We seem to have saved the weirdest list for last. While all other pundits release their “pre-season” prospect lists before the actual season starts, Fangraphs and Eric Longenhagen waited until nearly the All Star break to release their list, the 29th of the 30 lists to get published (only Houston remains).
So, what does this list represent? Does it represent the state of our prospects before the season started and before we saw leaps forward from the likes of Lord, or Henry, or Sykora? Or, does it represent where these players sat in terms of reputation before a pitch was thrown? Honestly, its hard to gauge, based on this list, since on the one hand it still has Crews at #1, but on the other it clearly takes into account 2025 performance in some cases already (for example, having Dickerson at #6 when he ranked him #27 at the same time last year or ranking Henry in the top 10).
So, I’m not sure how to critique this list honestly.
Here’s the top 39:
| Rank | Last Name | First Name | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dylan | Crews | OF (CF) |
| 2 | Travis | Sykora | RHP (Starter) |
| 3 | Jarlin | Susana | RHP (Starter) |
| 4 | Brady | House | SS/3B |
| 5 | Daylen | Lile | OF (CF) |
| 6 | Luke | Dickerson | SS/CF |
| 7 | Seaver | King | SS |
| 8 | Cade | Cavalli | RHP (Starter) |
| 9 | Jake | Bennett | LHP (Starter) |
| 10 | Cole | Henry | RHP (Starter) |
| 11 | Caleb | Lomavita | C |
| 12 | Alex | Clemmey | LHP (Starter) |
| 13 | Daniel | Hernandez | C |
| 14 | Yoel | Tejada Jr. | RHP (Starter) |
| 15 | Victor | Hurtado | OF |
| 16 | Cristian | Vaquero | OF (CF) |
| 17 | Robert | Hassell III | OF (CF) |
| 18 | Kevin | Bazzell | C/3B |
| 19 | Andry | Lara | RHP (Starter) |
| 20 | Tyler | Stuart | RHP (Starter) |
| 21 | Jackson | Kent | LHP (Starter) |
| 22 | Dashyll | Tejeda | OF (CF) |
| 23 | Marconi | German | SS |
| 24 | Zach | Brzykcy | RHP (Reliever) |
| 25 | Orlando | Ribalta | RHP (reliever) |
| 26 | Jackson | Rutledge | RHP (Starter) |
| 27 | Kevin | Made | SS |
| 28 | Sir Jamison | Jones | CA |
| 29 | Angel | Feliz | 3B/SS |
| 30 | Brayan | Cortesia | SS |
| 31 | Brad | Lord | RHP (Starter) |
| 32 | Darren | Baker | 2B |
| 33 | Marquis | Grissom | RHP (Reliever) |
| 34 | Yohandy | Morales | 3B |
| 35 | Jorgelys | Mota | SS |
| 36 | Cornelio | Riley | RHP (Starter) |
| 37 | Erick | Mejia | RHP |
| 38 | Jose | Feliz | RHP (Starter) |
| 39 | Carlos | Tavares | OF |
Here’s some thoughts.
- Crews still at 1-1, despite exhausting any semblance of rookie eligibility about a week into the 2025 season.
- 2-3-4 as expected. Susana not dinged for the “TJ-sounding” injury he seems to have, which would probably impact his lofty ranking otherwise and, based on the wholesale dumping of other prospects who got hurt, doesn’t seem to make any sense.
- Dickerson at #6, as he should now and going forward. Which .. ok did they take into account his hot start or was this pre-season ranking? Last year, Dickerson was #27 on this list. So there’s your answer.
- Cole Henry all the way up to #10. Clearly this takes into account his sudden ability to get MLB batters out in the bullpen. Last year: not ranked, meaning he was in the upper 30s at best.
- Clemmey is “only” at #12, which I find kind of ridiculous. I mean, what more do you want the kid to do? He literally just turned 20, has put up two straight months of sub 2.00 ERA, and seems likely to get promoted to AA before the season is out. And he’s behind a pitcher in Bennett who’s four years older and who can’t seem to throw more than 3 innings at a time right now?
- Daniel Hernandez at #13 is super bullish. And now is as good of a time as any to point out the “flaws” in the Fangraphs FV system and how it ranks prospects. Longenhagen’s system basically values ceiling with a significant downgrading of the floor. So, you see a guy like Hernandez, who just turned 17 and who is currently slashing .208/.269/.264 as a catcher in the DSL (he’s caught about half the games, DH’d the other half) ranked nearly in the top 10 but players like Andrew Alvarez and Andrew Pinckney, who are in AAA right now producing, are not even in his top 39. Hernandez at #13 is asinine. Putting him inside the top 20 is nearly as dumb. I had him #37 before the season started, and he’s likely falling 20-30 spots the next time I do the ranks.
- Vaquero at #16. What exactly has this guy done to have him ranked that high at this point in his career, besides get a $4.9M bonus?
- Hassell dumped down to #17 in a season where he forced a promotion to the majors and where he’s got a 1.000 OPS in AAA … one spot ahead of Bazzell at #18, who’s hitting like .150 in A-ball. Make it make sense.
- A first time mention for one German Marconi. A 2025 IFA signing for a reasonable $400k in January, he’s got a pretty impressive slash line right now in DSL: .269/.491/.513 for an OPS north of 1.000. He’s got 24 walks and 17 strikeouts; that’s unheard of. This is the first time I’ve seen him on any prospect lists, and clearly he’s one to watch.
- Longenhagen’s system also overrates relievers. Except … when it doesn’t. Ok quick quiz: which reliever who’s made it to the major leagues this year do you think is higher rated? Ribalta, Brzycky, Rutledge, or Lord? If you guessed Lord, who has a 111 ERA+ in 33 appearances … you’d be wrong! Lord is ranked 4th out of these four. I guess in his system actual performance on the field doesn’t actually count.
- Made comes in at #27, which was about right for pre-season, but which may be low now given his offensive explosion so far this year.
- Ok, so Hernandez is ranked #13 right? And he’s hitting at the Mendoza line. Meanwhile, Brayan Cortesia, who got 5x the bonus dollars in January at $1.9M … is currently slashing .477/.558/.523 in the DSL … and he’s ranked 30th while Hernandez is 13th?? Really?
- Morales at #34. Wow. I mean, just wow. Of course, Fangraphs doesn’t rate Morales at all; last year they had him at #19. I mean, what’s the guy gotta do? Get to AAA at age 23 despite injuries and then hold your own there? That’s gotta be worth something right?
- Erick Frigging Mejia at #37. OK this is just trolling us right?
OK, so there’s a lot of problems in this list. But here’s some of the names not even in the top 40:
- Cayden Wallace, mostly a top 10 player on other lists; outside the top 40? Only if you think this season has completely erased all his past seasons and scouting reports.
- Andrew Pinckney, as noted; nowhere to be seen despite being in AAA
- Andrew Alvarez, because being a serviceable AAA starter is meaningless.
- Elijah Green; ok well I can understand this based on his performance … but he’s still all tooled up right?
- No Armando Cruz? Lots of love for big bonus low-performers like Hurtado and Vaquero but not Cruz? Makes no sense.
Phew. It took them until July to release this list. Maybe they should just go with what they had in March; couldn’t be much worse.