December 22, 2011

Baseball America's Top 10 Red Sox Prospects

Sox Prospects                            Baseball America
Will Middlebrooks - 3B, Pawtucket   1    Will Middlebrooks - 3B, Pawtucket
Ryan Kalish - OF, Boston            2    Xander Bogaerts - SS, Greenville
Anthony Ranaudo - SP, Salem         3    Blake Swihart - C, GCL Red Sox
Xander Bogaerts - SS, Greenville    4    Anthony Ranaudo - SP, Salem
Jose Iglesias - SS, Boston          5    Bryce Brentz - OF, Salem
Ryan Lavarnway - C/DH, Boston       6    Brandon Jacobs - OF, Greenville
Matt Barnes - SP, Lowell            7    Garin Cecchini - 3B, Lowell
Bryce Brentz - OF, Salem            8    Matt Barnes - SP, Lowell
Brandon Jacobs - OF, Greenville     9    Ryan Lavarnway - C/DH, Boston
Blake Swihart - C, GCL Red Sox     10    Jackie Bradley Jr., OF, Greenville
[Also: Fangraphs Top 15 in comments.]

Sox Prospects rank Cecchini and Bradley #12 and #20, respectively.

Middlebrooks, Kalish, Iglesias, and Lavarnway are on the 40-man roster.

The Globe's Peter Abraham notes
Of these 10 players, only Middlebrooks and Lavarnway played at Double A or above last season. The Red Sox don't completely lack major league-ready prospects, but it's close. This is a function of a change in their draft strategy several years ago to focus on high school players. ... BA ranks on potential, not production.
Which is how someone like Swihart, who has played two professional games and has a major league ETA of mid-2015 (according to SP) can be ranked so highly by BA.

For what it's worth, here is Fangraphs' February 2011 list of Sox prospects. The Top 5: Iglesias, Drake Britton (LHP), Ranaudo, Josh Reddick, and Stolmy Pimentel (RHP).

2 comments:

9casey said...

I thought Iglesias was the great ss? they both picked Xander higher.

allan said...

I thought Iglesias was the great ss?

In the field, yes. But he has a soggy noodle for a bat.

Fangraphs:
1. Xander Bogaerts, 3B/SS
2. Will Middlebrooks, 3B
3. Garin Cecchini, 3B
4. Blake Swihart, C
5. Matt Barnes, RHP
6. Anthony Ranaudo, RHP
7. Jackie Bradley, OF
8. Ryan Lavarnway, C
9. Henry Owens, LHP
10. Brandon Jacobs, OF
11. Jose Iglesias, SS
12. Bryce Brentz, OF
13. Kolbrin Vitek, 3B/OF
14. Junichi Tazawa, RHP
15. Miles Head, 3B
SLEEPER ALERT: Jose Vinicio, SS