October 3, 2014 at 8:00 AM
Staff Top 40 Rankings, 2014: Wrap up
Time to wrap up our annual Staff Top 40 Rankings series. To start, here are the lists:
Monday - Chris Hatfield
Tuesday - Matt Huegel
Wednesday - Ian Cundall
Thursday - Mike Andrews
So after all that, here's how we averaged out:
1. Blake Swihart, C
2. Henry Owens, LHP
T-3. Rafael Devers, 3B
T-3. Manuel Margot, OF
5. Eduardo Rodriguez, LHP
6. Brian Johnson, LHP
7. Michael Chavis, SS/3B
8. Matt Barnes, RHP
T-9. Trey Ball, LHP
T-9. Anthony Ranaudo, RHP
11. Garin Cecchini, 3B/OF
12. Deven Marrero, SS
13. Michael Kopech, RHP
T-14. Sean Coyle, 2B/3B
T-14. Edwin Escobar, LHP
16. Wendell Rijo, 2B
17. Travis Shaw, 1B
18. Sam Travis, 1B
19. Nick Longhi, OF/1B
20. Teddy Stankiewicz, RHP
21. Heath Hembree, RHP
22. Javier Guerra, SS
23. Steven Wright, RHP
24. Henry Ramos, OF
25. Alex Hassan, OF/1B
26. Simon Mercedes, RHP
27. Carlos Asuaje, Util
28. Anderson Espinoza, RHP
29. Luis Diaz, RHP
30. Noe Ramirez, RHP
31. Christopher Acosta, RHP
32. Bryce Brentz, OF
33. Jake Cosart, RHP
34. Dalier Hinojosa, RHP
35. Drake Britton, LHP
36. Justin Haley, RHP
37. Dan Butler, C
38. Jamie Callahan, RHP
39. Cody Kukuk, LHP
40. German Taveras, RHP
Ultimately, we reached a consensus on the first, second,... sixth, and eighth prospects on the list. Although I predicted a few months ago that we might vary wildly in our staff rankings, the graduations of so many prospects—as mentioned by Mike yesterday, that list includes Mookie Betts, Xander Bogaerts, Jackie Bradley, Jr., Tommy Layne, Christian Vazquez, Allen Webster, and Brandon Workman—made the top 20 or so pretty uniform across our rankings. The highest-ranked player who had a standard deviation of greater than three across our rankings was Teddy Stankieiwicz at number 20.
For the sake of comparison, here is the list that members of the SoxProspects Forum voted on recently.
1. Blake Swihart, C
2. Henry Owens, LHP
3. Manuel Margot, OF
4. Eduardo Rodriguez, LHP
5. Rafael Devers, 3B
6. Matt Barnes, RHP
7. Brian Johnson, LHP
8. Michael Chavis, SS/3B
9. Garin Cecchini, 3B/OF
10. Anthony Ranaudo, RHP
11. Trey Ball, LHP
T-12. Sean Coyle, 2B/3B
T-12. Deven Marrero, SS
14. Edwin Escobar, LHP
15. Michael Kopech, RHP
16. Wendell Rijo, 2B
17. Sam Travis, 1B
18. Teddy Stankiewicz, RHP
19. Carlos Asuaje, Util
20. Nick Longhi, OF/1B
21. Travis Shaw, 1B
22. Henry Ramos, OF
23. Steven Wright, RHP
24. Simon Mercedes, RHP
25. Luis Diaz, RHP
26. Bryce Brentz, OF
27. Javier Guerra, SS
T-28. Anderson Espinoza, RHP
T-28. Alex Hassan, OF/1B
T-30. Mauricio Dubon, SS
T-30. Heath Hembree, RHP
32. Justin Haley, RHP
33. Jake Cosart, RHP
34. Cody Kukuk, LHP
35. Christopher Acosta, RHP
36. Noe Ramirez, RHP
37. Jhonathan Diaz, LHP
38. Danny Mars, OF
T-39. Carson Blair, C
T-39. Jamie Callahan, RHP
T-39. Joe Gunkel, RHP
It looks like we're a bit higher than our posters on players like Javier Guerra (a player whose scouting reports may have been more impressive than his numbers) and Heath Hembree, while the SoxProspects community are bigger fans of Carlos Asuaje (probably the opposite of Guerra, a player with a lower ceiling who had an outstanding statistical season).
As always, thanks to all of our readers. We'll have a quiet week next week here on the SoxProspects News Page—unless there is, of course, NEWS—but in a week, get ready for our Top 40 Season in Review!
Photo Credit: Blake Swihart, Javier Guerra, Matt Barnes, and Carlos Asuaje by Kelly O'Connor. As always, we thank Kelly for letting us use her photos. Make sure you check out her website!