jays4life19

- Toronto Blue Jays signed free agent Lourdes Gurriel. -St. Louis Cardinals signed free agent LHP Brett Cecil. - C Josh Thole elected free agency. - Tampa Bay Rays traded 3B Richie Shaffer and SS Taylor Motter to Seattle Mariners for RHP Andrew Kittredge, 1B Dalton Kelly and RHP Dylan Thompson. - Toronto Blue Jays signed free agent DH Kendrys Morales. - New York Yankees traded C Brian McCann and cash to Houston Astros for RHP Albert Abreu and RHP Jorge Guzman. - Oakland Athletics traded 1B Danny Valencia to Seattle Mariners for RHP Paul Blackburn. - Atlanta Braves signed free agent RHP R.A. Dickey. - Los Angeles Dodgers traded C Carlos Ruiz to Seattle Mariners for LHP Vidal Nuno. - Houston Astros traded RHP Pat Neshek to Philadelphia Phillies for Player To Be Named Later. This is the best I could come up with. lol

The penalties Major League Baseball levied on the Braves are unprecedented in scope, as for the first time ever, they declared the majority of an international signing class to be free agents. Teams will be taking a look at updating their scouting reports on everyone of the newly minted free agents over the next few weeks, but many of them have already impressed scouts in pro ball. Here's a ranking of the top eight prospects among the players that the commissioner's office has made free agents. 1. Kevin Maitan, SS Yes, scouts are much less enamored by his thickening body and his lefthanded swing than they were when he was an amateur, but he's also a 17-year-old shortstop who didn't look completely overwhelmed in the Appalachian League. He has to be more diligent about keeping his lower half in shape, but the talent is still there. , and any team would be happy to take chance on seeing what he develops into as he matures. 2. Yunior Severino, 2B Severino signed for $1.9 million in 2016 as one of the top players in the Braves' loaded international class. He is an offense-first switch-hitting middle infielder with power potential and loads of bat speed. As you would expect for a teenager, he has plenty of work ahead of him, especially defensively, but 17-year-olds who slug .444 in the Gulf Coast League are exceedingly hard to find. 3. Livan Soto, SS Soto carries plenty of projection as he's a wiry, quick twitch shortstop with a plus arm. Multiple scouts who saw him this year said they believe he's a true shortstop who could be a plus defender and his bat was more advanced than expected. 4. Yefri Del Rosario, RHP A $1 million signing in 2016, Del Rosario's stuff has taken a step forward since he signed. He's now pitching with a plus 91-94 mph fastball that touches 97 and the added arm speed has also helped tighten up his sharp breaking ball. His delivery isn't particularly clean, but he throws strikes and his cross-fire delivery adds deception. 5. Ji-Hwan Bae, SS Bae was one the better international prospects to play in the 18U World Cup this summer–he hit .286/.393/.412 at the tournament–and he signed with the Braves soon after. Scouts who saw Bae projected him as a well-rounded, athletic middle infielder with a chance to stay at shortstop. His plus speed is an asset, although there are more questions about his power potential. ADVERTISING 6. Abrahan Gutierrez, C Gutierrez like many young catchers has to work on his game calling, on handling all the different situations a catcher deals with during a game and the wear and tear of a long season behind the plate. But he has excellent strength for his age that leads evaluators to believe he can handle 100+ games at catcher and he's advanced for his age in his receiving and blocking. At the plate, he has power potential thanks to his strong frame but there are questions about how much he'll hit. 7. Juan Contreras, RHP Contreras is all about arm strength. He can light up radar guns from 92-97 mph already and he's got a little room to add more velocity. But right now he has no idea of where the ball is going when it leaves his hand (10 walks per nine in the GCL this year) and his secondary pitches are more ideas than refined offerings at this point. 8. Yenci Pena, SS Pena was one of the higher-priced additions in the Braves' 2016 class, but he's proven to be a little less advanced than some of fellow teenagers. Sent to the Dominican Summer League in his pro debut, Pena hit .230/.328/.327. Pena has a good frame, a workable swing and a chance to stay at shortstop. #Abrahan Gutierrez #Ji-Hwan Bae #Juan Contreras #Kevin Maitan #Livan Soto #Yefri Del Rosario #Yenci Pena #Yunior Severino 

I wonder if AA knew it was going to be this harsh before accepting the job.

Np man I find the part that teams stopped scouting him because everyone knew he was going to the Braves pretty interesting. His stock has really fallen since the Braves signed him. Will be interesting to see how much he gets.

Braves Farm system report by BP: ________ 1. Ronald Acuña, OF DOB: 12/18/1997 Height/Weight: 6’0”, 180 lbs. Bats/Throws: R/R Drafted/Acquired: Signed July 2014 by the Braves out of Venezuela for $100,000. Previous Ranking(s): #2 (Org), #31 (Top 101) 2017 Stats: .344/.393/.548, 9 HR, 11 SB in 54 games at Triple-A Gwinnett, .326/.374/.520, 9 HR, 19 SB in 57 games at Double-A Mississippi, .287/.336/.478, 3 HR, 14 SB in 28 games at High-A Florida The Good: My predecessors were fond of saying that the scale only works if you use all of it. I won’t make you read further to tease it out. We are throwing an 8 on Ronald Acuña. How do you get there? Well, you have above-average or better tools across the board, including a 55 glove in center. Gary Sheffield came up in a discussion of the offensive profile to try to describe Acuña’s combination of bat speed and barrel control. He has potential 70 game power and an advanced, all-fields approach that doesn’t require him to sell out to tap into his mammoth pop. He has enough arm for right if you happen to have a 7 center fielder lying around your roster. This is how you smoke the upper minors as a 19-year-old. This is how you get an OFP 80. The Bad: Well, nitpicking is part of the job too. Gary Sheffield isn’t really allowed as a comp for good reason, and controlled violence is still violence. Acuña may show enough swing-and-miss to make the hit tool only play to average, and we are betting here on a 19-year-old not being forced to a corner as he fills out. And to put it politely, that isn’t the butt of a center fielder. The Role: OFP 80–Elite center fielder Likely 70–All-star center fielder The Risks: Low. Look at the role grades again. I guessssssssss the hit tool might play down enough that he’s just a good outfield regular. Major league ETA: 2018 Bret Sayre’s Fantasy Take: 2. Kolby Allard, LHP DOB: 8/13/1997 Height/Weight: 6’1”, 190 lbs. Bats/Throws: L/L Drafted/Acquired: Drafted 14th overall in the 2015 MLB Draft, San Clemente HS (San Clemente, CA); signed for $3.0424 million. Previous Ranking(s): #6 (Org), #67 (Top 101) 2017 Stats: 3.18 ERA, 3.67 DRA, 150 IP, 146 H, 45 BB, 129 K at Double-A Mississippi The Good: With Allard, it’s easy to look at the individual pieces and have some question as to why he is so highly regarded, but the total package is quite impressive. The Braves decided to test him by skipping him over High-A to start 2017 and the Southern League was no problem for Allard, who continued to show a fastball that sits 91-94 and a plus curve that he uses often as his out-pitch. His changeup currently lags behind the other two pitches, but it shows at least average potential. What really bumps up his ceiling is plus command as his fastball especially plays up due to his ability to locate it anywhere in the zone. While the overall numbers are not eye-popping, 2017 was a year of experimentation for Allard as he tried to improve the change and use some different grips on his fastball in an effort to improve and vary the movement on the pitch. Once he found a comfort level, he finished the year with a string of seven starts in which he threw 44 ⅓ innings, allowing just nine earned runs while striking out 43. The Bad: There are concerns that some of Allard’s success is due to the deception he is able to create in his delivery. Without explosive movement on the fastball or a consistent change, deeper lineups at higher levels may not have as much trouble with his delivery. The experimentation with the fastball this season was an effort to address those concerns. The Role: OFP 60—High-end no. 3 starter Likely 55—No. 3/4 starting pitcher The Risks: In addition to a back injury that required a minor procedure and cost Allard time in 2016, he had similar back issues in high school. Back injuries can be pesky and a new flare-up could come anytime. Then, there is always the chance that the changeup never gets there. —Scott Delp Major league ETA: Late 2018 Bret Sayre’s Fantasy Take: As good of a major leaguer as Allard might be, it’s a tough sell from a fantasy perspective to get someone too excited about a future SP3/4 with a history of back issues. That said, he’s close, he can miss bats, and the Braves don’t exactly have much in the way of rotation fixtures keeping him out of the fire. I’m not sure why I think about Ted Lilly when Allard comes up, but that type of fantasy impact is certainly possible here. 3. Mike Soroka, RHP DOB: 8/4/1997 Height/Weight: 6’5”, 225 lbs. Bats/Throws: R/R Drafted/Acquired: Drafted 28th overall in the 2015 MLB Draft, Bishop Carroll HS (Calgary, AB); signed for $1.9747 million. Previous Ranking(s): #5 (Org), #64 (Top 101) 2017 Stats: 2.75 ERA, 2.82 DRA, 153 ⅔ IP, 133 H, 34 BB, 125 K at Double-A Mississippi The Good: Atlanta aggressively jumped Soroka to Double-A as a 19-year-old, and the righthander responded with a strong campaign in the Southern League. There is not much brute force to Soroka’s game despite his large frame. He works off a steady diet of well-located low-90s fastballs. He’ll show good plane and run on the two-seam, occasional cut on the four-seam, and usually hit the glove. He started relying on his slider more in 2017, and it’s a potential plus offering with late downward bite. He rounds out the arsenal with a curve and a change. The change doesn’t show a ton of fade, but there should be enough deception and velocity separation to keep lefties honest. Soroka has a simple upright delivery and is built to log innings, and log them he did. We usually talk about the uncertainty around whether a teenage arm can hold up under a starter’s workload down below. Soroka is already closer to showing he can handle it than most pitching prospects. The Bad: A recurring theme in this Braves list will be “how much fastball do you need to be an effective major-league starter.” Soroka has a nice arsenal, but it’s not going to overwhelm you, and it might not overwhelm major league hitters. The velocity can dip into the upper-80s at times. The slider gets slurvy and isn’t a consistent swing-and-miss offering yet. When we write that the change should keep lefties honest that is more hypothetical than actual, as Soroka had a fairly significant platoon split in 2017. The Role: OFP 60—No. 3 starter Likely 55—No. 4 starter The Risks: Soroka’s advanced stuff and pitchability make for a relatively safe profile as pitchers go, but pitchers can also just go. There are also thin margins for the “low-risk” mid-rotation types and sometimes you are Aaron Blair or Braden Shipley. Major league ETA: September 2018 Bret Sayre’s Fantasy Take: Before we get too far down the rabbit hole, this list has a lot of arms. I mean, a lot. If you don’t want to read about a pitcher at this point, you have to go all the way down to the no. 9 spot, which is ironic in its own right. Soroka has about the same expected upside as Allard. On the bright side, he doesn’t come with the back issues. On the not-so-bright side, it would seem Cobb County isn’t a great place to have rough splits against left-handed hitters. 4. Kyle Wright, RHP DOB: 10/2/1995 Height/Weight: 6’4”, 200 lbs. Bats/Throws: R/R Drafted/Acquired: Drafted 5th overall in the 2017 MLB Draft, Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN); signed for $7 million. Previous Ranking(s): N/A 2017 Stats: 3.18 ERA, 1.97 DRA, 11 ⅓ IP, 8 H, 4 BB, 10 K at High-A Florida ; 1.59 ERA, 2.08 DRA, 5 ⅔ IP, 3 H, 2 BB, 8 K at short-season Danville The Good: Wright used one of the deeper arsenals in college baseball to dominate on Friday nights at Vanderbilt this year. He’s a typically polished Commodore product. He added velocity throughout his college career and now regularly bumps 95 and occasionally higher than that. He’ll also throw a slider and curve that both project as above-average major-league offerings. If you were designing an ideal starting pitching prospect he’d probably look a lot like Wright. The Bad: You might associate the phrase “highest pitcher picked in the draft” with a little more stuff than Wright projects to have. His velocity wavered a bit at times this spring and his changeup will need to improve with pro instruction. His arm action allows him to get really good extension on his fastball, but it also gives me sympathy pains in my elbow when I see it. The effort in the arm action may limit the overall command profile to average. The Role: OFP 60—No. 3 starter Likely 50—No. 4 starter The Risks: Average (for a pitcher). Wright was a high first-round pick in part because he is very polished and should move quickly. But man that arm action gives me the heeby-jeebies. Major league ETA: Late 2019 Bret Sayre’s Fantasy Take: There’s a lot of responsibility in dynasty leagues that comes with being the “top college arm in a draft class.” You’re expected to move quickly and have significant upside. Since Stephen Strasburg in 2009, that title has gone to Drew Pomeranz, Gerrit Cole, Mark Appel (twice), Carlos Rodon and Dillon Tate. Maybe that responsibility should be abdicated and replaced with the typical “let’s just hope he’s an SP3 and move on.” 5. Joey Wentz, LHP DOB: 10/6/1997 Height/Weight: 6’5”, 210 lbs. Bats/Throws: L/L Drafted/Acquired: Drafted 40th overall in the 2016 MLB Draft, Shawnee Mission East HS (Prairie Village, KS); signed for $3.05 million Previous Ranking(s): Others of Note 2017 Stats: 2.60 ERA, 3.15 DRA, 113 ⅔ IP, 99 H, 46 BB, 152 K at Low-A Rome The Good: Amateur scouts are forever looking for the polished-but-projectable prep pitching prospect, and Wentz might be in your dictionary as the archetype of that. The lefty looks like he’s doing Cole Hamels cosplay on the mound, from the stirrups to the motion to the mannerisms around the mound, and there are worse comparisons to make in general. But there are differences too; the out secondary offering here is not the changeup, like it is for Hamels, it’s an advanced curve that already rates to be plus and might still have more. He’s tall and gets good extension, so his fastball comes in with good plane and moves. Repeatable mechanics lend themselves to good command. The body remains projectable and might fill out over time. He performed very well pitching the entire season at 19-years-old in full-season ball. He doesn’t have Hamels’ change, but it’s pretty good for a teenager and projects to at least average. A tall lefty with an overhand curve that doesn’t suck always has a LOOGY fallback, if it comes to that. The Bad: I wrote an entire column over the summer that amounted to “how good a fastball does Joey Wentz project to have?” and “how much should we care?” In summary, Wentz regularly threw 95 as an amateur, but has more typically worked at 90-92 since being drafted. There’s no indication this is due to any underlying injury or anything more than adjustment to throwing on a pro schedule, and the command and movement should help it along. But there are not a lot of upper-tier starters, even lefties with a big hammer, only throwing 91 these days. The Role: OFP 60—We’ll spend a decade arguing about whether he’s a No. 2 or No. 3 Likely 50—A more generic mid-rotation dude The Risks: Well, he’s a pitcher who just turned 20 and has suffered currently unexplained velocity loss, so we’d be remiss in not reminding you that sometimes arms come up lame. He missed a few weeks after taking a comebacker off his ankle, but still pitched an ample amount of innings given age and experience. —Jarrett Seidler Major league ETA: 2020 Bret Sayre’s Fantasy Take: Traditionally, Wentz looks more like a pitcher who could break into SP2 territory than either Allard or Soroka before him. He’s also clearly a riskier proposition because he’s both two levels behind and has previously aforementioned questions about his velocity. There’s enough upside here to warrant inclusion in the Dynasty 101, but he is a pitcher. (Are we still doing that?) 6. Luiz Gohara, LHP DOB: 07/31/1996 Height/Weight: 6’3”, 210 lbs. Bats/Throws: L/L Drafted/Acquired: Signed August 2012 by the Mariners out of Brazil for $880,000; acquired by Atlanta via trade from Seattle. Previous Ranking(s): #3 (Org – Seattle) 2017 Stats: 4.91 ERA, 5.92 DRA, 29 ⅓ IP, 32 H, 8 BB, 31 K at MLB Atlanta; 3.31 ERA, 2.54 DRA, 35 ⅓ IP, 31 H, 16 BB, 48 K at Triple-A Gwinnett; 2.60 ERA, 2.89 DRA, 52.0 IP, 42 H, 18 BB, 60 SO at Double-A Mississippi; 1.98 ERA, 1.60 DRA, 36 ⅓ IP, 33 H, 10 BB, 39 K at High-A Florida The Good: The hefty lefty started the 2017 campaign in the FSL and finished it in the NL East. In between, Gohara flashed a plus fastball and slider combination that racked up strikeouts at each layover. The fastball is a mid-90s swing-and-miss weapon on its own. It’s easy velocity and the pitch shows sneaky late life and occasional cut. The slider arrives in the low-80s and while it isn’t the biggest or most violent breaker you will see, the two-plane action is late and effective. If he does end up moving to the pen, the fastball/slider combo gives him late-inning potential, even if it doesn’t tick up further in short bursts. Although it feels like he has been a prospect forever, Gohara only just turned 21 at this year’s trading deadline. The Bad: The slider can get a little lazy at times. The changeup is a clear third pitch—although it will flash—firm at the best of times, and he struggles to start it in the zone. Despite fairly simple mechanics that draw comparisons to CC Sabathia, Gohara does not have close to that level of command. He struggles to finish his pitches or maintain his fastball command deep into outings. His physique may draw comparisons to Sabathia as well—Gohara is likely thirty pounds heavier than his listed weight—and the body and the arsenal may profile better in late-inning relief. The Role: OFP 60—No. 3 starter or closer Likely 50—No. 4 starter or setup The Risks: Gohara assuaged some of the doubts that plagued his profile coming into the season. He threw 150 innings, despite an arm issue in May, and he flashed mid-rotation stuff in his major league cameo. There is more role risk than projection risk here, as if the change and command don’t tighten up he may be bound for the bullpen. Major league ETA: Debuted in 2017 Bret Sayre’s Fantasy Take: A left-hander with bullpen risk and a still-developing change has probably the lowest fantasy floor of any type of mid-rotation starter profile. Gohara showed he can get strikeouts at the highest level in 2017, but the WHIP is likely always going to hold him back from anything more than SP4 heights, even if he can keep punching out more than one batter an inning. 7. Ian Anderson, RHP DOB: 05/02/1998 Height/Weight: 6’3”, 170 lbs. Bats/Throws: R/R Drafted/Acquired: Drafted 3rd overall in the 2016 MLB Draft, Shenendehowa HS (Clifton Park, New York); signed for $4 million. Previous Ranking(s): #7 (Org), #96 (Top 101) 2017 Stats: 3.14 ERA, 4.65 DRA, 83 IP, 69 H, 43 BB, 101 K at Low-A Rome The Good: When Anderson has everything working, he looks like one of the better pitching prospects in baseball. The fastball will sit in the mid-90s and he can throw it down and hit the glove on both sides of the plate. The changeup is a second potential plus pitch. It’s tough to pick up out of his hand and shows good tumble and fade. His 12-6 curve will likely end up the third pitch in the arsenal, but will flash hard, late depth. Anderson has an ideal starter’s frame, having already filled out some from his listed height/weight and his delivery is very repeatable (which is different than ‘he repeats it well,’ mind you). There’s a potential 6/5/6 starter here with above-average command. The Bad: The good Anderson doesn’t show up every start. It’s a bit of a cliche to talk about cold weather arms as “a little raw,” but everything about Anderson’s game is a little raw at present. The control/command wavers from start to start and even inning to inning. The curve can be a little humpy, a little loose. Sally league hitters predictably struggled with his hook, but it’s more of a two-strike bury pitch than a consistent weapon at present. The Role: OFP 60—No. 3 starter Likely 50—No. 4 starter The Risks: With modern prospect arm usage it can be tough to feel confident projecting any pitcher as a sure-shot starter. For someone like Anderson, who averaged just over four innings a start and pitched into the sixth inning only four times, your guess is as good as ours. He certainly has the arsenal and looks the part, but you will want to see how that arsenal looks after 90 pitches into a start and 150 innings into a season. Major league ETA: 2020 Bret Sayre’s Fantasy Take: The issue with pitchers with SP3 upside isn’t that they end up being bad, it’s that they end up not being worth the roster spot before they get good (if they get good). Here were the 21st through 30th ranked starting pitchers from 2017: Brad Peacock, Yu Darvish, Drew Pomeranz, Jimmy Nelson, Jake Arrieta, Aaron Nola, Marcus Stroman, Charlie Morton, Chris Archer and Zack Godley. How many of them were dropped in your league prior to their first strong MLB campaign? 8. Bryse Wilson, RHP DOB: 12/20/1997 Height/Weight: 6’1”, 225 lbs. Bats/Throws: R/R Drafted/Acquired: Drafted 109th overall in the 2016 MLB Draft, Orange HS (North Carolina); signed for $1.2 million. Previous Ranking(s): N/R 2017 Stats: 2.50 ERA, 2.13 DRA, 137 IP, 105 H, 37 BB, 139 K at Low-A Rome The Good: Wilson is a bulldog on the mound, attacking hitters with a plus fastball/slider combination that overwhelmed South Atlantic League lineups. The fastball sits mid-90s at its best and will show explosive late movement up in the zone. The slider is a nasty two-plane breaker. There’s more change and command here than you’d expect from a 19-year-old, although neither are average yet. If this sounds like a good late-inning reliever, well you might not be wrong, but I kind of like Wilson’s potential as a high-K mid-rotation starter that frustrates at times. Then again, that might not be more valuable than a late-inning shove monster nowadays. The Bad: If the above sounds like a good late-inning reliever, well you might not be wrong, full stop. Wilson is also physically maxed and with his height and slot the fastball can be a bit true at times. The slider projects as plus but is inconsistent at present. The change could get to average as could the command. But those are “coulds.” We expect Wilson to refine some stuff as he moves forward but there may be a larger gap between the Sally and the bigs than there is developmental room here. The Role: OFP 55—No. 3/4 starter Likely 50—Eighth-inning guy The Risks: Wilson’s advanced stuff and performance at a young age makes him a bit like the poor man’s Mike Soroka. That’s a relatively safe profile as pitchers go, but pitchers can also just go. There’s also thin margins for the “low-risk” mid-rotation types and sometimes you are Aaron Blair or Braden Shipley. Major league ETA: 2020 Bret Sayre’s Fantasy Take: The shortcomings Wilson might have in his scouting report, compared to the names before him, are not the kind that would keep him from reaching the same type of fantasy upside. We’re all familiar with the high-strikeout SP4 who just never puts it all together no matter how much you want him to. But when your upside is Edwin Jackson-esque, you’re a fringe top-150 fantasy prospect. 9. Kevin Maitan, SS DOB: 02/12/2000 Height/Weight: 6’2”, 190 lbs. Bats/Throws: S/R Drafted/Acquired: Signed July 2016 by the Braves out of Venezuela $4.25 million. Previous Ranking(s): #8 (Org), #100 (Top 101) 2017 Stats: .220/.273/.323, 2 HR, 1 SB in 33 games at Rookie Danville; .314/.351/.400, 0 HR, 1 SB in 9 games at GCL Braves The Good: Maitan was the biggest bonus baby out of Latin America in 2016 on the strength of his offensive tools, and he flashed plus hit/plus power potential in an aggressive stateside assignment as a 17-year-old. Given his level of baseball experience the bat control and zone awareness is precocious, and he shows plus bat speed coupled with the kind of launch angle that should cause plenty of those statcast dinger graphics to pop up in your twitter feed. He’s not a shortstop long term, but there’s a shot he sticks at third base where he already shows solid footwork and passable defensive tools overall. The Bad: Maitan’s bat is advanced for a high school junior, but that doesn’t mean advanced, and he has had issues actualizing the potential in games. The swing is long with loft and he will be vulnerable to better velocity above his hands. The approach is overly pull-happy and there will be long-term swing-and-miss concerns. Even if the bat develops as expected, the body has filled out quickly and is bordering on high-maintainence already. Maitan’s a well-below-average runner, which may eliminate an outfield move if he can’t stick at third. The bat will have to play to full potential if he is a first baseman. The Role: OFP 55—Above-average hitter at…some corner Likely 45—Not quite as good a hitter and not one of the preferable corners The Risks: Extreme. Even without the bat and positional concerns. He’s a 17-year-old with only a summer of stateside experience. Major league ETA: 2022 Bret Sayre’s Fantasy Take: Look! We made it! Maitan has a ton of name recognition for a prospect who hasn’t made full-season ball yet, and even some disappointing offseason reports this year won’t be enough to quell interest. Of course, it should though, as a fringe top-10 third baseman who won’t help until the next cycle of mid-term elections is complete just might not be worth waiting for if you can cash him in as a “buy-low” now. 10. Cristian Pache, OF DOB: 11/19/1998 Height/Weight: 6’2”, 185 lbs. Bats/Throws: R/R Drafted/Acquired: Signed July 2015 by the Braves out of Panama for $1.4 million. Previous Ranking(s): N/R 2017 Stats: .281/.335/.343, 0 HR, 32 SB in 119 games at Low-A Rome The Good: Pache certainly looks the part of a top center field prospect. He’s got a well-proportioned athletic frame with some projection left. He’s a 7 runner who has improved his reads and routes on the grass. He generates plus bat speed from a loose-but-hitchy swing, and his hard line drives as a teenager may turn into some over-the-fence power in his early twenties. His arm is solid enough to handle right field if there’s a fourth outfielder outcome here, it’s a nice bonus in center or left, if not a weapon. The Bad: Pache has a very aggressive approach at the plate, and while he did more than just tread water in his first look at full-season arms, he will expand the zone against all manners of spin. The power projection is almost all theoretical at this point and there isn’t a ton of leverage in the swing. He’s still a work in progress on defense. The whole profile is still rough around the edges. The Role: OFP 55—Above-average regular in center field Likely 45—Good fourth outfielder that doesn’t quite hit enough to be a regular The Risks: The speed coupled with a potential above-average glove at an up-the-middle should give Pache a better shot at some sort of major league career than your average toolsy teenager in A-ball. That’s not to suggest he is low risk as, after all, he is a toolsy teenager in A-ball with a wide variety of hit tool outcomes possible. Major league ETA: 2020 Bret Sayre’s Fantasy Take: A teenager holding their own in full-season ball is always interesting, but add 40-plus steal speed to the package and you bump up both your floor and your ceiling—making Pache a top-101 fantasy prospect right now. Even if he ends up stalling out at single-digit power, the speed and contact ability are enough to make him a potential OF2 down the road. The Next Ten (in alphabetical order): Tucker Davidson, LHP, Low-A Rome It must have been pretty fun to have Rome coverage this year. Davidson is the fourth arm from the Sally League rotation to check in on this list. He started the year in the pen, but the stuff really started to tick up when he shifted to the rotation late in the season. There’s a mid-90s fastball here now from the left side and an advanced curveball with plus projection. He may end up back in the bullpen long term, but he’s a potential breakout top ten guy—even in this crowded system—for 2018. Travis Demeritte, 2B, Double-A Mississippi The former Rangers farmhand spent the entire season at Double-A Mississippi, playing about two-thirds of his games at second base and the rest at the hot corner. His calling card is his ability to flash the leather at both positions, though the arm likely isn’t there for a permanent residency at third base. The good news: Demeritte lowered his strikeout rate below 30 percent for the first time since his pro debut in the Arizona League. The bad news: he saw a dip in just about every other offensive metric as well. From walk rate to isolated power and even stolen base efficiency, Demeritte’s first taste of the upper levels proved to be a challenge. He still showed an above-average ability to draw walks and drive the ball, but his primary flaw is—and always has been—his inability to make consistent contact. There’s still plenty of bat speed and athleticism, which leaves room for a utility future with some upside, but without an improvement in his bat-to-ball, significant playing time at the highest level could prove tough to come by. —Matt Pullman Max Fried, LHP, Atlanta Braves Like Soroka and Allard, Fried skipped straight to the Southern League in 2017. He was more age-appropriate for Double-A of course, having missed most of 2014 and all of 2015 to Tommy John surgery. Since his return to the mound, the potential plus fastball/curve combo has returned, but so have his occasional issues throwing strikes. Despite his struggles for Mississippi, Fried got a late season cup of coffee with Atlanta and acquitted himself well, touching 97 in short bursts and missing bats with his 1-7 breaker. The control and command still come and go, and the change is fringy, so he might be better suited to the pen long term. But he’s a major-league-ready arm with enough upside left to make him a strong top ten candidate in even an average farm system. Alex Jackson, C, Double-A Mississippi A strong, thick-bodied target behind the dish, Jackson is likely an offensive-minded catcher. He is back behind the plate this season, after spending the previous two as an outfielder for the Mariners. When I saw him in May he needed work, but showed athleticism and a good foundation. There are some concerns that he will outgrow the position—Jackson is 6-foot-2, 225 pounds—necessitating a move to first base. His athleticism translates to solid mobility behind the plate, which gives hope that he can be refined into a solid-average catcher, defensively. While there are contact concerns, they are balanced with present in-game power. The stance in May was a base wider than shoulder width, straight up with a slight knee bend and hands high by his head. There was an abbreviated rock back, with a small knee lift. He was not too much into his legs. There was fair leverage and looseness to the swing. In regards to the contact concerns, Jackson’s swing can get long and timing was a bit off, with a contact point a bit out in front. Given the low bar for production at the position, Jackson shouldn’t have any issues producing, as long as he dons the tools of ignorance. —Javier Barragan A.J. Minter, LHP, Atlanta Braves Minter missed two months with a groin strain in 2017, but made up for lost time over the summer. He blitzed all four full-season levels before turning in a dominant six-week major league stint. Minter profiles as a power lefty in the late innings with a fastball that sits 95-97 and a 90 mph slider that is a weapon against both lefties and righties. There is closer upside here, but Minter already has a Tommy John surgery on his C.V., and he has yet to show he can hold up over a full season of relieving. Usually we apply these durability concerns to starters, but Atlanta has managed Minter very cautiously so far in his pro career, asking him to throw on back-to-back days exactly once in 2017. He will likely make the Braves 2018 Opening Day bullpen where he will hopefully remind Braves fans of peak Jonny Venters, as opposed to what came after. Kyle Muller, LHP, short-season Danville Picked after Anderson and Wentz in Atlanta’s 2016 draft class, Muller has yet to breakout to the level of his prep pitcher compatriots, but he’s still an intriguing prospect (and like many of the players in this tier, would get more attention in a system less stuffed to the gills). I am a sucker for a big lefty, and Atlanta seems to have bought in bulk over the last few years. Muller is a bit of a project and the stuff and polish doesn’t match Wentz, but he’s a potential back-end starter down the line due to the plane on his fastball and two potentially average-or-better secondaries. Austin Riley, 3B, Double-A Mississippi Riley is one of my favorites: the combination of the body, the size (6-foot-3, 230 pounds), the athleticism, the power, and defense. The hit tool needs more work, and from when I saw him prior to his promotion to Double-A Mississippi, he was drifting forward and not staying back, causing him to rush his hitting technique. Still, I like his potential given his athleticism and coordination. He easily lines balls to the gaps, despite the inefficient hitting technique. Furthermore, if his defense was as bad as people say, his ability to improve to at least average—with good jumps, and solid range—is an indicator of his strong work ethic. The kid is also 20 years old until April, and expected to start in Double-A this upcoming season after slashing .315/.389/.511 over 48 games to finish the year there. Is he a favorite of yours yet? —Javier Barragan Touki Toussaint, RHP, Double-A Mississippi It’s easy to see the positives when looking at Touki. He features a four-seamer that sits 91-94 and runs in on righties, a two-seamer that can explode down and out of the zone, a change that shows good depth and fade, and a curve that can leave hitters wondering where they are and why they’re facing the wrong way. When you consider that all of that comes from an arm that is just 21 years old and that finished 2017 making seven starts in Double-A, there is so much to like. But…then there is the maddening inconsistency. Toussaint finds it quite difficult to maintain anything on a pitch-to-pitch, inning-to-inning, or start-to-start basis. He’s trying to simplify his delivery and have fewer moving parts, but still he can open up and lose the ball up and in to righties or he can lose his arm angle and make his curveball a hittable spinner. The optimist says that his results are consistently useful as he moves up the ladder in spite of the command problems. The pessimist says that after three full pro seasons, he’s made little progress in addressing his issues. A bigger upper minors sample size to start 2018 should tell us whether the glass is half full or half empty. —Scott Delp Drew Waters, OF, short-season Danville If you were to going to create a baseball player from scratch, you could do worse than using Waters as a guide. While loaded with tools, Waters also has a fair amount of present ability. A switch-hitter, his stroke is better from the left side, where he can better tap into his power with his plus bat speed. While he might not showcase that much power as a righty, he is still able to hit for contact and can hang in vs left-handers. While his aggression got the better of him at times this season, he shows a good eye, and was willing to work counts. He is a plus runner now but he might slow down as he matures, making him an awkward fit in center—he should be able to handle either corner though. This is the kind of profile that can propel him up this list next year, or keep him in this section while we say, “Hey he was only 19, the kid is still young!” —Steve Givarz Huascar Ynoa, RHP, short-season Danville Acquired from Minnesota for Jaime Garcia (who was shipped out to the Yankees a week later), Ynoa has the makings of stardom, like his brother Michael did at the time. The stuff is good, fastball up to 96, sitting 92-94, above-average hard breaker, usable change, sturdy frame. Like many others, Ynoa is still young, lacks projection, doesn’t throw a ton of strikes, and is a pitcher. This profile can go in many ways, the optimist sees a mid-rotation starter, the conservative sees a good bullpen arm, the pessimist sees his brother and says that can happen just as easily too. —Steve Givarz Friends in Low Places William Contreras, C, short-season Danville In a bumper crop of catching prospects in the Appalachian League, Contreras stood out as the one most likely to be a two-way contributor earning a Role 5 grade from me. At the plate, “Willson’s brother” looked to drive the gaps early in the count, and he did. As the body matures, more power should come, but right now it’s more of a gap-to-gap look. But I expect him to hit as he advances, a future average-or-above stick. Behind the plate, Contreras is athletic and demonstrates strong footwork and blocking ability. The arm is strong, but his release could be more efficient—pop times were just north of 2.0 flat. Catchers that can hit and catch are a rare breed with a low expectation. I’m bullish on Contreras’ chances to be an average MLB one at maturity. —John Eshleman *** A second opinion: We might be over-ranking Kevin Maitan In this biz, there’s a popular sentiment that evaluators are best off going to a game with no preconceived notions or expectations. Theoretically, sure, but when a team pays $8.5 million (including penalties) for a 16-year-old (or however old he was when offered the contract) that’s been compared to Miguel Cabrera, it’s pretty difficult to walk in blind. I was excited to see this consensus Top 100 talent in his stateside debut. But we can only evaluate what we see, and I did not see an elite prospect. That doesn’t mean he’s not elite or that my colleagues pumping him are wrong. Instead, I expect that I’m offering the glass half-empty viewpoint on an extreme-variance prospect. Maitan has definitely added weight, so any notions of him staying at shortstop are gone. My concern is that his body could continue growing into a first-base look. His hands were on the stiffer side, and I didn’t see the plus arm I’ve heard about, instead showing only to average. Even in a best case scenario, I expect this to be a first-base-only body by his late-20s. He did not demonstrate much power in my one-series look, and his timing in BP did not produce more than a pull-side homer or two in two sessions. His swing has a good bat path and launch angle to generate bombs, but at present the swing is too long to consistently drive balls—he was late often—largely because he started his hands just above his waist. Here too, the hit tool and on-base ability didn’t show well, as he was starting a bit early and expanding the zone, especially on soft stuff. He’s only 17. This was his stateside debut, and the expectations were huge. I was encouraged by his final two at-bats where he took a more simple line-drive approach. Making adjustments will be the key to Maitan getting closer to that awesome ceiling, as will firming up his body. This is also a good example of why it’s better to see prospects at different times in the season. Maitan could put it all together, but Miggy 2.0? I just didn’t see it. —John Eshleman *** Top Talents 25 and Under (born 4/1/92 or later): Ronald Acuña, OF Ozhaino Albies, 2B Dansby Swanson, SS Kolby Allard, LHP Mike Soroka, RHP Sean Newcomb, LHP Kyle Wright, RHP Joey Wentz, LHP Luiz Gohara, LHP Ian Anderson, RHP Few teams have a collection of 25-and-under talent to rival the Braves, who stocked their system with: a potential No. 1 overall talent, more potential starting pitchers than you can shake a stick at, and a couple of middle infielders who could start for most teams. While everything isn’t exactly wine and roses in The A, this team could see serious production from their young stars in less time than it takes to get hit by an invisible car. There are only five non-prospects that really matter at 25 or younger, and three of them muscled past this solid prospect Top 10 in my rankings. Does the placement of numbers two and three on this list shock you? Because it shocks me a little bit. No, Dansby Swanson did not waltz to his expected Rookie of the Year award, but the team did see the emergence of a potential star in the middle infield. After a mid-season callup, Ozzie Albies basically did everything that one could have hoped for the young, fleet infielder. He hit .286 despite just a .312 BABIP, and rattled off a surprising number of extra-base hits—20, including five triples—in just 57 games. Also, he’s not legally allowed to drink in the U.S., so the Braves faithful can expect both physical and metaphysical growth from this young man over the next several seasons. He’s exactly the kind of hit-and-run sparkplug that gathers up fans for the exciting way he plays ball, and given the current run environment, his lack of raw power may not be too much of a performance hindrance. While I’m loath to put too much stock into one half-season of sparkling performance from a rookie, I think that Albies’ underlying tools and skills give him a slight edge over his neighbor. And it’d be nice for Albies to turn into another Jose Ramirez, but that’s just far too much expectation to put on any smallish middle infielder who can hustle. I’d rather just accept that he’s likely to be a solid major leaguer, and perhaps a cornerstone of the next five years or so of Braves baseball. So could Swanson, but his 2017 was the yang to Albies’ yin. For the first half of this season, Swanson—a presumptive lock for best rookie in his league—was one of the worst everyday regulars in baseball. He hit almost 50 percent below the league average, his defense looked poor at shortstop, and things got so dire that he was shockingly banished to Gwinnett for a few games. He improved after returning from that brief Triple-A sojourn, but in a year where everyone mashed dingers, Swanson could barely inch his slugging percentage past his OBP. His approach leads to a nice walk rate, but he’ll need to make more contact and hit for more game power going forward or… he becomes Gordon Beckham, I guess. This is what surprised me the most, however: both DRS and FRAA were decidedly not complimentary towards Dansby’s glove, as both rated him between -7 and -11 runs with the leather. That might have been okay if Swanson were going to produce double after double with his bat, but he’ll need to lift his defensive performance. Still, his minor rebound in the second indicates that the tools are still there and he can emerge as a valuable regular… but perhaps now we might have to face the notion that Dansby’s collection of above-average tools might end up less than the sum of his parts, rather than more. Sean Newcomb was probably the best of the young starters that the Braves’ graduated in 2017, which is in some ways damning with faint praise. Tyler Flowers—one of the best framers in baseball—can only do so much to steal extra strikes when someone like Newcomb has only a cursory relationship with command. The big lefty walked five batters per nine, which hurt him despite his ability to strike out almost twice that many hitters. While his ERA and FIP paint him as a serviceable starter, his DRA of 5.66 paints a decidedly less rosy picture of his future unless he can iron out some of his control woes. The good news is that, even if he doesn’t, he’ll likely intimidate hitters during his inevitable move to the back of the bullpen. If even a few of the Braves’ young arms work out in the next couple of seasons, expect Newcomb to take a setup role… it’s more likely than him finally figuring out how to stop throwing balls out of the zone. In addition to the top ten mentioned here, the team has a couple of interesting guys in Johan Camargo and Lucas Sims. Camargo was surprisingly productive until a late-season injury, eventually supplanting Swanson as the team’s regular shortstop by roping more than a score of doubles in his rookie season. Camargo has line-drive power and enough positional versatility to be a lovely utility player, but probably is a second-division starter at best during seasons where he doesn’t cruise to a .360 BABIP. Meanwhile, Sims is another in a recent run of Braves pitching prospects who haven’t quite hit the lofty ceilings once projected for them. Somewhat like Matt Wisler and Aaron Blair before him, struggled in his first look at the bigs with peripherals that nowhere near touched the heights projected for him as a first-round draft pick. His fastball, once touted as an out pitch, looked too straight before he started tinkering with a two-seamer and cutter. If he can iron out one workable fastball and pair that with his curve, he probably has enough to settle in as a seventh-inning arm in the bullpen. Otherwise, he might go the way of Blair, doomed to wander the Gwinnett-to-Atlanta swingman shuttle. But even if he fails utterly, there are plenty of similarly-talented arms on the way. —Bryan Grosnick

Jays need to trade for some international slot money.

We do the new player draft in the LoD in Jan. We did the BORED one in the summer.

How does this work again? The kids get to keep their money and they go back and can sign with any team? (with the pool restrictions)

I believe that would put the Yankees as the team that can offer the most money?

How's your list coming along? I started mine in early November and i'm almost at 100 names but guys from like 60-100 are pretty fluid.

From MLBTR NOVEMBER 21: An announcement could come today, MLB.com’s Mark Bowman adds on Twitter. Notably, he says to expect a “severe” punishment that strips the Braves of “many” recent international signees.

Diaf

Only because the Cards would have had to pay him close to 8 million to sit out almost the whole year! You can afford to sit on him because you don`t plan on winning and when he comes back healthy he probably instantly becomes your most valuable RP. ehh, if you don`t want him that`s fine but if i was in your position that`s exactly the type of acquisition i would be going after. It`s a good buy low!

Really? No interest? He`s only 27 and is an elite RP.

Looking to move Trevor Rosenthal to a rebuilding team. Guy was lights out before getting hurt and should be back near the end of the season. Looking for a MILB pick, prospect, or closer. Jim, i think he would look great on your team.

Just PM me if you ever want to read anything from BP or BA and i'll happily send you the articles.

Okay maybe i do

Nah 1. Eloy Jimenez, OF DOB: 11/27/1996 Height/Weight: 6’4”, 205 lbs. Bats/Throws: R/R Drafted/Acquired: Signed August 2013 out of the Dominican Republic by Chicago for $2.8 million; acquired via trade from the Chicago Cubs. Previous Ranking(s): #1 (Org – CHC), #14 (Top 101) 2017 Stats: .353/.397/.559, 3 HR, 1 SB in 18 games at Double-A Birmingham; .271/.351/.490, 8 HR, 0 SB in 42 games at High-A Myrtle Beach; .345/.410/.682, 8 HR, 0 SB in 29 games at High-A Winston-Salem The Good: Jimenez is an elite power-hitting corner outfield prospect. That seems pretty good. It’s top-of-the-scale raw, and the power plays to all fields in games. He has the bat speed to let the ball get deep and drive it anywhere in the park. It’s a leveraged power swing, but he isn’t just grip and rip it. He controls the zone well and can read and react to spin. Doesn’t try to yank everything out. Potential plus hitter with 30+ home runs if it all comes together. He has enough arm for right field. The Bad: The swing gets long and unmoored when he is looking for the power stroke. Hit tool may play down to average at maturity due to swing-and-miss. He’s fine in a corner outfield spot but he won’t be much better than average there. He’s a below-average runner at present and may slow down more as he ages and fills out. The Role: OFP 70—All-star corner outfielder Likely 60—First-division corner outfielder The Risks: We believe he will hit and hit for power. He’s gonna have to since there isn’t much value here outside of the bat. Major league ETA: 2019 Ben Carsley’s Fantasy Take: The bad news is Jimenez might only be righty Jay Bruce. The good news is two-fold; he could be J.D. Martinez if it all really clicks, and even if it doesn’t, well he could still be righty Jay Bruce! That OF3/4 floor and OF1 ceiling makes Jimenez one of the 10-best dynasty prospects in the game, and it’s not out of the question he starts getting some playing time in the majors this year. Jimenez might not be destined for instant stardom a la Cody Bellinger or Aaron Judge, but he still looks like a good bet to get there before he’s 23, so… 2. Michael Kopech, RHP DOB: 4/30/1996 Height/Weight: 6’3” 205 lbs. Bats/Throws: R/R Drafted/Acquired: Drafted 33rd overall in the 2014 Draft, Mount Pleasant HS (Mount Pleasant, TX); signed for $1.5 million. Acquired via trade from the Boston Red Sox. Previous Ranking(s): #4 (Org), #32 (Top 101) 2017 Stats: 3.00 ERA, 2.34 DRA, 15 IP, 15 H, 5 BB, 17 K in 3 games at Double-A Birmingham; 2.87 ERA, 3.93 DRA, 119 ⅓ IP, 77 H, 60 BB, 155 K in 22 games at High-A Winston-Salem The Good: Kopech possesses an elite fastball that has explosive, late movement. He can cut it and run it and is equally comfortable working either side of the plate. It sits 95-98 and touches 99. He also has a plus slider that he throws at 84-87 with late, sharp two-plane break. Both pitches get plenty of swings and misses and help put Kopech in the conversation among the best pitching prospects in baseball. He also has a change with similar velocity to the slider that flashes at least average with good depth and fade, but he has not yet been able to throw that pitch with the consistency he needs. While an effective third pitch would be nice, even if that pitch never gets there, the other two are good enough to still make him a frontline starter. The Bad: Concerns about command should be mentioned here, though they are somewhat mitigated by Kopech’s 2017 second half. Command isn’t the only issue, as Kopech misses the zone (not just within it) too often. The hope is that his ability to throw at slightly less than full bore while maintaining elite stuff will aid in strike-throwing. There is also his hyper-competitiveness that can at times cause him to lose focus and/or make some questionable decisions. The Role: OFP 70—No. 2 Starter Likely 60—No. 3 starter The Risks: The improved command should lessen the reliever risk a bit. If he can’t manage to let go of adversity, he will have trouble getting anywhere near his ceiling. —Scott Delp Major league ETA: Mid-2018 Ben Carsley’s Fantasy Take: For my money, Kopech is the best dynasty pitching prospect in baseball. What do we always preach when it comes to pitching prospects? Going for upside and refraining from getting too excited until they’re close to the majors. Well, Kopech has legitimate top-15 SP upside—he’s limited only by what’s likely to be an occasionally gnarly WHIP—and he should be making MLB starts by the Fourth of July. Be patient with Kopech in the early going, but know that we could very well have Chris Archer 2.0 on our hands here. 3. Alec Hansen, RHP DOB: 10/10/1994 Height/Weight: 6’7”, 235 lbs. Bats/Throws: R/R Drafted/Acquired: Drafted 49th overall by the White Sox in the 2016 Draft, University of Oklahoma, signed for $1.2845. Previous Ranking(s): #6 (Org), #97 (Top 101) 2017 Stats: 4.35 ERA, 3.53 DRA, 10 ⅓ IP, 15 H, 3 BB, 17 K in 2 games at Double-A Birmingham; 2.93 ERA, 2.48 DRA, 58 ⅓ IP, 42 H, 25 BB, 82 K in 11 games at High-A Winston-Salem; 2.48 ERA, 3.14 DRA, 72 ⅔ IP, 57 H, 23 BB, 92 K in 13 games at Low-A Kannapolis The Good: His fastball peppers most of the 90s with tremendous plane. He manipulates the pitch very well, especially with natural cut that bores in on lefty hitters. His curve shows two-plane break and can be used as both a chase pitch and spotted for called strikes. He has command of a decent change for the level. He has an ideal workhorse frame, and a relatively clean record of health. It’s easy to see why he was once a candidate for the first-overall pick. The Bad: He was terrible for most of his draft season. He can have typical Big Guy command issues. He’s been on the average-to-older side for his levels, because the White Sox have been cautious in promoting him. The slider is basically just a show-me pitch presently, and the change is going to need to develop, too. The Role: OFP 60—Above-average starting pitcher Likely 50—No. 4 or late-inning reliever The Risks: I still really can’t explain why he looked and pitched so poorly during the 2016 college season, and that kind of weird unexplained going south doesn’t inspire the greatest confidence. If the slider and change both fail to develop, he could end up a bullpen dude. —Jarrett Seidler Major league ETA: 2019 Ben Carsley’s Fantasy Take: For someone who hates pitchers it’s kinda weird how much I love the White Sox’s pitching prospects. I’ll likely be making a case for Hansen to appear in the top-half of our Dynasty 101, because I love the upside and the proximity. I understand that Hansen’s lack of a great third pitch and weird college history give real scouts pause, but I feel like they’ve also helped Hansen become a bit underrated in dynasty league circles. There’s risk here, yes, but the upside as a high-K SP3/4 makes Hansen worth it. 4. Dylan Cease, RHP DOB: 12/28/1997 Height/Weight: 6’2”, 190 lbs. Bats/Throws: R/R Drafted/Acquired: Drafted in the 6th round of the 2014 Draft, Milton HS (Milton, GA); signed for $1.5 million. Acquired via trade from the Chicago Cubs Previous Ranking(s): #7 (Org – CHC) 2017 Stats: 3.89 ERA, 3.48 DRA, 41 ⅔ IP, 35 H, 18 BB, 52 K in 9 games at Low-A Kannapolis; 2.79 ERA, 2.90 DRA, 51 ⅔ IP, 39 H, 26 BB, 74 K in 13 games at Low-A South Bend The Good: The stuff is freaking incredible, some of the very best in the game. He easily sits in the mid-90s with his fastball, can sink and run it with the best of them, and has touched triple-digits in the past. He’s got one of those beautiful, classic overhand hammer curves, which is the second potential out pitch in the profile, plus with a chance for more. The change is a work-in-progress that sometimes comes in too firm but flashes as a third potential plus pitch. The Bad: He’s been handled extraordinarily carefully since 2014 Tommy John surgery, only making his full-season debut this past year. He’s been banged up a lot. He’s yet to throw a hundred innings. There’s some violence in the mechanics. The command isn’t great. The change isn’t consistent. The Role: OFP 60—Good starter or elite reliever Likely 50—Oft-injured starter or good reliever The Risks: So if you read The Bad, you can probably already guess The Risk: there’s a really good chance Cease just isn’t a starting pitcher. All three of these top White Sox arms have some reliever or blowout risk, but by collecting a bunch of them, plus a bunch of high-upside arms we’ll talk about later on, they’ve mitigated the overall risk that they won’t get a great pitcher or two from the overall lot pretty substantially. Major league ETA: 2021 — Jarrett Seidler Ben Carsley’s Fantasy Take: What, you didn’t really think I was gonna go praise-heavy for three starters in a row, did you? Cease’s upside is enticing, but that whole The Bad section above makes him a dubious fantasy proposition. Add in that he was a Cub and involved in a high-profile trade, and I feel like Cease is a bit overrated right now. Does he have a case for the Dynasty Top-101? Yes. But for the top-50? No. It’s just too likely he ends up in the bullpen. 5. Luis Robert, OF DOB: 8/3/1997 Height/Weight: 6’3”, 185 lbs. Bats/Throws: R/R Drafted/Acquired: Signed May 2017 by the White Sox out of Cuba for $26 million. Previous Ranking(s): N/A 2017 Stats: N/A The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly: We’re not going to write Luis Robert up like every most other top ten prospect, because we really just can’t. Because of tax purposes, Robert was limited to playing in the Dominican Summer League after signing. Our tentacles make it into most areas of pro baseball given the size and scope of our team and their contacts, but as we’ve occasionally noted in the past, foreign complex leagues are a terrible and inescapable blind spot for us. Unlike some previous high-profile Cuban defectors like Yoenis Cespedes, Yuli Gurriel, and Jose Abreu, Robert has a very limited track record in international competition; he’s basically never played in senior international competitions. He’s most similar in this regard to Yoan Moncada and Yasiel Puig, but we had multiple stateside looks at those guys before having to rank them. So here’s what I can tell you: Robert obliterated Serie Nacional last winter as an 19-year-old, his third season as a regular. The quality of Cuban’s top professional league has taken a swan dive in recent years, but if you hit .401 with power as an 19-year-old playing against professional men anywhere, that’s a positive sign. Hell, if you’re playing as a 17-year-old in a top level league, that’s a good sign. He had a short stint in the DSL this past summer right around his 20th birthday, and obliterated that league nearly as badly. The entirety of his stateside “professional” experience is a handful of games from the independent Can-Am League in 2016 with a second-tier “Cuban National Team,” with mixed results and reports. The best evidence that we have that Robert is good is that the White Sox are pretty good at this and invested over $50 million and gave up their ability to sign July 2 players to significant bonuses to get their man. But at the core, that’s the same type of appeal to authority that we here at Baseball Prospectus would normally tell you to avoid, so here’s the honest answer: we’re basically just guessing. There’s a little video of Robert after signing and a decent chunk before, and it all generally supports the notion that he’s a premium athlete with a quick bat. Given that, the performance, and the background information, this seems like the lowest he could reasonably rank, but I don’t think it would shock anyone if he’s suddenly the best or second-best prospect in the system once we got some solid pro looks. That would probably be more us getting better information than development of the player. Ben Carsley’s Fantasy Take: Look at these wimps hedging their bets. As a future OF2, Robert is exactly the 7th-best dynasty outfield prospect in baseball. He will make exactly three All-Star games, will randomly disappoint in 2023 and will be traded to the Giants in 2025, at which point we’ll note that their pitcher-friendly park hurts his fantasy value. That’s how you make a call. 6. Jake Burger, 3B DOB: 4/10/1996 Height/Weight: 6’2”, 210 lbs. Bats/Throws: R/R Drafted/Acquired: Drafted 10th overall in the 2017 Draft, Missouri State University; signed for $3.7 million. Previous Ranking(s): N/A 2017 Stats: .271/.335/.409, 4 HR, 0 SB in 47 games at Low-A Kannapolis; .154/.353/.462, 1 HR, 0 SB in 4 games at complex-level AZL The Good: Do you know that scene in Revenge of the Sith where Palpatine Force-fries Samuel L. Jackson through a window while screaming UNLIMITED POWAAAAAAAAAAAAH? Jake Burger doesn’t have quite that much power, but you’ve got to have a hell of a lot of power to get drafted this high as a right/right likely future first baseman out of college. He’s also got a really quick bat, a strong arm, and deceptive athleticism. The Bad: Were “Jake Burger” the name of this type of player in a movie, you’d think it was too spot-on and corny. He’s a big, beefy baseball player. He might be Baseball Twitter’s next “large adult son.” It’s hard to see him staying at third base, and with a trip over to first or DH, the hitting requirements get a ton higher. The Role: OFP 55—First-division first baseman who can be stretched to third Likely 50—League-average first baseman The Risks: He might not hit enough to warrant regular playing time at first. The body could go south and impact the hitting profile. A weirdly high number of first base prospects just don’t hit, if he ends up being a first base prospect sooner rather than later. —Jarrett Seidler Major league ETA: 2019-2020 Ben Carsley’s Fantasy Take: So it sounds like best-case he’s a righty Travis Shaw, and worst-case he’s [cracks fingers, rolls neck] … CJ Cron? That makes him rosterable in leagues with 125-150 prospects, but those of you in more restrictive leagues don’t need to go crazy yet. 7. Dane Dunning, RHP DOB: 12/20/1994 Height/Weight: 6’4”, 200 lbs. Bats/Throws: R/R Drafted/Acquired: Drafted 29th overall in the 2016 draft, University of Florida, signed for $2 million. Acquired via trade from the Washington Nationals. Previous Ranking(s): #10 (Org) 2017 Stats: 3.51 ERA, 2.68 DRA, 118 IP, 114 H, 36 BB, 118 K in 22 games at High-A Winston-Salem; 0.35 ERA, 1.13 DRA, 26 IP, 13 H, 2 BB, 33 K in 4 games at Low-A Kannapolis The Good: Dunning is a pedigreed product from the University of Florida who has put up impressive numbers as a professional. His repertoire is led by a plus one-two punch: Both his fastball and slider are grade 60 pitches that can miss bats. Out of the rotation, his heater sits 92-95 (t96) with late arm-side run and plane that helps induce swings and misses, and in a pen look, the fastball could play to 70 with an added tick and command improvement. His slider (84-86) has heavy vertical drop that is a weapon against both right- and left-handed hitters. Currently, he controls the pitch better than he commands it, able to drop it in for strikes, but more effectively starting the pitch in the zone to pick up swings-and-misses as it plummets out of the zone. This one-two combo gives Dunning a high floor likely to land on a major league roster. If he brings the changeup along, he could reach his mid-rotation ceiling. The Bad: To stay in the rotation, Dunning has two significant developmental hurdles to overcome: first, his changeup is below-average at present—a pitch High-A hitters were able to lay off of, that Dunning does not currently throw with great frequency or confidence. Facing Low-A and High-A hitters, Dunning amassed impressive strikeout rates on the strength of his two plus pitches, and he could find a spot in the back of a rotation as a mostly two-pitch guy with the occasional change dropped in. To do so, Dunning will have to scale the second hurdle—improved fastball command. The life and velocity of the pitch are impressive, but subpar command leads the pitch to play down to 60 not up to 70, although I think it is a future 70 pitch out of the pen, Dunning’s most likely landing spot. The Role: OFP 55—Mid-rotation starter Realistic 50—8th/9th inning leverage reliever The Risks: Not much really. Dunning has a sturdy 6-foot-4, 200-pound frame and is physically mature. His fastball-slider combo is close to big league ready, good enough for him to see late 2018 action out of the pen should the need arise. The risk profile goes up if you are banking on a starter, since the change-up has a ways to go. —John Eshleman Major league ETA: Early 2019 Ben Carsley’s Fantasy Take: It’s good that Dunning has a relatively safe profile for a pitcher, but that’s like having a relatively good chance of not blacking out after your third margarita. Maybe you wake up fine, but a) you probably won’t and even if you do, you spent $40 on margaritas? He’s probably a top-150ish guy at this point, but no more. 8. Blake Rutherford, OF DOB: 5/2/1997 Height/Weight: 6’3’’, 195 lbs. Bats/Throws: L/R Drafted/Acquired: Drafted 18th overall in the 2016 Draft, Chaminade College Preparatory School (West Hills, CA); signed for $3.28 million. Acquired via trade from the New York Yankees. Previous Ranking(s): #4 (Org – NYY), #49 (Top 101) 2017 Stats: .213/.289/.254, 0 HR, 1 SB in 30 games at Low-A Kannapolis; .281/.342/.391, 2 HR, 9 SB in 71 games at Low-A Charleston The Good: Despite being 20 years old, Rutherford has an advanced feel for the barrel and approach at the plate. He doesn’t try to do too much with pitches on either side of the hittable zone as he’s capable of spraying the ball all over the field. The swing is smooth and compact, so I expect him to hit for quality doubles power when he reaches his physical peak. Speaking of physicality, Rutherford’s body still has room to grow and there should be more raw power coming in the next few years. He’s athletic enough to play all three outfield spots right now, so he’s not just relying on his hit tool to make an impact. The White Sox gave away three major leaguers to get the former Yankees 2016 first-round pick under team control and he’s got the natural ability to prove that decision wise. He’s got tools to affect every part of the game, we all just have to wait for him to hone his potential as he matures in the lower levels of the White Sox system. The Bad: Having five solid tools is nice, but nothing about Rutherford screams “high-impact player” at this point in time. While I’m confident the hit tool will become above-average, the power production is a bit concerning right now. He looks better launching the ball in batting practice than in games as you can see from his just five career homers over the course of a year-and-a-half of professional baseball. His body is projectable, but he’s inconsistent getting leverage on the barrel, keeping the bathead rather straight through the zone. This helps Rutherford cover the plate and avoid the strikeout, but it also means that he likely won’t produce enough power as a corner outfielder to justify an all-star spot. Once the body matures, he’s more likely to shift off of center field, which will put even more pressure on hit tool to be elite, which is not so likely. Rutherford feels more like a solid starter than a multi-time all-star when looking at his profile long-term. The Role: OFP 55—Above-average starter Role 50—Major-league regular The Risks: Not so risky in the way that many highly drafted high school outfielders are; the downside actually stems from his lack of a standout tool. Plus, his struggles for lifting the ball concerns me as a likely corner outfielder. —Greg Goldstein Major league ETA: 2019 Ben Carsley’s Fantasy Take: You know how Alex Verdugo has slowly but surely climbed the dynasty ranks over the past three years? That’s what you’ve got to hope for with Rutherford, because a ceiling as an OF4/5 won’t win you a ton of dynasty admirers when you’re still about two seasons away. 9. Zack Collins, C DOB: 2/6/1995 Height/Weight: 6’3”, 220 lbs. Bats/Throws: L/R Drafted/Acquired: Drafted 10th overall in the 2016 draft, University of Miami; signed for $3.3806 Previous Ranking(s): #5 (Org), #89 (Top 101) 2017 Stats: .235/.422/.471, 2 HR, 0 SB in 12 games at Double-A Birmingham; .223/.365/.443, 17 HR, 0 SB in 101 games at High-A Winston-Salem The Good: This is the era of launch angle and Three True Outcomes and Collins is very much a prospect of his time. We will get to the bad outcome below, but as for the good ones, Collins has plus raw pop and a patient approach that should allow him to get to most of it in games. That same approach should garner enough walks to buoy a below-average hit tool into league average on-base percentages. That plus 20 home runs from a backstop is a very nice offensive profile. And he might be a catcher, although… The Bad: …Collins is still a work in progress behind the plate. He’s presently below average at just about every aspect of defense there. He’s stiff moving side to side, doesn’t receive well, and his average arm strength plays to a tick below due to inconsistencies in the release. Collins goes for pull-side power over contact, and it’s a long swing with a hitch that should lead to big strikeout totals and low batting averages. He runs like a catcher. The Role: OFP 55—The last of the bat-first starting catchers Likely 45—Some sort of 1B/C/DH hodgepodge with enough pop to be useful The Risks: There’s a decent chance he doesn’t stick at catcher, and I don’t know if he is a better first base prospect than his fellow 2016 draftee Matt Thaiss. It would give Ben a chance to comp him to CJ Cron though. Major league ETA: Late 2019 Ben Carsley’s Fantasy Take: I have never been as big a fan of Collins as Bret has been. It’s true that Collins doesn’t need to be a good catcher to have a ton of fantasy value—he just needs to be good enough to retain catcher eligibility. I’m not sure he’ll get there, though, and even if he does, unless you’re playing in an OBP league, Collins looks to be a two-trick pony (HR and RBI) in dynasty leagues. He’s only a borderline top-101 guy for me at this point, but when I we average my grade with Bret’s he’ll probably end up in the top-75. 10. Carson Fulmer, RHP DOB: 12/13/1993 Height/Weight: 6’0”, 195 lbs. Bats/Throws: R/R Drafted/Acquired: Drafted 8th overall in the 2015 Draft, Vanderbilt University; signed for $3.4706 Previous Ranking(s): #7 (Org) 2017 Stats: 3.86 ERA, 5.97 DRA, 23 ⅓ IP, 16 H, 13 BB, 19 K in 7 games at the major league level; 5.79 ERA, 5.77 DRA, 126 IP, 132 H, 65 BB, 96 K in 25 games at Triple-A Charlotte The Good: Fulmer is one of those guys with The Good Stuff™. His fastball generally ranges from 91-95 as a starter, but mostly works at the upper end of that band and it has explosive arm-side movement. At its best he can dominate with just that pitch. Fulmer’s cutter can touch the low-90s and is a potential 7 with hard slider depth when it’s on. He also has an above-average curve that sits in the low-80s with tight 12-6 action. That’s three above-average or better pitches. The Bad: The changeup isn’t much to write home about, leaving him overly dependent on throwing fastballs at the front hip of major-league lefties. The curve and cutter don’t seem as tight in the middle innings. The command profile is below-average, and he struggles to throw enough strikes. He’s a shorter, stockier righty with some effort in the delivery, so it all looks like a late-inning reliever on the bump. The Role: OFP 55—Bounces between the eighth and ninth inning Likely 45—Inefficient back-end starter or 7th/8th inning guy The Risks: Low. Fulmer has major-league stuff and is ready for a major-league role now. Major league ETA: Debuted in 2016 Ben Carsley’s Fantasy Take: [speaks with lawyer about The Good Stuff copyright trademark infringement] But also, The Next Ten (in alphabetical order): Spencer Adams, RHP, Double-A Birmingham One day Spencer Adams will mature and grow more muscle right? Back in 2014, Adams was a lean, wiry Georgia righty with a big arm, a swing-and-miss slider, and advanced command for a high schooler. Now in 2017, Adams is a lean, wiry righty who hails from the state of Georgia with an average fastball, a good slider, and the same projection that was offered back then. At this point you don’t know if the projection will ever come, but he has still shown durability and strike-throwing ability despite it. The profile will be of a back-end starter if he gets there, but he needs to improve his below-average changeup, and find more swings and misses before he can settle into that paycheck. —Steve Givarz Micker Adolfo, OF, Low-A Kannapolis I’ve made this comp before, but if Tim Tebow had been drafted into baseball out of high school, he probably would be on about the same track as Micker Adolfo. Adolfo is a chiseled monster among men, just starting to evolve into a baseball player. He’s got huge raw power that started transferring into games this year. He had a much better idea of what pitches to swing at this year, granted that there’s still enormous swing-and-miss in the profile. The hit tool advanced, too. There’s still a mile to go between here and the majors, but Adolfo made real progress in 2017. —Jarrett Seidler Luis Alexander Basabe, OF, High-A Winston-Salem Our intrepid editor pegged Basabe to make the jump into the 101 this year. Craig did note that Basabe would have to “refine his approach” and that didn’t really happen in 2017. He continued to look raw at the plate and flail at spin, while flashing the above-average athletic tools that made him a Top Ten prospect in this system last year. He’s not all that far off that mark again this year, and the above-average regular upside still remains, but eventually the raw tools are going to have to play at the plate more if he is going to be anything more than an up-and-down, athletic extra outfielder. Zack Burdi, RHP, Triple-A Charlotte Burdi was on his way to making the White Sox pen at some point in 2017 before being felled by a torn UCL. Relievers tend to come back a little bit faster from that surgery than starters, but the flame-throwing righty should miss most of the 2018 season for recovery and rehab. The good news is he is major-league-ready with an upper-90s fastball that moves and a plus-plus upper-80s slider that’s unhittable when he’s on top of it. Relief prospects (especially ones that literally just had major elbow surgery) can be a tough sell for these lists, but Burdi has closer stuff. That helps. Ian Clarkin, LHP, High-A Winston-Salem Clarkin was healthy by his standards in 2017, but still has yet to log 100 innings in a season as a professional after missing a month this Summer with a strained oblique. He’s an athletic lefty with three potentially average pitches. Leaving the Yankees system—who tend to get a lot out of this profile—isn’t as big a deal as you might think, since the White Sox tend to keep this kind of guy healthy. But Clarkin will need to find something that projects to miss major league bats or he will be limited to a generic swingman type even if he sticks on the mound for all of 2018. Casey Gillaspie, 1B, Triple-A Charlotte A former first-rounder, Gillaspie didn’t fare too well in Triple-A with Tampa or Chicago this past season. He has the power from both sides, can work counts, but isn’t much to write about defensively. This year’s go-round saw his approach get more exposed, then getting sent to Chicago for Dan Jennings. With Jose Abreu entrenched at first base, it is hard to see Gillaspie getting much playing time going forward. This kind of profile, a three-true-outcome first baseman, doesn’t have much wiggle room and could end up more Quad-A masher than everyday player. —Steve Givarz Jake Peter, UTIL, Triple-A Charlotte Peter spent another year bouncing between Double-A and Triple-A, playing all over the diamond, and basically having the Jake Peter season. In a bit of a twist though, he socked nine home runs in 45 International League games after hitting just eleven total in his first three professional seasons. This may be a sample size blip of course—and Peter’s profile has always been more “scrappy utility type” than “future Brian Dozier”—but even if that is the case, he’s pretty much major league ready and a reasonable bench upgrade for a team that gave an awful lot of at-bats to Tyler Saladino and Alen Hanson last season. And hey, Brian Dozier’s profile was never “future Brian Dozier” either. A.J. Puckett, RHP, High-A Winston-Salem Acquired in a deal that sent Melky Cabrera to the Royals, Puckett represents a solid, but unspectacular starting pitching prospect. There’s little concern that the 22-year-old right-hander will stick in the rotation as he has the size and ability to keep his stuff deep into starts. However, the arsenal doesn’t project him as becoming anymore than a back-end starter at his peak. His main weapon is a legitimate plus changeup, especially when he uses it off the fastball. He shows great feel for it and produces quality fade, which allows the pitch to act as an above-average putaway offering. He sits 91-92, which doesn’t help him miss a ton of bats (164 K in 194 ⅓ IP for his career). The curveball is only fringy at best, too, so Puckett relies on above-average command to keep hitters from doing serious damage. Coming off a solid High-A campaign, Puckett fits in just behind the likes of Kopech, Hansen, and Dunning because he lacks flashy stuff, but he does have enough command and pitchability to elevate his mediocre arsenal to a likely inning-eating number five role in a rotation.—Greg Goldstein Gavin Sheets, 1B, Low-A Kannapolis Sheets completes the trio of likely power hitting corner infielders at the top of the White Sox system (see Burger and Collins). Standing 6-foot-4, 230 pounds, Sheets’ plus raw power is his primary draw. Like most power hitters, Sheets uses a lot of leverage to help lift the baseball, and particularly uses his body well to turn on pitches on the inner half. However, his swing does come with a fair amount of holes as Sheets isn’t as efficient as he needs to be in getting to a solid load position. His long swing path leaves little room for error as well. In addition, the bat speed isn’t as fast as you think given his size, which won’t help negate his longer stroke when he faces better velo. The defense is fine, he just needs to tighten the swing enough to let the power play as a home run reliant first baseman down the line. Sheets has an advanced approach given his age and level, which should allow him to become a solid three outcomes first baseman who could start regularly if he addresses some of the mechanical flaws in his swing. —Greg Goldstein Yeyson Yrizarri, IF, High-A Winston-Salem A former top international signing, Yrizarri was acquired from Texas for a boatload of 2017-2018 international bonus money the White Sox couldn’t functionally use because of the Luis Robert penalty, and he remains basically the same player we wrote up last year. In his case, that’s distinctly not good, because he’s going to have to develop some fundamental understanding of the strike zone to let his natural hitting tools play out in concert with his strong multi-positional defensive potential. He’s younger than Micker Adolfo, who did start to figure it out at the dish from a similar position in 2017, so there’s hope for more than just a defense-first utility dude here, but time is not infinite and Yrizarri’s career could go a lot of different ways in 2018. Given his incredible arm strength and overall athleticism, if he can’t hack it at the plate, there might be pretty good fallback potential on the mound here. —Jarrett Seidler Friends in low places Kade McClure, RHP, Low-A Kannapolis The White Sox sixth-rounder this past year, McClure wasn’t talked about a lot this spring, but is a legitimate candidate for this honor. Standing 6-foot-7, 230 pounds, McClure looks the part of an innings eater and proved it at Louisville, throwing 103 innings his junior year. Hence the White Sox being cautious with him this season, only appearing in 10 game, throwing 11 innings. While the fastball velocity is just average, I projected it to above-average earlier this year based on improved weight gains and the simplicity of his delivery. The slider might be slurvy, but it has proven to be effective and has shown confidence throwing it in any count to any batter. The most likely outcome here is a back-end starter, but those aren’t nothing, and this kind of profile can sneak up on you before you know it. —Steve Givarz *** A second opinion: Michael Kopech is the White Sox top prospect It is not a knock on Eloy Jimenez when I say that I think Kopech is the Sox’ top prospect. I saw Eloy in a series soon after he was promoted to Double-A and I saw the advanced pitchers in the Southern League able to keep him on the defensive. In 20 at-bats, he had just one extra-base hit and that was a double that came on a ground ball that hit the third base bag. I never really saw the plus-plus game power showing itself. I do like Jimenez a lot. The hit tool is impressive for such a young hitter. He was almost never fooled or off balance. He has an especially effective two-strike approach where he spreads out and looks to stay back and see the ball deep. Two of his four hits in the series I saw were with two strikes, but that is my “concern.” Pitchers made good pitches early in counts to him and he was simply not aggressive as he got behind a bit. He is just an average defender and baserunner so his value has to come from his ability to consistently find his in-game power. Other than a four game series against his former organization where he went 10 for 17 with two homers and two doubles, the rest of his Double-A performance was remarkably similar to what I saw. Lots of great players have adjustment issues at a new level and Jimenez has plenty of time to make the adjustments he needs. Kopech, though, has already made many of his adjustments. We all know about the repertoire. The questions with Kopech have always been about maturity and command. The command question is something Kopech has worked hard to address this season and the results say he’s been quite successful. After altering his delivery at mid-season to keep himself more on line to his target, Kopech went on to walk just 12 batters in his last nine starts, three of which were in Triple-A. He posted an ERA of 1.29 in those nine starts with 71 strikeouts in 56 innings. The maturity questions remain, as Kopech can lose focus when things don’t go the way he’d like. I also saw him taunt an opposing player who hit a ground ball back to him, though he immediately apologized on the field as he realized what he’d done. Both guys are top prospects. These are two of the highest ceilings in the game, but Kopech right now is closer to reaching that elite ceiling than is Eloy. —Scott Delp *** Top Talents 25 and Under (born 4/1/1992 or later): Yoan Moncada Eloy Jimenez Michael Kopech Carlos Rodon Tim Anderson Lucas Giolito Reynaldo Lopez Alec Hansen Dylan Cease Luis Robert This time last year, there were serious questions about Moncada’s hit tool. And while the development of his contact skills will remain the limiting reagent as to whether he is a solid regular, a star, or an MVP candidate, everything else is extremely impressive. In addition to the power and speed appearing as advertised, he also demonstrated patience and a willingness to take close pitches—albeit, to the point where he veered into harmful passivity at times. Even with no improvement, Moncada looks like a major-league regular, and it seems awfully pessimistic to think there’s no improvement left here. The next group of three was difficult to sort—as you can see above, we have an OFP 70 on Jimenez, Kopech boasts potentially overwhelming stuff, while Carlos Rodon topped this list last year and has shown extended flashes of being a number two starter in the majors already. The safety of Jimenez as a bat over arms as a general principle works in his favor, as does the safety of just how good his bat looks in particular. Even if Jimenez hits .280 instead of .300 or hits 25-30 homers a year instead of 40 and winds up at first instead of in the outfield, that’ll still hunt. Kopech and Rodon both bring more risk to the table; the former primarily due to command and control questions and a limited track record, and the latter has added some new health issues to his resume. As far as deciding between the two, all things being equal, the pitcher with major league success would win out, but concern about Rodon’s recent arthroscopic shoulder surgery served as a tiebreaker here. Either way, if a time traveler were to announce that one or both of them were front-end major-league starters as soon as 2018, it would be anything but a surprise. Well, the Kopech and Rodon part. The time traveling thing would be a lot to handle and a strange use of that power. Anderson took a step back on offense and defense in 2017, and it is difficult to know how much to attribute to the toll of his first full major league season combined with the horrific murder of his best friend, or to very real issues with the profile. But even if it won’t always be pretty, Anderson still has the tools to be a solid or maybe a little better major league shortstop. Lopez and Giolito no longer appear to have “front-line starter” as a potential outcome, but they also appear closer to being no. 3 or no. 4 starters than they did at this time last year, which is still a very valuable outcome. Hansen and Cease have the potential to be excellent starters, but they are much farther away from making that a reality and carry more risk than the other arms ahead of them in the organization. Rounding out the top ten with a bang is Luis Robert, a mysterious, premium athlete who has spent the last few years annihilating wildly overmatched competition. Robert certainly has the potential to fly up this list in the next year, as it sounds like there could be an impact center fielder here, but whether he does is anybody’s guess. —Nick Schaefer

Only if you say pretty please.

Sweet. Baseball.

I have SP depth. I could use a closer.

YM.

I know, right? He could at least offer some better talent than Kershaw. Yuck.

Never even heard of it

Heh. I bet 20$ last December that the Astros would win the world series at 17 to 1 odds. Pretty happy about that bet.