In our continuing series of reviewing/reacting/criticizing Nats prospect lists as they’re released, today we got a big one. The MLBpipeline.com team (which includes senior prospect analysts Jim Callis, Jonathan Mayo, and Sam Dykstra) has released their updated top 30 rankings for our system.
Here’s the links to past analysis: Keith Law/The Athletic, Baseball America, ProspectsLive.com, Prospects1500, Prospects361. We’re still waiting for a couple major shops who generally release rankings: Fangraphs, ESPN, BleacherReport, and CBSsports.
Back to MLBPipeline’s list, which is perhaps the most respected source out there. Here’s the link to the story and the list itself.
Lets do some reactions.
- At the top, Ruiz is graduated, so they go Cavalli-House at 1-2 like everyone else.
- They’ve got our next two significant arms at 3-4 (that being Henry/Rutledge). Law had them 3-4 as well, just in the reverse order. Notably, no other shop has these two arms as high, most pushing them down in to the 6-9 range. Which tells you what I think about this source versus others.
- MLBpipeline is one of the first to rank Vaquero legitimately; they’ve got him 5th as a starting point in the system. The only other shop to even bother attempting to rank him immediately post signing was ProspectsLive (who had him 4th).
- Next three are our tertiary tier of RHP starters; in order Lara, Carrillo, Adon. No quibbling here; all three could serve as really useful arms in our system in one fashion or another. Having these three guys in the 6-8 range is completely reasonable.
- They’re high on Daylen Lile, having him at #10. But their scouting report is a little dour, projecting him as a bat first spray hitting 4th outfielder.
- Antuna: down at #12. Finally a realistic ranking of a career .238 hitter who projects as a corner OF with no power.
- Quintana continues to be all over the map: they have him #15; he’s been as high as #7 (Keith Law) and as low as #24 (Baseball America).
- Boissiere comes in at #17 … after missing BA’s entire top 30.
- Lucius Fox is #23 … one of the few times we’ve ever had a waiver claim be ranked in our prospects list.
- Several recently drafted players are in the 20s but entirely missing from BA’s list, guys like Saenz and White.
- Mason Denaburg gets #30 treatment, but Seth Romero is nowhere to be seen.
Notable missing players
- Holden Powell‘s injuries have dropped him off the radar; he needs a bounce back 2022.
- Daniel Marte: completely off the radar too.
- Tim Cate: completely unranked but is as high as #12 on Law’s list. Interesting how little he’s rated.
- Riley Adams: nowhere to be seen despite being #11 on BA’s list. I guess a backup catcher who we all think is going to play every 4th day is not a prospect.
- Mason Thompson; another guy who BA had just outside their top 10 … then suddenly he wasn’t there at all. Did he graduate rookie eligibility? I can’t tell.