2/26/2008

Baseball America Top 100 Released Today

No Big Surprises, But a Few Hmmms.....

Baseball America, granddaddy of all ranking systems, has released its 2008 Top 100 list, and we've added this data to our individual, list, and grid displays today. You can now compare six major ranking systems alongside our own predictions.
   

Baseball America, granddaddy of all ranking systems, has released its 2008 Top 100 list, and we've added this data today.

Baseball America was one of the very first publications to produce a "Top 100" list, and in many ways it's the reason you're reading these words today. Every other ranking list owes a debt of gratitude to the folks at BA for starting a trend.

While BA's list has fallen into disfavor among some enthusiasts (they publish very late, after everyone else has already released their data, and some say they undervalue older prospects who are ready to contribute sooner), it's still an important touchstone, and the day the BA100 list is released is a calendar event in many households and fantasy leagues.

This year's BA list contains very few surprises. The top 10 matches, almost spot for spot, the consensus rankings of every other publication.

Among the few significant differences: At #15 overall, BA ranks Jacob McGee much higher than any other prospect list (other than ours, which had him at 16 yesterday). They also put Elvis Andrus significantly higher than other publications (16, compared to the 40's and 50's of the consensus view), likely because of his glovework. Adam Miller, a top 10 prospect according to the Sporting News and MLB.com, barely cracks the top 30 with Baseball America.

BA likes Joey Votto and righthander Eric Hurley a whole lot less than others do, though they do show a fonder-than-average preference for Phillippe Aumont, Tim Alderson, Colin Balester and Beau Mills. They don't see any value in any Japanese players other than Fukudome (#38)... Dodger Hiroki Kuroda, most remarkably, is not on the BA list at all. Nor are Wladimir Balentien, Josh Anderson, Will Inman or Joey Devine, though all of these players receive high praise in Baseball America's print version.

Their list ends with #100 Drew Stubbs, a Cincinnati outfielder who doesn't appear on most other lists at all, though we've had him in the mid-150's for some time now.

In all, while the Baseball America list might not be the rare treasure it was before the Internet Age, it's still an excellent guide and sanity-check for those of us who like to compare many different rankings and perspectives.

The BA list is available free on their website here. We've also added their data to our individual player pages and our comparison machine, Scouting Book's Prospect Matrix.
   

< Scouting Book Home