:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/29887577/20140301_lbm_su8_072.0.jpg)
Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counselors there is safety.
-Proverbs 11:14
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. You can view all of the previous lists here. 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 (51 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.
You can also view the 2013 Miami Marlins 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.
Here is a spreadsheet that contains all of the 2014 Miami Marlins top prospect rankings in one place. I have removed Keith Law's as his lists require a subscription, though his list is included in the final tally.
| Rank | FRank | Player | Total | FTo | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Andrew Heaney | 299 | 80 | 4 |
| 2 | 2 | Colin Moran | 279 | 74 | 1st Round |
| 3 | 3 | Jake Marisnick | 272 | 73 | 0 |
| 4 | 4 | Justin Nicolino | 253 | 69 | 0 |
| 5 | 12 | Brian Flynn | 209 | 27 | 22 |
| 7 | 6 | Jose Urena | 205 | 43 | 4 |
| 6 | 8 | Anthony DeSclafani | 206 | 40 | Unranked last year |
| 8 | 5 | Adam Conley | 195 | 58 | 1 |
| 9 | 9 | Avery Romero | 149 | 37 | 3 |
| 11 | 10 | Trevor Williams | 113 | 36 | 2nd Round |
| 10 | 11 | J.T. Realmuto | 121 | 29 | -2 |
| 13 | NA | Colby Suggs | 70 | 2nd Round | |
| 12 | 6 | Jesus Solorzano | 72 | 43 | 4 |
| 14 | 13 | Nick Wittgren | 48 | 11 | Unranked last year |
| 15 | NA | Austin Barnes | 39 | 8 | |
| 15 | NA | Brent Keys | 39 | 8 | |
| 17 | NA | Jarlin Garcia | 22 | Unranked last year | |
| 19 | NA | Sam Dyson | 18 | Waivers, Blue Jays | |
| 18 | NA | Arquimedes Caminero | 21 | Unranked last year | |
| 20 | NA | Austin Brice | 15 | -7 | |
| 22 | NA | K.J. Woods | 9 | 4th Round | |
| 21 | NA | Angel Sanchez | 10 | Ricky Nolasco Trade, Dodgers | |
| 23 | NA | Chad James | 6 | -4 | |
| 24 | NA | Mason Hope | 4 | -6 | |
| 24 | NA | Austin Dean | 4 | Unranked last year | |
| 26 | NA | Grant Dayton | 3 | -1 | |
| 27 | NA | Kolby Copeland | 2 | -10 | |
| 28 | NA | Ryan Newell | 1 | Unranked last year | |
| 28 | NA | Zack Cox | 1 | -13 |
2013 prospects not on 2014 list
Graduated:
Jose Fernandez, #1
Christian Yelich, #2
Marcell Ozuna, #6
Adeiny Hechavarria, #7
Rob Brantly, #10
Derek Dietrich, #14
Tom Koehler, #26
Dropped Off:
Alfredo SIlverio, #20
Noah Perio, #21
Charlie Lowell, #22
Kyle Skipworth, #28
Visual Representation
Here is a chart of the Marlins' top prospects. The error bars represent the minimum and maximum ranking for each prospect.
It appears that clicking the above graphic makes it slightly larger
. . .
Chris St. John is a writer at Beyond The Box Score. You can follow him on Twitter at @stealofhome.