2014 Consensus Top 160 Prospects

Finally, it's consensus top prospect time -- my favorite time of the year. What's better than a top 100 prospect list? Twenty of them! Every time a player appears on a list, he is given 151 minus his ranking number of points (A ranking of No. 1 gives 150 points). All of the points are added up and the player with the highest total is ranked at the top. The reason I do this instead of taking the average ranking is very simple: It's better. Take Braden Shipley for example. He appears on eight lists with an average ranking of 54. However, his total points ranking is 69. We must take into account the fact that not all players are ranked by all lists, so an average ranking is misleading.

This year, for the first time, I have split the list into two - regular and fantasy. Each type of list focuses on different parts of a player and they should be separate. Thankfully, there are enough types of each lists to make this worthwhile. I found 11 regular lists and nine fantasy lists.

Unfortunately, not all lists have the same criteria and as a result, many did not rank Masahiro Tanaka, Jose Abreu, or Carlos Martinez. Kiley McDaniel at Scout went one further and didn't rank any prospect with a good shot at a major league job. In order to keep a good ranking system, I placed the average of each of these player's rankings from the other lists in those empty slots. This is how Tanaka placed as the number five prospect, even though he was only ranked on seven of the 20 lists. Alex Guerrero and Miguel Gonzalez were in a different category and were not even ranked by all lists where they were eligible. I did not include any extra rankings for them.

Here is a spreadsheet with all lists together (excluding Keith Law's as his listing is for ESPN insiders only). In the list below, I put 200 (NA) for those players unranked in each type of list. This was in order to make the sorting work for each column.

Regular Lists

Baseball America

Baseball Haven

Baseball Prospectus

Bleacher Report

Fangraphs (Marc Hulet)

John Sickels (Minor League Ball) (I used Sickels' end of season update list as he has yet to put out an offseason one.)

Keith Law (ESPN)

Major League Baseball (Jonathan Mayo)

MLB Draft Insider

MLB Prospect Guide (I only took the top 100 from this top 300 list)

Prospect Digest

Scout

Fantasy Lists

CBS Sports

David Gonos

Deep Leagues

Dynasty Sports Empire

Fantasy Assembly

Fantasy Squads

Prospect 361

Rotoanalysis

The List

Rank	FRank	Player	POS	Team
1	1	Byron Buxton	OF	MIN
2	2	Xander Bogaerts	SS	BOS
3	3	Oscar Taveras	OF	STL
4	10	Carlos Correa	SS	HOU
5	5	Masahiro Tanaka	P	NYY
6	7	Javier Baez	SS	CHC
7	7	Archie Bradley	P	ARI
8	6	Miguel Sano	3B	MIN
8	15	Francisco Lindor	SS	CLE
10	9	Addison Russell	SS	OAK
11	4	Taijuan Walker	P	SEA
12	12	Kris Bryant	3B	CHC
13	20	Gregory Polanco	OF	PIT
14	21	Jonathan Gray	P	COL
15	14	Noah Syndergaard	P	NYM
16	18	Kevin Gausman	P	BAL
17	31	Dylan Bundy	P	BAL
18	16	Robert Stephenson	P	CIN
19	11	George Springer	OF	HOU
19	35	Lucas Giolito	P	WAS
21	44	Albert Almora	OF	CHC
22	22	Mark Appel	P	HOU
23	13	Jameson Taillon	P	PIT
24	19	Kyle Zimmer	P	KAN
25	17	Nick Castellanos	OF	DET
26	25	Carlos Martinez	P	STL
27	33	Eddie Butler	P	COL
28	23	Jose Abreu	1B	CHW
29	40	Austin Hedges	C	SDP
30	24	Yordano Ventura	P	KAN
31	29	Travis d'Arnaud	C	NYM
32	45	Corey Seager	SS	LAD
33	49	Tyler Glasnow	P	PIT
34	42	Andrew Heaney	P	MIA
35	26	Jorge Soler	OF	CHC
36	47	Raul Mondesi	SS	KAN
37	27	Clint Frazier	OF	CLE
38	37	Aaron Sanchez	P	TOR
39	38	Alex Meyer	P	MIN
40	36	Jackie Bradley	OF	BOS
41	28	Maikel Franco	3B	PHI
42	50	Matt Wisler	P	SDP
43	55	Marcus Stroman	P	TOR
43	56	Max Fried	P	SDP
45	34	Joc Pederson	OF	LAD
46	46	Julio Urias	P	LAD
47	51	Austin Meadows	OF	PIT
48	54	Henry Owens	P	BOS
49	39	Kyle Crick	P	SFO
49	52	Lucas Sims	P	ATL
51	48	Kohl Stewart	P	MIN
52	41	Rougned Odor	2B	TEX
53	32	Billy Hamilton	OF	CIN
54	53	Garin Cecchini	3B	BOS
55	58	Mike Foltynewicz	P	HOU
56	64	Jorge Alfaro	C	TEX
57	60	Colin Moran	3B	MIA
58	70	C.J. Edwards	P	CHC
59	57	Gary Sanchez	C	NYY
60	43	Kolten Wong	2B	STL
61	96	Eduardo Rodriguez	P	BAL
62	30	Jonathan Singleton	1B	HOU
63	73	Erik Johnson	P	CHW
64	83	Chris Owings	SS	ARI
65	77	David Dahl	OF	COL
66	67	A.J. Cole	P	WAS
66	104	Blake Swihart	C	BOS
68	76	Hunter Harvey	P	BAL
69	82	Braden Shipley	P	ARI
70	90	Zach Lee	P	LAD
71	61	Arismendy Alcantara	SS	CHC
72	84	J.P. Crawford	SS	PHI
73	66	Jesse Biddle	P	PHI
74	68	Alen Hanson	SS	PIT
75	80	Eddie Rosario	OF	MIN
76	95	Stephen Piscotty	OF	STL
77	91	Matt Davidson	3B	CHW
78	59	Jake Odorizzi	P	TAM
79	74	Miguel Almonte	P	KAN
80	62	D.J. Peterson	3B	SEA
81	63	Rafael Montero	P	NYM
82	94	Dominic Smith	1B	NYM
83	69	Jake Marisnick	OF	MIA
84	78	Mookie Betts	2B	BOS
85	103	Reese McGuire	C	PIT
86	109	Christian Bethancourt	C	ATL
87	124	Nick Kingham	P	PIT
88	81	Jonathan Schoop	3B	BAL
89	93	Matt Barnes	P	BOS
90	71	Lance McCullers	P	HOU
91	65	James Paxton	P	SEA
91	89	Phillip Ervin	OF	CIN
93	120	Hak-Ju Lee	SS	TAM
94	72	Allen Webster	P	BOS
95	106	Rosell Herrera	SS	COL
96	110	Trevor Bauer	P	CLE
97	75	Taylor Guerrieri	P	TAM
98	88	Brian Goodwin	OF	WAS
99	200 (NA)	Pierce Johnson	P	CHC
100	86	Josh Bell	OF	PIT
101	113	Jorge Bonifacio	OF	KAN
102	122	Edwin Escobar	P	SFO
103	91	Joey Gallo	3B	TEX
104	130	Enny Romero	P	TAM
105	108	Delino DeShields	2B	HOU
106	123	Sean Manaea	P	KAN
107	125	Trey Ball	P	BOS
108	133	Justin Nicolino	P	MIA
109	98	Nick Williams	OF	TEX
110	200 (NA)	Rob Kaminsky	P	STL
111	101	Michael Choice	OF	TEX
112	116	Luis Sardinas	SS	TEX
113	118	Jose Berrios	P	MIN
114	128	Alex Gonzalez	P	TEX
115	137	Jimmy Nelson	P	MIL
116	126	Mason Williams	OF	NYY
117	200 (NA)	Alberto Tirado	P	TOR
118	166	Alex Colome	P	TAM
119	135	Roberto Osuna	P	TOR
120	200 (NA)	Wilmer Flores	3B	NYM
121	85	Josmil Pinto	C	MIN
122	117	Dan Vogelbach	1B	CHC
123	99	Bubba Starling	OF	KAN
124	153	Tim Anderson	OF	CHW
125	200 (NA)	Chris Anderson	P	LAD
126	153	Vincent Velasquez	P	HOU
127	107	Anthony Ranaudo	P	BOS
128	136	Tyler Austin	OF	NYY
129	162	Hunter Dozier	3B	KAN
130	97	Clayton Blackburn	P	SFO
131	119	Hunter Renfroe	OF	SDP
132	155	Casey Kelly	P	SDP
133	87	Taylor Lindsey	2B	LAA
133	200 (NA)	Nick Ciuffo	C	TAM
135	146	Lewis Thorpe	P	MIN
136	112	Raimel Tapia	OF	COL
136	150	Tyrone Taylor	OF	MIL
138	200 (NA)	Alexander Reyes	P	STL
139	200 (NA)	Carlos Sanchez	2B	CHW
140	145	Jose Peraza	SS	ATL
141	200 (NA)	Manny Banuelos	P	NYY
142	102	Jesse Winker	OF	CIN
143	200 (NA)	Justin Williams	OF	ARI
144	143	Slade Heathcott	OF	NYY
145	200 (NA)	Franchy Cordero	SS	SDP
146	150	Devon Travis	2B	DET
146	161	Victor Sanchez	P	SEA
148	160	Luiz Gohara	P	SEA
149	200 (NA)	Ian Clarkin	P	NYY
150	127	Marcus Semien	2B	CHW
150	200 (NA)	Tommy Joseph	C	PHI
150	200 (NA)	Mauricio Cabrera	P	ATL
153	200 (NA)	Brandon Nimmo	OF	NYM
154	200 (NA)	Jesse Hahn	P	TAM
155	141	Mike Olt	3B	CHC
155	200 (NA)	Andrew Susac	C	SFO
157	139	Robbie Ray	P	DET
157	157	Dorssys Paulino	SS	CLE
159	200 (NA)	Jose Ramirez	P	NYY
160	163	Daniel Norris	P	TOR
160	200 (NA)	Mitch Nay	3B	TOR
200 (NA)	79	Alex Guerrero	2B	LAD
200 (NA)	100	Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez	P	PHI
200 (NA)	105	Rymer Liriano	OF	SDP
200 (NA)	111	Danny Hultzen	P	SEA
200 (NA)	114	Jake Thompson	P	DET
200 (NA)	115	J.R. Graham	P	ATL
200 (NA)	121	Gregory Bird	1B	NYY
200 (NA)	129	Luke Jackson	P	TEX
200 (NA)	130	Domingo Santana	OF	HOU
200 (NA)	130	Henry Urrutia	OF	BAL
200 (NA)	133	Amed Rosario	SS	NYM
200 (NA)	138	C.J. Cron	1B	LAA
200 (NA)	140	Severino Gonzalez	P	PHI
200 (NA)	141	Franmil Reyes	OF	SDP
200 (NA)	143	Joshua Sale	OF	TAM
200 (NA)	146	D.J. Davis	OF	TOR
200 (NA)	148	Alec Asher	P	TEX
200 (NA)	149	Kaleb Cowart	3B	LAA
200 (NA)	152	Nick Delmonico	1B	MIL
200 (NA)	155	Kyle Parker	OF	COL
200 (NA)	158	Franklin Barreto	OF	TOR
200 (NA)	158	Ryan McMahon	3B	COL
200 (NA)	164	Cesar Puello	OF	NYM
200 (NA)	165	Marco Gonzalez	P	STL
200 (NA)	167	Michael Ynoa	P	OAK
200 (NA)	168	Lewis Brinson	OF	TEX
200 (NA)	169	Cody Anderson	P	CLE
200 (NA)	170	Eric Jagielo	3B	NYY
200 (NA)	171	Cory Spangenberg	2B	SDP

Prospects by team

Just for good measure, here is a table with the number of prospects per team. I have also included the total number of ranking points for all of the prospects on each team. Ranking by descending total gives a fairly good measure of organizational strength. (Cubs, Red Sox, Pirates, Astros, Twins at the top and Giants, Athletics, Tigers, Brewers, Angels at the bottom.)

Team	Players	Total
ARI	4	3326
ATL	5	1840
BAL	6	5213
BOS	10	7868
CHC	9	8165
CHW	6	3232
CIN	4	3079
CLE	5	3286
COL	7	4295
DET	4	1508
HOU	9	7438
KAN	8	5558
LAA	3	122
LAD	6	4494
MIA	4	3164
MIL	3	350
MIN	8	6754
NYM	8	4248
NYY	10	3261
OAK	2	1565
PHI	6	2702
PIT	8	7479
SDP	9	3988
SEA	6	2778
SFO	4	1649
STL	7	4989
TAM	8	2215
TEX	10	3495
TOR	8	2885
WAS	3	2689

. . .

Chris St. John is a writer at Beyond The Box Score. You can follow him on Twitter at @stealofhome.