Ranking 2017’s Graduated Prospects by Eric Longenhagen and Kiley McDaniel February 8, 2018 2018 Prospects Week Top 100 Prospects ListTop 100 Prospects ChatBest of the 40/45 FV ProspectsThe Making of the Top 100 ListTop 100 KATOH ProspectsRanking 2017's Graduated ProspectsThe 2018 All-KATOH TeamTop MLB Prospects of AsiaPost-Prospect Scouting ReportsDraft Rankings We continue Prospect Week 2018 by trying to address a question frequently asked by fans of teams that have just graduated multiple high-level prospects — namely, where would those graduated prospects rank if they were still eligible for the Top 100? We usually don’t have that answer ready off the top of our heads since, as prospect analysts, we aren’t thinking about those players very much. We decided that wasn’t okay, though. So now, whenever we do an updated top-100 or midseason list, we will also provide an update on the prospects who have lost their eligibility in the previous/current year. Even for fans of teams with no players on the list below, there’s still some value here. Names like Derek Fisher and Clint Frazier have appeared in trade rumors, often packaged with or chosen in lieu of prospects who are constantly ranked. This list will help give some context to those rumors, with the Present and Future Value (PV and FV) grades to tie them together — a concept for valuation we will be making more accessible in the future. There wasn’t a hard and fast cut-off for this list. We started simply by considering players who’d lost eligibility in 2017 and whom we project to be 50 FV or higher, thus being top-100-quality prospects. I believe Chad Green and Joe Musgrove are the two players who lost eligibility in 2016, but we feel as though they aren’t finished products yet or still have evolving roles, so you get two extra players graded on the list. There were also some interesting former top prospects who just missed this list (Jharel Cotton, Amir Garrett, Cody Reed, etc.) whom Eric will address on a more individual basis later to explain why we’ve downgraded them. For a quick primer on the PV and FV concepts — including, in particular, how it scales to WAR — see this article. Broadly speaking, the aim behind these rankings is to capture true talent level, so just because a rookie recorded two wins in half a season of playing time last year doesn’t mean he’s a 4 WAR player. It may mean we think that, going forward, he’s just a 2 WAR player and thus a 50 FV, despite outperforming some veterans who we also think are 50 PV/FV. We are projecting the future, not just reporting what happened. Think of PV as what we think his WAR total will be this year and FV as what we think his one- or two-year peak level will be. If your team had a prospect who was rated in the minors as a 55 FV and he’s a 50 FV on here, it’s not just because his numbers were bad in a couple dozen MLB games, but rather because we think either the ceiling is now lower or he’s less likely to reach it. The only real example where the WAR totals overwhelmed what we considered to be the actual talent is Judge. We feel like he probably settles in as a 70 or 75 FV like Bellinger, somewhere outside of the top three at his position (outfielders) but very close to that level; it’s just hard to ignore the fact that he recorded highest WAR in baseball as a rookie, so we leaned toward WAR outcome when assigning his PV/FV in that case only. Also, in close situations (like the 65 FV hitters), we tended to lean toward the guys we thought were more advanced now (higher PV) and taking hitters over pitchers (discussed in the above-linked Making the Top 100 conversation). Ranking the Graduated Prospects Rank Name Club Pos Age PV FV 1 Aaron Judge NYY RF 25 80 80 2 Cody Bellinger LA 1B 21 65 70 3 Rhys Hoskins PHI 1B 24 60 65 4 Rafael Devers BOS 3B 20 55 65 5 Ozzie Albies ATL 2B 20 55 65 6 Andrew Benintendi BOS CF 22 55 65 7 Yoan Moncada CHW 2B 22 50 65 8 Matt Chapman OAK 3B 24 55 60 9 German Marquez COL RHS 22 55 60 10 Luis Castillo CIN RHS 24 55 60 11 Dansby Swanson ATL SS 23 45 55 12 Manuel Margot SD CF 22 50 55 13 Amed Rosario NYM SS 21 40 55 14 Joe Musgrove PIT RHS 25 55 55 15 Ian Happ CHC UT 22 50 55 16 Bradley Zimmer CLE CF 24 50 55 17 Luke Weaver STL RHS 23 50 55 18 Jordan Montgomery NYY LHS 24 50 55 19 Josh Hader MIL LHP 23 45 55 20 Sean Newcomb ATL LHS 24 45 55 21 Chad Green NYY RHP 26 50 55 22 Francis Martes HOU RHS 21 40 55 23 Tyler Glasnow PIT RHS 23 40 50 24 Matt Olson OAK 1B 23 50 50 25 Mitch Haniger SEA RF 26 50 50 Rank Name Club Pos Age PV FV 26 Jose Martinez STL RF 28 50 50 27 Paul DeJong STL SS 23 50 50 28 Clint Frazier NYY RF 22 45 50 29 Jeimer Candelario DET 3B 23 50 50 30 Dominic Smith NYM 1B 22 40 50 31 Josh Bell PIT 1B 24 40 50 32 Lucas Giolito CHW RHS 22 40 50 33 Jeff Hoffman COL RHS 24 40 50 34 Derek Fisher HOU LF 23 45 50 35 Jake Faria TB RHS 23 45 50 36 Brandon Nimmo NYM LF 24 45 50 37 Nick Williams PHI LF 24 45 50 38 Dinelson Lamet SD RHS 24 45 50 39 Reynaldo Lopez CHW RHS 23 40 50 40 Yandy Diaz CLE 3B 25 40 50 41 Robert Gsellman NYM RHS 23 45 50 42 Trevor Williams PIT RHS 25 50 50 43 Kyle Freeland COL LHS 24 45 50 44 Johan Camargo ATL 3B 24 45 50 45 Matt Strahm SD LHS 25 40 50 46 David Paulino HOU RHS 24 45 50 We hoped you liked reading Ranking 2017’s Graduated Prospects by Eric Longenhagen and Kiley McDaniel! 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