I would never in my wildest dreams pretend to be as adept at minor league knowledge and Seattle Mariners prospects as JY or marc w. I did update the news on prospects this season for SBN Seattle, but nobody reads that and I was just the messenger more than anything else. So please don't take this as me stealing anyone's thunder because those dudes are Thor when it comes to thunder in this area, and I am more like Agent Maria Hill.

You have no idea why I was in The Avengers, but "Hey, isn't that the girl from How I Met Your Mother?"

(Nerd aside: I am not so into the Marvel Universe that I have in depth knowledge of who Maria Hill is and how much of a role she plays in later Avenger movies, so cut me some slack I beg of you.)

Rather, I felt like taking advantage of "Rank that prospect!" season and open a forum for talking about the Mariners "pretty cool, radical" farm system. I'm just a boy, standing in front of the internet, asking it to talk about baseball. We still have weeks before Spring Training, free agency has hummed along like sweet molasses, and many of the best available names are no longer available. We know the Mariners didn't get Josh Hamilton, but we also know that we probably will have Mike Zunino! And that's not a bad thing at all. Really, we should not be ignoring the fact that even though Hamilton is an Angel and Grienke is a Dodger, and the greater area of Los Angeles is bankrupt, that the Mariners have basically a pool of really good "free agents" that no one else is allowed to touch unless we let them. They are called minor leaguers. They are ours, and you might be able to have them at the right price, but otherwise they are ours.

Marc Hulet came out with his Top 15 Seattle Mariners prospects on the 18th and you can see them by clicking here.

In fact, now that I think about it, I might just add prospect lists to this page as they come about. This fanpost is changing organically like I never expected it to when I was talking about The Avengers.

Baseball America's Top 10

Baseball Prospectus Top 10

Mike Zunino, Taijuan Walker, Danny Hultzen, Nick Franklin, and James Paxton. This is always going to be the top five, or at least it should be, but with slight variations in who ranks where and who number six is. Hulet like Carter Capps, but many people probably will go with a high upside hitter or starter over a more "guaranteed" relief pitcher/closer. It all depends on what flavor the prospect-ranker likes, and they all have different tastes.

Personally, I like the idea of playing it safe, but I think Brandon Maurer is a pretty safe bet as a starter, save for injuries. Prompt: What type of prospect list do you prefer? Upside-upside-upside or "High Floor" prospects?

Which prospects are being undersold? Which prospects are overrated? If you replaced all of the Houston Astros major league players with the M's minor league players, how many more games would they win? That last one is not real. Unless you think it would be fun to imagine a 140-loss team (?)

I just think that in the doldrums of winter, during this time of the year, talking about the M's great minor league system and dreaming about the future might be a fun way to spend the holidays. Because my family lives very far away and I won't see them but I will see you guys and girls sort of and that's not so bad.

Nope, talking about Zunino and Walker sounds like a holly jolly Christmas to me.