Oakland A’s land 4 prospects on 2017 MLB Pipeline Top 100 list

We’ve reached the part of the offseason when the national Top 100 prospect lists begin to come out. So far two major versions have been released: MLB Pipeline (from MLB.com), and Keith Law (from ESPN).

MLB Pipeline turned out more favorably for the A’s, with four players making the cut:

52. Franklin Barreto, SS
69. A.J. Puk, LHP
85. Grant Holmes, RHP
100. Matt Chapman, 3B

A few notes:

• This represents a hefty drop for Barreto, who was at No. 23 last winter, and also for Holmes (No. 62 last winter). However, Chapman makes his first-ever preseason Top 100 list, from any national source.
• Among 2016 draftees, Puk (the No. 6 overall pick) ranked 8th. Of the guys drafted ahead of him, he beat out Atlanta’s Ian Anderson (No. 3 overall pick), but a few later picks were ranked higher (No. 7 pick Braxton Garrett, No. 11 Kyle Lewis, and No. 12 Jason Groome).
• Three of the top four overall prospects have already been traded during their brief careers (Yoan Moncada for Chris Sale; Gleyber Torres for Aroldis Chapman; and Dansby Swanson for ... Shelby Miller lol).
• Barreto is also No. 10 on the list of top shortstops.
• Puk is No. 7 on the list of top left-handed pitchers.
• Chapman is No. 6 on the list of top third basemen.
• Unrelated: The No. 9 draft prospect on MLB Pipeline is a lefty pitcher named D.L. Hall whose profile includes a Scott Kazmir comp. As someone who judges amateur players solely by how cool their names are, I already know who I want in the draft next summer.

Meanwhile, Keith Law was not as impressed with the A’s system:

56. Franklin Barreto, SS
93. A.J. Puk, LHP

That’s it, just those two. That helps explain why he ranked Oakland’s farm at 23rd out of 30 teams.

There should be more Top 100 lists coming out in the next week or two, including Baseball America, Baseball Prospectus, and Minor League Ball. We’ll revisit when we have some more lists to play with!