(Photo by Photo by David Kirouac/Icon Sportswire )
Today marks the unveiling of Pitcherlist’s Prospect Hitter List it is designed to help get you all caught up and informed on MLB prospects for your fantasy baseball leagues. We do apologize for the delay between our positional rankings and the top 150 lists – we encountered some technical difficulties along the way. Although this table is static, we are working toward crafting a fluid Hitter/Pitcher Lists as our leader Nick uses in his Pitcher List. Our goal is now to have that ready by August to demonstrate the shift in rankings month-to-month.
Without further ado, my colleague Adam Garland and I have released our rankings for each position and now present our mid-season top 150 hitters. Tomorrow we will have our Prospect Pitcher List out, ranking the top 150 pitchers in the minor leagues. The rankings are geared toward fantasy baseball and take little consideration of a player’s defensive skillset. If you notice, we also made a slight departure from traditional rankings and kept our rankings separated by hitters and pitchers. We feel that such general comparisons between hitters and pitchers are, at the end of the day, impossible to create comparative values – particularly in the minor leagues. So, to mirror our MLB lists – we have opted to keep the general comparisons between respective positions. If you have a specific valuation you’d like advice on – drop us a line, after all, we’re here for your dynasty. Cheers!
Top 30 Catchers
Top 30 1st Basemen
Top 30 2nd Basemen
Top 30 3rd Basemen
Top 30 Shortstops
Top 25 Outfielders
Top 50 Outfielders
Top 150 Overall Hitters
Top 150 Overall Pitchers
Adam’s Disagreements – July 23rd
Brennen’s Disagreements – July 24th
Missed the Cut:
Braden Bishop, C.J. Chatham, Garrett Cooper, Wander Franco, Victor Victor Mesa, Connor Scott, Jason Martin, Kyler Murray, Jordyn Adams, Brock Detherage, Luis Garcia, Grant Lavigne, Domingo Leyba, Esteban Quiroz, George Valera, Connor Wong, Kristian Robinson, Julio Rodriguez, Ezequiel Duran.
This is awesome guys, nice work! Curious what you guys think of Daz Cameron. He has eight HR and 16 SB on the year between A+/AA and is hitting .302/.362/.552 at AA in 28 games. Just 21 years old, I think he could be a true five-tool guy in a couple of years.
For me, in general, I avoid prospects with high strikeout rates in the low minors. Despite finding success in 2017, Cameron regressed this year. I know Adam views high-strikeout prospects differently than me (Monte Harrison was 50+ places different in our personal rankings) – I’m inclined to think that his batting average right now is inflated by his speed rather than his ability to make contact (27.1% K-rate between A+ and AA). Despite having speed and power – if he can’t make consistent contact, he’ll have an even tougher time as he rises through the majors. His ceililng does has him deserving of a place on this list and is an oversight on our part – but I would not have him too high on it as he fits into a category of high risk/high reward. If he can keep his strikeouts down like in 2017, I think he rises – I’m just skeptical.
I dont shy away from high k guys too much and it works out pretty well. Most of these guys will fail for less predictable reasons but failure is failure. Not a huge fan of daz or anything…
Have to think if you started this a couple weeks later, Wander Franco would be shooting up this. Small sample size but he seems to be the real deal. Also, glad to see Hampson so high. Big fan of his yet he gets no love on prospect lists.
I had Franco at 135 on my personal list. I’m a fan and with a bit more sample size expect him to rise pretty quick as well. The low rank relative to his talent is more relative to his age I would expect.
What are your expectations for Brian Miller fantasy wise in the future? Does he have a position or will he be more utility 4th outfielder?
I have him tentatively as the leadoff hitter for the Marlins, but speed guys are hard to predict – he could just as easily be a fourth outfielder. His speed is among the best in the minors especially when coupled with his consistent .300 batting average. I’d like to see more of him in higher minors before making a more definitive statement. His OBP is only above average, which will limit his effectiveness as a base runner.
66 on Cavan Biggio? Why are people not higher up on this guy? He’s raking in AA and has a very solid k/bb rate.
Biggio is definitely one of the more interesting breakout stories of the year to date! He’s currently slashing .261/.399/.539 with 20 HRs and 11 SBs, and he’s supporting that with a crazy 18.8 walk rate and 26.8% strikeout rate. Overall that’s been worth a 155 wRC+ which ranks 3rd best in the Eastern League among qualified hitters. Some people may not fully buy in due to patience being a skill that doesn’t always translate if there’s not quality contact or power skills along side it. Now I’m a believer in Biggio because his contact skills are actually pretty solid with a roughly average 10.4% swinging-strike rate which suggests that the high K rate is a consequence of the extreme patience. The power is surprisingly what I have some doubts on going forward, and it’s due to a lack of all fields power. His power is pull only, and he’s been selling out for it with a career-high 55.2% pull rate which for reference is higher than anyone in the majors (Jose Ramirez of the Cleveland Indians leads the league with a 54.3% Pull rate). He’s likely to be exposed somewhat at the major league level with a pull rate that high along with a flyball tendency. I think he’s showing enough that he can find success going forward and a career like Brian Dozier of the Minnesota Twins is not out of the question.
His swing reminds me alot of Cody Bellinger and I sure would love to have a prospect of a Dozier caliber on my squad. Great write up Adam. Curious also, do you see Royce Lewis being the top prospect in baseball next year if Vlad and Eloy graduate. Dude is a beast!
I feel like people aren’t higher on him because of the age and level. He is 24 in AA, but does produce some very very professional at bats. Usually for dynasty/keeper leagues, youth is a big factor.
Ryan McMahon isn’t considered a prospect anymore?
No he has exceeded 45 days on the active roster and is over 130 at bats
McMahon does not have over 130 at bats….yet.
McMahon is at exactly 130 AB and has exceeded the active roster limit. We did not consider him a prospect any longer.
McMahon has 114 at bats. Maybe you mean he has 130 plate appearances?
Everything I see has him with 114 at bats too. He does have 15 walks, so they must mean plate appearances.
You seem to have omitted the likely best fantasy position player from this year’s draft.
Madrigal is on there :)
^This guy gets it.
What about Jonathan India?
I had India at #57 – he should have been on this list at #104. When we brought the ranks over from the worksite Adam and I were using, he must have slipped away. Consider him at #104 and next month should have that fixed.
Having him lower than Bohm and Madrigal is pretty bad. Having him that much lower is just awful. Try again guys.
Go somewhere else if you are going to just bitch about free content wtf?
Curious as to why you have Nolan Gorman so much higher than Madrigal, Bohm, and some others that were just drafted. 35 seems like a very aggressive ranking. Don’t get me wrong, I love the kid, but this is super aggressive.
We have Madrigal at #23 and Bohm is at #35 with Gorman at #38. Although I would personally have Gorman above Bohm as I think Gorman’s power will translate immediately.
What are your thoughts on Isaac Paredes? He was promoted to AA Erie yesterday and is on of two teenagers in the league (Vlad Guerrero Jr.)
Tigers fleeced the Cubbies on Justin Wilson :)
I think the Tigers are rushing Paredes and it may come back to bite them. Vlad got rushed because he was hitting the cover off of the ball and over .300 prior to coming to AA. Paredes has been on a hot streak since June 1, but I still think the Tigers should have given him more of the season in A+ before sending him to AA. No complaints on the Tigers-Cubs trade here :)
Agree. Parades is 19, right! Not sure the promotion will hurt him, but I don’t think it was necessary. I’d rather him have finished the year at high A too.
I like that you have McKay so low but would like to hear your reasoning. I have been growing doubts that he’ll be effective as both a hitter and pitcher, with him losing appeal as just a pitcher.
McKay is lower as a batter (and falling) – we will still have him relatively high as a pitcher (although optimistically). I think his future is that of a pitcher and splitting him is hurting his time developing as a pitcher.
Exactly. Not only wont he be a two way impact player but he is using up bullets in that arm. Id be selling at a discount if I owned shares.
Interested to get your take on my keeper situation, given I have Vlad Guerrero Jr in my NA slot. It’s an 8 team 8×8 with R, H, HR, RBI, SB, BB, AVG, OPS, so the batting categories favour power. I get to keep 6 and my players who I’m considering keeping are: Arenado, Freeman, Goldschmidt, Correa, Severino & Nola. I also have Trea Turner, Albies, Kershaw, Acuna and Vlad Guerrero in my NA slot. Would you propose any changes to my keepers?
Turner in for Goldschmidt would be the closest I would come to recommending a change, but with those extra categories, I think you’re right on track.
You’ve got Kevin Kramer listed as a Blue Jays prospect. I do believe he’s actually in the Pirates org. Barring some recent trade I haven’t heard about.
So we did, huh. Thanks for the heads up!
Like the list, just have a few questions. Why are you guys so low on Yusniel Diaz, most rankings have him in the top 40 or so hitting prospects, so 110 is shockingly low. Is it because he likely will not be incredible at one thing, and pretty good at everything? And why so high on Rylan Bannon? He’s putting up solid numbers this year, but the K rate is a bit high, and most outlets only value him as a future utility infielder. Thanks, Josh
I look at where Diaz’ value comes in play. I have him skeptically at #77, but I think most of his value will be from how often he gets on base. In Baltimore, I think his home runs will uptick slightly, but ultimately hit 10-15 home runs and 10 stolen bases. Despite 8 stolen bases on the year, he has been caught stealing 8 times. His upside is apparent, but his risk is higher than his countable numbers may suggest.
As for Bannon, I think few players offer as much power upside as he does. While his k-rate is high, it isn’t absurd like other one-dimensional power prospects (Seuly Matias). I think this will afford him a more palatable batting average and if he can work to improve it like Christin Stewart, could turn into a true power bat in the Majors. Perhaps we are a bit too high on him, but his upside is like few others.
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