Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Prospect coverage is a labor of love. I know that’s why I do it, and I’m sure that’s at least partially why others do it. It’s nice to get an outside view of the farm system, so I figured out who people thought the Dodgers’ Top 10 prospects are heading into 2016.
FanGraphs just released its top Dodgers’ prospects list today, and that’s what I was waiting on to publish this piece.
The word “consensus” below isn’t technically correct, but for the sake of argument, let’s just roll with it.
Consensus Dodgers’ Top 10 prospects
| Player | Baseball America | Baseball Prospectus | ESPN (Keith Law) | FanGraphs | MLB.com | True Blue LA | Average |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seager | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Urias | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| De Leon | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3.3 |
| Holmes | 6 | 4 | 5 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 5.2 |
| Maeda | 5 | NR | 7 | 5 | NR | NR | 5.7 |
| Bellinger | 4 | 9 | 7 | 8 | 6 | 7 | 6.8 |
| Montas | 9 | 5 | 10 | 7 | 5 | 9 | 7.5 |
| Barnes | 8 | NR | 8 | 4 | 12 | 6 | 7.6 |
| Verdugo | 7 | 7 | 3 | 15 | 7 | 8 | 7.8 |
| Alvarez | 10 | 6 | 12 | 13 | 10 | 12 | 10.5 |
It’s might be a little unfair to have guys in here who weren’t ranked on specific sites, but this is a rough representation of what prospect folk think the Dodgers’ Top 10 looks like. It’s a consensus with the top two prospects: Corey Seager (the consensus No. 1 prospect in all of baseball) and Julio Urias. There is variation on the next few guys, but Jose De Leon is almost the consensus No. 3 prospect, though, a valid argument could be made for Grant Holmes in that spot.
Some sites don’t rank professional foreign imports like Kenta Maeda, but he’s still a prospect in my eyes. Cody Bellinger got a nice bump from Ben Badler at Baseball America and could place even higher next year if he has another strong showing. There are some outliers on both ends — Austin Barnes at No. 4 and Alex Verdugo at No. 15 on FanGraphs, Verdugo at No. 3 on ESPN and Yadier Alvarez at No. 6 on Baseball Prospectus stand out. There were other rankings among those sites that stood out, too. Click the respective links to view that site’s top Dodger prospects.
My Top 10 has nine of the 10 players listed above. The only difference is I have Jharel Cotton ranked higher than Frankie Montas.
Baseball America and MLB.com ranked the Dodgers’ farm system at No. 1 overall in baseball, with Law ranking them at No. 2. Baseball Prospectus and FanGraphs have yet to release those rankings.
Ho-hum, the farm system is great. Expect some of these guys to make an impact this season (either with the team or in a trade) and in the coming years. This is all very good.
