Every winter, Baseball America publishes a Top 10 prospect list for each MLB organization. The Oakland A’s edition came out on Monday, with Franklin Barreto predictably topping the field. There will surely be a revision in a couple months after trades have changed the landscape, but this is the initial snapshot entering the offseason.
I am pleasantly surprised to see that BA’s version isn’t too far off from the personal list I shared a couple weeks ago in our Community Prospect List update post. Here is what they came up with:
- Franklin Barreto, SS
- A.J. Puk, LHP
- Matt Chapman, 3B
- Jharel Cotton, RHP
- Frankie Montas, RHP
- Grant Holmes, RHP
- Chad Pinder, SS
- Daniel Gossett, RHP
- Richie Martin, SS
- Bruce Maxwell, C
The following table includes three arrangements of Oakland’s top prospects. On the left is MLB Pipeline (their 2016 midseason update, so not quite as recent), in the middle is my personal list (not the official Athletics Nation CPL, which hasn’t yet been voted on), and on the right is Baseball America.
# | MLB | Alex | BA |
1 | Barreto | Barreto | Barreto |
2 | Puk | Chapman | Puk |
3 | Holmes | Puk | Chapman |
4 | Chapman | Cotton | Cotton |
5 | Nunez | Holmes | Montas |
6 | Martin | Olson | Holmes |
7 | Munoz | Montas | Pinder |
8 | Pinder | Pinder | Gossett |
9 | Chalmers | Gossett | Martin |
10 | Montas | Maxwell | Maxwell |
When I suggested my list earlier this month, I noticed two areas that drew a lot of disagreement: keeping Pinder in the top 10, and dropping Martin out of it. BA split the difference and included both guys. I also thought that I had made a pretty bold statement by ranking Cotton and Maxwell so high, so I was happy to see that BA not only shared my enthusiasm but actually ranked them in the exact same spots. The one area where my list remains a true outlier is that I’m hanging on to slugger Matt Olson for another year.
As you can imagine, I think BA did a pretty good job on this one. We chose nine of the same players. We have 3 guys ranked in the same spot, 5 more ranked within one spot of each other (i.e., Chapman is second on mine, third on theirs), Montas ranked within two spots, and Olson swapped out for Martin. And it’s not like these selections were a total given, considering how different MLB Pipeline’s version is — they even have three more guys whom BA and I excluded (infielders Renato Nunez and Yairo Munoz, and RHP Dakota Chalmers).
The general consensus from all the lists so far:
- Barreto is definitely No. 1
- Puk is in the Top 3
- Chapman is in the Top 4
- Holmes is in the Top 6
- Pinder is in the Top 8
- Montas is in the Top 10
- The Top 10 is still heavy with position players (4 pitchers, 6 hitters)
Which of the three Top 10 lists (MLB, BA, or Alex) is the closest to your version?