluation in relation to other talent.
Stephen Piscotty, Jorge Alfaro, AJ Cole, Chi Chi Gonzalez, Raul Mondesi, Jameson Taillon, Aaron Sanchez…….proximity?
Isnt Raul Mondesi younger and not in high A yet
Yes…entering age-20 season. But his ratings are fairly good across the board.
BA: #47 MLB #38 BP #29…all pre-2014.
So, at this point, he could make the jump sooner then the normal prospect
I thought his last year was a bit down compared to his first year , Im not taking anything away from him but I just dont think he should be above Crawford was what I was getting at
That is what I was alluding to in my first posting on this.
Is BP looking at proximity vs ceiling, since most of the prospects that were mentioned could see the majors this year.
I do think Crawford has a higher ceiling then most of those prospects.
And understand his ETA is probably Sep/2016 or 2017