The third of the “big 3” scouting/prospect ranking shops (BA, Fangraphs, and MLBpipeline) updated and published its system top 30s this week, so following on similar analysis with the other two shops published, I thought i’d put out a review. So, here’s a look at how Mayo/Callis and the team at the MLB Pipeline shop viewed our draft haul, along with some tweaks they made while they had our system cracked open this month.
Click here for the updated list. Top 30+ list is in a table below.
| Rank | First Name | Last Name | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eli | Willits | SS |
| 2 | Travis | Sykora | RHP (Starter) |
| 3 | Jarlin | Susana | RHP (Starter) |
| 4 | Luke | Dickerson | SS/CF |
| 5 | Alex | Clemmey | LHP (Starter) |
| 6 | Landon | Harmon | RHP |
| 7 | Seaver | King | SS |
| 8 | Ethan | Petry | 1B/OF |
| 9 | Coy | James | SS |
| 10 | Cade | Cavalli | RHP (Starter) |
| 11 | Jake | Bennett | LHP (Starter) |
| 12 | Caleb | Lomavita | C |
| 13 | Robert | Hassell III | OF (CF) |
| 14 | Christian | Franklin | OF (CF) |
| 15 | Angel | Feliz | 3B/SS |
| 16 | Sean Paul | Linan | RHP (Starter) |
| 17 | Miguel | Sime Jr. | RHP |
| 18 | Ronny | Cruz | SS |
| 19 | Eriq | Swan | RHP (Starter) |
| 20 | Yohandy | Morales | 3B |
| 21 | Jackson | Kent | LHP (Starter) |
| 22 | Andry | Lara | RHP (Starter) |
| 23 | Yoel | Tejeda Jr. | RHP (Starter) |
| 24 | Brayan | Cortesia | SS |
| 25 | Daniel | Hernandez | C |
| 26 | Sam | Peterson | OF (CF) |
| 27 | Cristian | Vaquero | OF (CF) |
| 28 | Marconi | German | SS |
| 29 | Randall | Josh | RHP (Starter) |
| 30 | Tyler | Stuart | RHP (Starter) |
| 31 | Victor | Hurtado | OF |
| 32 | Beeter | Clayton | RHP (Reliever) |
| 33 | Cayden | Wallace | 2B/3B |
| 34 | Kevin | Bazzell | C/3B |
| 35 | Kevin | Made | SS |
| 36 | Sir Jamison | Jones | CA |
| 37 | Marquis | Grissom | RHP (Reliever) |
| 38 | Elijah | Green | OF (CF) |
| 39 | Andrew | Pinckney | OF (Corner) |
| 40 | Orlando | Ribalta | RHP (reliever) |
Wait, you said MLB top 30; why are there 40 names on this list? Well, because between the draft and the trade deadline we managed to add 10 players to our top 30 list (plus an 11th who now sits in the mid 30s), and I just tacked on the next 10 players who used to be ranked a month ago to get our “top 40” instead of the top 30.
I suppose the biggest point here is this: we added 10-11 names to our top 30 prospect list within a couple weeks of each other, replacing 7-8 names who we’ve graduated this year, which is great news. Not all of these guys are going to pan out, but they’re ranked higher than the names we used to have in these spots for exactly one reason: they’re better players. If we “hit” on these 2025 draft picks in particular, we may be sitting pretty at some point soon.
The MLBpipeline team didn’t do a ton of fiddling around with the existing players ranked in the top 20 (so, for example, no dropping Sykora based on new TJ news), but in the 20-30 range we did see some movement up or down, which I’ll highlight below.
So, here’s some commentary, mostly on the 10-11 new guys:
- First, a quick overview of the prospects who have graduated this year: in rough order of where they were ranked: Crews, House, Lile, Lord, Henry, Rutledge. And we’re darn close on Hassell and Ribalta. So, not a bad year for “using” the farm system.
- Willits enters our system as its #1 ranked prospect, immediately supplanting both Sykora and Susana. Would I have ranked him above a healthy Sykora? No. But this is pretty consistent with where other shops are putting Willits. Fangraphs had him below both Sykora and Susana, others all have him starting #1 for us.
- Here’s where Willits is being ranked in the entire minors before he plays a game: MLBPipeline #18, Baseball America #30, Fangraphs #44, Keith Law #48. So, yeah this is a big-time prospect.
- 2025 Draftees Harmon (3rd rounder), Petry (2nd rounder) and James (5th rounder) all pop into our top 10 list as a starting point. This is more aggressive than where BA or Fangraphs put these other three guys. The final 2025 draftee getting a $2M bonus was NYC hurler Sime, coming in at #17.
- Our Trade deadline netted us 10 prospects, six of which appear in the top 30-35 range on MLB’s list. The highest ranking is AAA OF Christian Franklin, who comes in at #14 in the system.
- Linan, Cruz, and Swan all pop in to our rankings in the 16-19 range as a starter.
- Kent got moved up roughly 8 spots in the new rankings, a nod to his decent pro debut in High-A.
- The team moved up Brayan Cortesia a few spots to account for his .327/.447/.374 line in the DSL as of this writing.
- Sam Peterson is starting to get some notice, sitting #26 now, but with the influx of players below him this indicates a roughly 12-13 spot rise this year.
- Vaquero’s .914 OPS month has bought him some prospect love: he still sits in the low 20s but has maintained that spot with all the acquisitions.
- A debut for DSL star Marconi German, who has 8 homers and 26 SBs in 47 DSL games this year.
- Tyler Stuart takes a dive; he was #15 a few weeks ago, got TJ surgery, now he’s #30.
In the 31-40 range i just tacked on players who were in the top 30 before all the trade and draft acquisitions, but who are now moved out. Here’s some notables:
- Hurtado now at #31; the $2.8M signing is being outshined by Marconi and Cortesia as he repeats DSL.
- the final trade acquisition who was ranked at all is Better, showing up now at #32 after getting pushed down by our 5 draftees.
- Cayden Wallace, who I ranked #7 pre-season, now is #33 on this list. Phew.
- Kevin Bazzell, who we drafted last year to some promise, has done so little this year that he’s now out of the top 30.
- Elijah Green now sits at #38 on this list.
- Is Andrew Pinckney “only” the 39th best prospect in the system? A 24yr old in his second AAA season, who can play CF and might finish the season with 20 homers? What am I missing here?