Yesterday, we kicked off Trade Value Week with the introduction, which you should go read if you haven’t already. Along with a brief description of the concept and what we’re trying to accomplish — besides just having some fun during the All-Star break anyway — we also talked about the 20 players who failed to return from last year’s rankings.

Today, we’re going to kick off the list in earnest, with the 10 players who fill spots #41 to #50 coming in a few hours. But before we get to the guys who just made the cut, I want to dedicate some time talking about the guys who just missed, because in all honesty, there’s something like 75 to 100 guys in baseball that have a pretty strong case for a spot in the Top 50. With players this good, we really are splitting hairs, and which good player you prefer will depend heavily on your own preferences.

I know rankings always bring out division, and I am aware of the fact that there will be some people upset with the idea that Player X ranks #46 while Player Y didn’t make the Top 50, but I do want to emphasize that we’re dealing with very small margins here, and there are no objectively correct answers to the questions this exercise poses. I showed this list to a bunch of friends in the game, and their feedback was even more diverse than I expected.

Some thought there were too many pitchers; others thought there weren’t enough arms. It’s an impossible task to create a list that everyone will agree upon, and I expect many of you will make passionate cases for players who didn’t quite make the cut, but know that I probably won’t disagree with you much; there are a lot of very good players who teams would love to have, and the gaps between guys at the end of the list are quite small indeed.

So, below, we present the Honorable Mentions, the guys who just barely missed out on ending up on the list, and easily could fit on your personal Top 50. For the record, I’m not going to re-list the guys we covered that fell off last year’s list, since we already discussed them, but many of them were still close to making the list this year as well, so you can see that post and this one as a tandem of guys who were in the mix for one of the final few spots but just didn’t quite make it.

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The Brewers acquired pitching prospect Aaron Wilkerson (and infield prospect Wendel Rijo) from the Red Sox this afternoon in exchange for Aaron Hill.

Who is Aaron Wilkerson? The short answer is that he’s a 27-year-old right-hander who went undrafted out of Cumberland University, where he threw an NAIA record 54 consecutive scoreless innings. He underwent Tommy John surgery, then pitched independent league ball before being signed by the Red Sox during the 2014 season. He’s far exceeded expectations. In 17 games this season between Double-A Portland and Triple-A Pawtucket, Wilkerson has a 2.14 ERA and has allowed just 69 hits in 92-and-a-third innings. He’s fanned 102 and walked 25.

Here is a snapshot scouting report on Wilkerson, courtesy of Pawtucket manager Kevin Boles:

“Interesting fastball. There’s some deception (and) late ride. Every night that he pitches, he gets about six to eight swings-and-misses off his fastball. Hitters seem to chase up in the zone with him. His velocity is 88-92. He sits around 90-91 (but) it looks like he’s throwing harder than that. With the deception that’s in there, guys don’t pick the ball up very well.

“He can pitch to both sides of the plate. His breaking ball and slider are developing pitches right now. Changeup, he’s got pretty good hand speed. He’s very aggressive. Attacks the zone. Great work habits. Quiet demeanor. Studies what’s going on — studies the opposing hitters — but he trusts his stuff. There’s a game presence there where he’s attacking and doesn’t fear contact. There’s a lot to be said for that.”

At one point not too long ago the Rays were a game under .500 and hanging around the fringes of the developing wild-card race. It’s never easy for an organization to hover around .500 because it’s unclear in which direction you want to try to make the team go. Thankfully for the Rays front office, the team went and made things simple, suddenly playing like the worst team in the league. The Rays have bottomed out, and while there are still elements to like, the July approach is obvious: Sell. Sell for prospects, so as to accumulate prospects. Heaven knows there are organizations that practically run on prospects.

As has been discussed, the landscape of available starting pitchers hasn’t looked very sexy. The Rays could conceivably change that. Odds are, they won’t be real interested in moving Chris Archer. Jake Odorizzi, though, has generated attention. And then there’s Matt Moore. Moore’s numbers don’t look great, and he hasn’t scratched his once un-seeable ceiling. If you glance at Moore, you might see something like a fourth or fifth starter. Yet it’s also easy to convince yourself that Moore’s on the rise. He looks like one player with legitimate upside.

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After a promising start to the season, the Red Sox pitching staff is starting to again resemble the disaster that sank the 2015 season. Over the last two weeks, the starting rotation has put up a 6.89 ERA, as David Price‘s disappointing debut season in Boston has continued, Steven Wright’s knuckleball-magic has started to show signs of wearing off, and Clay Buchholz and Eduardo Rodriguez just took turns throwing batting practice. The Red Sox continue to hit well enough to stay in contention, but with the pitching staff imploding once again, even the team’s manager is admitting that it’s “obvious” that the pitching needs upgrading. Despite a thin supply of available arms, it seems pretty clear that Dave Dombrowski is going to be among the most active executives in scouring the market for a starting pitcher over the next month.

But as the team looks to load up for a playoff push, there’s a case to be made that the Red Sox biggest move this summer should be to add another bat to the line-up instead.

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