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Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellers there is safety.
-Proverbs 11:14, King James Version
Prospect lists are a tricky animal. Every prospect guru has his or her own biases, favorite prospects, sources, and philosophy, leading to quite a variety in the placement of specific players on his or her list. I like making lists and I like prospects, but I'm no scout and I have no inside connections, so my list wouldn't hold any particular weight. Instead of spending loads of time ranking the players with my own biases, I decided a few years ago to instead assemble a consensus list for each team (View last year's rankings). Hopefully this will bring safety from a multitude of counselors.
How do I do this? Each time a prospect appears on a list, he gets a number of points (32 minus his ranking). The prospect with the largest amount of points is ranked first.
This year, I made a few changes to the list. First off, I included as many lists as I could possibly find. This includes list from team-specific sites, not just from sites that post a list for every team. Second, I created a separate list for fantasy rankings. Fantasy baseball sites rank their prospects with a different flavor and so there are two rankings: one for real baseball and one for fantasy. Finally, I've included an interactive graphic to manipulate the list in various ways. Enjoy!
You can also view the 2013 Chicago Cubs top prospect list.
Sources
Regular Lists
Minor League Ball (John Sickels)
Fantasy Lists
The List
The "Change" column describes how the prospect’s status changed from 2013. A positive number means the prospect moved up in the list, while a negative number means he moved down.
| Rank | FRank | Player | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Javier Baez | - |
| 2 | 2 | Kris Bryant | 1st Round |
| 3 | 5 | Albert Almora | -1 |
| 4 | 3 | Jorge Soler | -1 |
| 5 | 6 | C.J. Edwards | Matt Garza trade, Rangers |
| 6 | 4 | Arismendy Alcantara | 8 |
| 7 | 8 | Pierce Johnson | - |
| 8 | 7 | Dan Vogelbach | -3 |
| 9 | 10 | Jeimer Candelario | 2 |
| 10 | 11 | Arodys Vizcaino | -6 |
| 11 | 8 | Mike Olt | Matt Garza trade, Rangers |
| 12 | NA | Christian Villanueva | -4 |
| 13 | NA | Kyle Hendricks | Unranked last year |
| 14 | NA | Rob Zastryzny | 2nd Round |
| 15 | NA | Paul Blackburn | 2 |
| 16 | NA | Eloy Jimenez | Dominican IFA |
| 17 | NA | Matt Szczur | -8 |
| 18 | NA | Neil Ramirez | Matt Garza trade, Rangers |
| 19 | NA | Corey Black | Alfonso Soriano trade, Yankees |
| 20 | NA | Duane Underwood | -9 |
| 21 | NA | Alberto Cabrera | 7 |
| 21 | NA | Dillon Maples | -11 |
| 23 | NA | Ivan Pineyro | Scott Hairston trade, Nationals |
| 24 | NA | Tyler Skulina | 4th Round |
| 25 | NA | Gioskar Amaya | -9 |
| 26 | NA | Scott Frazier | 6th Round |
| 27 | NA | Trey Masek | 5th Round |
| 28 | NA | Josh Vitters | -13 |
| 28 | NA | Jacob Hanneman | 3rd Round |
| 30 | NA | Brett Jackson | -24 |
| 31 | NA | Dallas Beeler | Unranked last year |
| 32 | NA | Jen-Ho Tseng | Taiwanese IFA |
| 33 | NA | Daury Torrez | Unranked last year |
| 34 | NA | Erick Leal | Tony Campana trade, Dbacks |
| 34 | NA | Shawon Dunston Jr. | Unranked last year |
| 34 | NA | Gleybar Torres | Venezuelan IFA |
| 37 | NA | Marco Hernandez | -19 |
| 38 | NA | Kevin Encarnacion | Unranked last year |
| 39 | NA | Rubi Silva | Unranked last year |
| 39 | NA | Kyuji Fujikawa | -21 |
| 41 | NA | Yasiel Balaguert | Unranked last year |
| 42 | NA | Armando Rivero | Cuban IFA |
| 42 | NA | Barret Loux | -21 |
| 42 | NA | Juan Carlos Paniagua | -22 |
| 45 | NA | Willson Contreras | Unranked last year |
| 46 | NA | Zach Cates | Unranked last year |
| 46 | NA | John Andreoli | Unranked last year |
| 48 | NA | Zach Rosscup | Unranked last year |
| 48 | NA | Ben Wells | -21 |
| 50 | NA | Danny Lockhart | Unranked last year |
| 51 | NA | Dustin Geiger | Unranked last year |
Here is a spreadsheet that contains all of the 2014 Chicago Cubs top prospect rankings in one place. I have removed Keith Law's as his lists require a subscription.
2013 prospects not on 2014 list
Graduated:
Junior Lake, #13
Claimed off waivers:
Robert Whitenack, #23
Dropped off:
Jae-Hoon Ha, #22
Trey McNutt, #24
Luis Acosta, #24
Trey Martin, #24
Jeffery Baez, #29
Tim Saunders, #30
The vizualization
Enjoy!
. . .
Chris St. John is a writer at Beyond The Box Score. You can follow him on Twitter at @stealofhome.
