Prospect list season is in full swing. This week we will have gotten both the Baseball Prospectus Top 101 prospects list as well as the MLB Pipeline Top 100 Prospect list (released tonight). We also have gotten positional lists from MLB Pipeline each day for the last two weeks. Well, today we also saw Fangraphs new lead prospect writer Dan Farnsworth take his first stab at the Cincinnati Reds top prospects list.
Not knowing what to expect from Farnsworth, this is a good first list by him. He went 34 players deep with his list and mentioned a few others beyond there. For the most part, the information seems to be quite accurate, with only a few things here or there that differ from what I’ve seen or been told about a few guys. As we’ve look at things in the past, let’s show a comparison of the Fangraphs Top 10 Reds prospects to the other big publications (and my own. Also worth noting that the Baseball America list was released before the Reds acquired Jose Peraza, who would have made the list according to JJ Cooper):
| Reds Minor Leagues | Baseball America | Baseball Prospectus | Fangraphs | |
| 1 | Robert Stephenson | Robert Stephenson | Robert Stephenson | Jesse Winker |
| 2 | Jesse Winker | Cody Reed | Cody Reed | Robert Stephenson |
| 3 | Nick Travieso | Amir Garrett | Jesse Winker | Cody Reed |
| 4 | Amir Garrett | Tyler Stephenson | Amir Garrett | Amir Garrett |
| 5 | Cody Reed | Jesse Winker | Jose Peraza | Alex Blandino |
| 6 | Yorman Rodriguez | Alex Blandino | Tyler Stephenson | Jose Peraza |
| 7 | Jose Peraza | Nick Travieso | Keury Mella | Nick Travieso |
| 8 | Phillip Ervin | Keury Mella | Nick Travieso | Tyler Stephenson |
| 9 | Alex Blandino | Sal Romano | Alex Blandino | Keury Mella |
| 10 | Sal Romano | Tyler Mahle | Antonio Santillan | Blake Trahan |
The big outlier on the Fangraphs list is Blake Trahan, who didn’t find himself mentioned on any of the other lists. What’s interesting is how Fangraphs list is laid out. There are tiers of players, laid out by projected future values. Anyone given a 50 or higher is viewed as a future every day player or starting pitcher. Every player in the Reds Top 10 ranked as a 50 or higher. Showing off impressive amounts of depth, the players ranked 11th-24th were labeled as 45+ players, or basically fringy average, back end starters/good relievers. There have only been six other systems ranked, so it’s tough to make a strong comparison but here’s how the Reds 45+ players stack up compared to the other teams that have been ranked thus far:
| Team | 45+ FV players |
| Reds | 24 |
| Cubs | 21 |
| Dbacks | 20 |
| Red Sox | 17 |
| Braves | 16 |
| White Sox | 16 |
| Orioles | 11 |
It will be interesting to see how well that number holds up as Fangraphs continues to roll out their prospect lists, but I have a good feeling that if it’s not at the top by the end, it will be really close to it.
Go check out the entire list. Watch some of the videos (plenty of them are my videos).