Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Keith Law's Top 100 prospects

Keef Law expanded on his post from yesterday which ranked the Astros at the top of the All The Farm Systems, with his own Top 100 prospects ranking list (51-100 is here). Of course, it's Insider-Only, so we'll give you only enough information to make you consider signing up for Insider (because you know you want to HateRead Olney's biannual columns blasting the Astros).

#4: Carlos Correa (up from #24 in 2013)
Other than a lack of speed, he's close to the ideal prospect, and if he ends up following the Manny Machado route to third base, his bat will still make him a star.

#11: Mark Appel
Moving to every fifth day in pro ball might impact his stuff a little, but even if he loses 2 mph he's still a potential front-line starter with command and control of three above-average to plus offerings.

#19: George Springer (up from #43 in 2013)
I could easily see him being a consistently high-BABIP guy who strikes out 180 times a year and still hits .280 or better, because of how quick his hands are, and that player in center field would be an All-Star.

#70: Mike Foltynewicz (unranked in 2013)
It's an ace's fastball, but I think the overall package is more of a league-average to above-average starter, 200-plus innings of better performance than the Astros have seen from a starter in quite some time.

#78: Jon Singleton (down from #32 in 2013)
The floor here is a platoon regular who destroys right-handers but needs a caddie against southpaws

#80: Delino DeShields (up from #83 in 2013)
I see a 21-year-old with a lot of physical ability who needs to grow up to reach his ceiling, but he's far too young to assume he'll never be able to do it

#82: Vincent Velasquez (unranked in 2013)
He needs more reps -- he is 21 and has fewer than 200 innings of pro experience across three-plus seasons -- to see if the curve can become an average or better pitch; if it does, he's at least a mid-rotation guy, and, if not, I think he has the control and changeup to still be a No. 4 starter.

We'll post a prospect matrix later today to get a feel for how Baseball America, Baseball Prospectus, the Crawfish Boxes, and Keith Law interact.