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It's time for top prospect lists once again, and while MLB.com's list came out last week, this is the one a lot of us were waiting for. Baseball Prospectus has a certain weight to their lists given their long-standing history in the sport, and it's also the list that populates to Baseball-Reference minor league player pages - making future articles about busted prospects a lot easier to write. How high was Jeff Clement ranked again?
Check out the list here.
This year's list features three Mariners, starting with Taijaun Walker, who didn't pitch quite enough innings to graduate off the list. He opens 2014 as the #8 prospect in baseball, just above fellow right-hander Archie Bradley, in contrast to his MLB.com ranking where Bradley sits above. At Baseball Prospectus, Jason Parks ranks Walker as the top pitching prospect in baseball, thanks in part to the injuries Dylan Bundy suffered last year, paired with Walker's quick ascension to the majors. The #8 ranking is just above his 2013 ranking (#9).
D.J. Peterson makes his debut at #65, a number that probably would have been slightly higher if it were not for Peterson's broken jaw that caused him to miss the end of the year. Parks wrote about Peterson in November, noting that his arm is strong enough for third, but the glove and range were below average. He expects Peterson to move fast through the system.
James Paxton is ranked #68, surely aided by his fantastic set of major league starts to close out 2013. Despite how well Paxton pitched across four starts, his ranking is actually down from #57 last year, probably partially due to his age (25) and up and down season in Tacoma.
The rest of the list is free content, so check it out and feel free to discuss below. Byron Buxton has ascended to #1, and five of the top seven players are shortstops.
