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Over the last two months, the Athletics Nation community has worked together to construct a top prospect list for the team via crowdsource votes. We voted on each spot individually, and we now have a complete list of the Top 30 Oakland A's prospects entering the 2016 season. Here it is! (Click here to learn more about each player.)
# | Name | Pos | Age | Level | Acquired |
1 | Sean Manaea | LHP | 24 | AAA | Trade (Zobrist) |
2 | Franklin Barreto | SS | 20 | AA | Trade (Donaldson) |
3 | Matt Olson | 1B/OF | 22 | AAA | Draft (1R, 2012) |
4 | Matt Chapman | 3B | 23 | AA | Draft (1R, 2014) |
5 | Chad Pinder | SS | 24 | AAA | Draft (2R, 2013) |
6 | Renato Nunez | 3B/1B | 22 | AAA | International |
7 | Yairo Munoz | SS | 21 | AA/A+ | International |
8 | Richie Martin | SS | 21 | A+/A | Draft (1R, 2015) |
9 | Casey Meisner | RHP | 21 | AA | Trade (Clippard) |
10 | Dillon Overton | LHP | 24 | AA | Draft (2R, 2013) |
11 | Rangel Ravelo | 1B | 24 | AAA | Trade (Shark) |
12 | Joey Wendle | 2B | 26 | AAA | Trade (Moss) |
13 | Dakota Chalmers | RHP | 19 | A- | Draft (3R, 2015) |
14 | Raul Alcantara | RHP | 23 | AA | Trade (Bailey) |
15 | Daniel Mengden | RHP | 23 | AA | Trade (Kazmir) |
16 | Mikey White | SS/2B | 22 | A+ | Draft (2R, 2015) |
17 | Ryan Dull | RHP | 26 | AAA/MLB | Draft (32R, 2012) |
18 | Skye Bolt | OF | 22 | A+ | Draft (4R, 2015) |
19 | Zack Erwin | LHP | 22 | A+ | Trade (Lawrie) |
20 | Ryon Healy | 3B/1B | 24 | AAA/AA | Draft (3R, 2013) |
21 | Jaycob Brugman | OF | 24 | AAA | Draft (17R, 2013) |
22 | J.B. Wendelken | RHP | 23 | AAA | Trade (Lawrie) |
23 | Dylan Covey | RHP | 24 | AA | Draft (4R, 2013) |
24 | Sandber Pimentel | 1B | 21 | A+ | International |
25 | Heath Fillmyer | RHP | 22 | A/A+ | Draft (5R, 2014) |
26 | Dustin Driver | RHP | 21 | A | Draft (7R, 2013) |
27 | Daniel Gossett | RHP | 23 | A+ | Draft (2R, 2014) |
28 | Bruce Maxwell | C | 25 | AAA/AA | Draft (2R, 2012) |
29 | Bobby Wahl | RHP | 24 | AAA | Draft (5R, 2013) |
30 | Tyler Ladendorf | Util | 28 | AAA/MLB | Trade (Cabrera) |
(The "Level" column features my own guesses at where each player will open 2016. The "Age" column refers to the age at which the player will play in 2016, even if he hasn't quite had his birthday yet.)
Where do they come from? Of the 30 names, 17 were drafted by Oakland (three in 2012, seven in 2013, three in 2014, four in 2015), three more were international signings, and the other 10 came from nine different trades (the Lawrie-to-ChW deal is the only one that represents two players on the current list). The nine trades include three of the four big blockbusters from the 2014-15 offseason (Donaldson, Moss, Shark), the three 2015 deadline deals (Zobrist, Kazmir, Clippard), the Lawrie trade, the pre-2012 Andrew Bailey trade (to the Red Sox), and the 2009 Orlando Cabrera trade (to the Twins).
Here are AN's rankings compared with some other prominent lists (click for full-sized image).
(Links to the original lists: MLB.com, Oakland Clubhouse, John Sickels, Baseball America, Baseball Prospectus, Athletics Farm, Keith Law)
One interesting thing this year is that there is almost a complete consensus on the Top 10 portion of the list. The orders differ, but the same 10 names show up in all eight Top 10 lists, with only two exceptions: BP hasn't updated its list since Jacob Nottingham was traded away, so it only goes through the Top 9 (Dillon Overton is absent); and John Sickels picked Daniel Mengden at No. 10 (Overton dropped to No. 12). Not every team has such a clear-cut top group, and this situation gives me the chance to easily average out the rankings. Here's the average Top 10 (for Overton, I called him 10th on BP's list but used his value of 12th from JS):
1. Barreto, 1.25
2. Manaea, 1.88
3. Olson, 3.38
4. Chapman, 4.38
5. Nunez, 5.88
6. Martin, 6.25
6. Pinder, 6.25
8. Munoz, 7.75
9. Meisner, 8.75
10. Overton, 9.5
(Note: Martin got the tiebreaker over Pinder since he has the highest individual ranks, having placed No. 4 on two lists while Pinder reached no higher than No. 5 on any list.)
The next step is to wait and see how these guys do in 2016!