Below are the Top 50 shortstop prospects. I decided to list more players because shortstop is a more prospect-filled position, but by #50, I was running sort of low on names. Omissions are possible because—as the list gets longer—so does the number of players who potentially deserve to be ranked. As always, feedback is appreciated so let us know which places the rankings could improve.
1. Jurickson Profar—Rangers
2. Manny Machado—Orioles
3. Francisco Lindor—Indians
4. Nick Franklin—Mariners
5. Xander Boagerts—Red Sox
6. Billy Hamilton—Reds
7. Hak Ju Lee—Rays
8. Jean Segura—Angels
9. Javier Baez-Cubs
10. Zach Cozart—Reds
11. Trevor Story—Rockies
12. Christian Colon—Royals
13. Levi Michael—Twins
14. Joe Panik—Giants
15. Tim Beckham—Rays
16. Andrelton Simmons—Braves
17. Tyler Pastornicky—Braves
18. Wilmer Flores—Mets
19. Jose Iglesias—Red Sox
20. Brian Dozier—Twins
21. Jake Hager—Rays
22. Adeiny Hechavarria—Blue Jays
23. Jonathan Villar–Astros
24. Chris Owings—Diamondbacks
25. Derek Dietrich—Rays
26. Matt Lipka—Braves
27. Rossell Herrera—Rockies
28. Ronny Rodriguez—Indians
29. Shawon Dunston, Jr.—Cubs
30. Yordy Cabrera—Athletics
31. Freddy Galvis—Phillies
32. Tyler Saladino—White Sox
33. Zach Walters—Nationals
34. Junior Lake—Cubs
35. Cito Culver—Yankees
36. Martin Peguero—Mariners
37. Brad Miller—Mariners
38. Nick Ahmed—Braves
39. Eugenio Suarez—Tigers
40. Marcus Littlewood—Mariners
41. Brandon Martin—Rays
42. Jace Peterson—Padres
43. Christian Lopes—Blue Jays
44. Jiovanni Mier—Astros
45. DiDi Gregorious—Reds
46. Roman Quinn—Phillies
47. Josh Rutledge—Rockies
48. Eduardo Escobar—White Sox
49. Jake Lemmerman—Dodgers
50 (tie). Hector Gomez—Rockies
50 (tie). Carlos Truinfel—Mariners
Others to Watch: Deven Marrero (Arizona St.), Kenny Diekroeger (Stanford), and Addison Russell (HS—FLA).
I’ve looked at all the shortstops listed, and whether they can stick at short or where they may end up playing.
http://www.deepleagues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=168
Yeah, I agree w/ that notion about trading after a player has a big game. One of my best trades was dealing Elijah Dukes right at the beginning of 2007. I made that trade b/c I was kicking myself for passing on this trade offer for Jeremy Sowers after he threw back-to-back shut outs in 2006.
Harper might be a little different b/c the hype is so huge coming into this season. I only get him for three years, so if Washington starts him in the majors this young, I might have to bite the bullet and trade “the chosen one.” I might wait until midway through the season b/c I can get more value from a team that knows they are rebuilding. But my only concern is Harper might not be hitting well around midseason, so I thought trading him now might make sense assuming I got a great trade package.
This question might have been posted somewhere down the line but I will asked it again just in case. Which of the top 15-20 will lose value because they cannot play shortstop at the pro level?
Brad I was refering to Bradley’s comment about selling Harper in a league right now, instead of waiting for him to come up to the bigs. There’s a reason fantasy owners aren’t MLB GMs.
“You need to make owners think that the peak is yet to be reached when in fact you know its almost over (the hot streak) and the painstaking rookie months are yet to come.”
Kyle – Using that philosophy you’d never get top return on any prospect/player. No GM is dumb enough not to know a rookie cold stretch is inevitable. Jayson Heyward still has a ton of trade value because he is so young and so talented. His problem is staying healthy.
Bradley I disagree with that notion. I think the peak is right about the middle of the hot streak of a young player. A la Jason Heyward 2010 where he hit a grand slam in his first AB. I would have dealt him before he came up again. You need to make owners think that the peak is yet to be reached when in fact you know its almost over (the hot streak) and the painstaking rookie months are yet to come.
For sure! Love this old article from fangraphs listing players w/ the highest trade value.
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/2010-trade-value-5-1/
If y’all were listing today, which players do you think would get the most on the trade market? Two pitchers that would have huge value: David Price and Clayton Kershaw.
For real baseball purposes, certain players become so valuable to their team placing them in trade negotiations becomes impractical.
What’s great about fantasy baseball is nobody is untradable. I’ve always thought the key to winning dynasty leagues is being willing to get huge returns by dealing contracts that would be considered untradable in real life. For example, I have Bryce Harper on my farm team. Part of me thinks this offseason is not a bad time to put Harper on the trade block to see what kind of offers I can get?
I think the Halliday trade set the level for what a good starting pitcher can get in trade with prospects…Gose (via Wallace), Drabek and D’Arnaud was the trade value from the Phillies.
Imagine what Halliday would fetch now!??!
“They got hosed in the TB deal though. Archer, Lee, Fuld, et al were so very good compared to what CHI got back. IMO they’ll get a slightly less amount than Gio got.”
Couldn’t disagree more. Archer was/is over-rated…..last year proves it and this year will cement it. Le is a nice prospect but he has no power. And Fuld? Really? He’s a reserve outfielder that wears down over the course of the season because he is diabetic. Don’t get me wrong, I like Fuld…but he has little value. Guyer compares to what the Cubs already got back in Dave Sappelt.
If anything, I believe Garza’s value has INCREASED in the year the Cubs have had him. They should be able to get more in return then what they gave up to TB. Plus they now have an actual front office that has a clue. If the Marshall deal is any indication, there is no doubt Cub fans will be pleased in how the entire Garza thing shakes out.
I agree. Garza probably offers more short-term value than Latos and Gio, but I think he is a free agent in two years rather than four years
They got hosed in the TB deal though. Archer, Lee, Fuld, et al were so very good compared to what CHI got back. IMO they’ll get a slightly less amount than Gio got.
Tough call, Kyle. I like Wheeler and Myers, but assuming you are reasonably certain he’ll sign by the time you draft, I would keep Darvish. IMO, he’s one of the big four prospects this season along w/ Harper, Trout, and Moore. For fantasy purposes, I love that he’s a little older so you will know what you are getting fairly quickly.
It’ll be interesting to see if Chicago trades Garza? It’s not a bad year for rebuilding teams to trade quality starters b/c the FA market is pretty thin. Even though this is the wrong perspective to look at whether to trade Garza, how much future value do you think they can get compared to what they traded TB last season?
The packages the Pads and A’s received gets me pretty excited about what Matt Garza could bring in return for the Cubs. I’d love to us get Montero from the Yankees. If not, maybe SD would offer Rizzo or Alonso and one of thirdbase prospects and a SP. Toronto has plenty of pitching prospects along with catching prospects. And KC has plenty of pitching and hitting prospects. I’ve got to believe in the end Theo and Jed will deal Garza before ST rolls around.
Simon – Wood could easily be a #4 for any championship team….just look at some of the starting pitchers the Yankees have thrown out there in past years.
I could trade the 1st overall pick (Yu Darvish) for:
2 of these players, and a mediocre PTBNL:
1. Zach Wheeler
2. Mike Montgomery
3. Wil Myers
4. Brody Colvin
5. Brett Jackson
The PTBNL I think I’ll try to negotiate for his 2nd round pick (24th overall) but just from the above 5 players, who would you take in a vacuum. I took this team over mid season and went 1-20 so as you can tell I need help all over.
The difference with this deal is that Wood and Sappelt are probably never going to be starters for a championship standard club. Wood is a 5th/6th starter and Sappelt is a 4th OF.
Yeah, Chicago acquired a lot of value for Marshall! The trade makes sense because, like the ’stros, Chicago needs to rebuild in other areas before preserving leads becomes a top priority. Torreyes is interesting. His size prevents him from receiving much attention, but when comparing last season’s numbers to his age, he could be undervalued. Wood and Sappeldt are both MLB-ready players who need an extended opportunity in the major leagues.
What do y’all think of the trade from the Reds’ perspective? I understand the logic for playing aggressive. The Central is wide open this season, and they do not really have room for several MLB-ready players w/ upside potential. I have no problem with the strategy, but I am not sure I love the particular deals. I probably overestimated the trade market for several of those players and/or underestimated the return value. For example, even though I was a little hesitant about the deal w/ San Diego, I think K-Law and I bunch of posters on here thought the Reds got a fine deal.
What’s up Kyle! I apologize for being really slow on the updates! Unfortunately, I have been swamped w/ “real job” stuff which has cut substantially into my baseball time this offseason b/c we are trying to get our office opened in January. Third Base is basically finished. I’ve been working on it in the forums section.
http://www.deepleagues.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=6&p=104#p104
I am going to go ahead and publish it pretty soon (maybe today) just so I can get started on outfielders.
Assuming Darvish is signed by the time your draft happens, I would take him first for sure. If the negotiations are ongoing, it’s a tougher call b/c of that risk he won’t sign.
Hey Brad – Just curious what your thought are on the Cubs trading Marshall for appears to now be Wood, Sappelt, and Torreyes. I personally am shocked Theo was able to get both Sappelt and Torreyes along with Wood for one year of Marshall. If these are the types of rebuilding trades Theo and the boyz are going to make then maybe the Cub future isn’t as bad as we fans all thought!!!
Bradley, when do you think the master list will be coming out? I’ve got my Winter Meetings January 13-20th and I’ve got the first overall pick. Darvish? Cespedas? Bauer/Hulzen/Rendon? I’m so torn and confused.
Grandal the best?
His defense isn’t good enough as a Catcher at this point to grade him higher than Liriano,Alonso,Rizzo,Or even Gyorko.
Actually,I might have to say that Grandal isn’t even the best Catching prospect….that may have to go to Hedges.
At least until he proves to have some issues with the bat.
I think we’ll see a couple of their prospects emerge into the “elite” status this year.
Someone like Spangenberg or Ross,or maybe even Sampson may take a leap forward.
Anyway….keep up the good work Bradley….love the site!
Great stuff on the Padres, y’all. They definitely have a great system. Going position-by-position, they offer multiple solid options at every position on the field except shortstop.
That’s interesting Cumberland is coming back! He posted great numbers in 2010, and I listed him in the Top 250 before it became clear the health problems were worse than I thought. It’s awesome he is making a comeback and he’s a player I will watch.
I think the trade puts them in the Top 3 systems along w/ Tampa Bay and Toronto. What other systems do y’all like after those three? Some others I like off-hand are TEX, WAS, SEA, and ARI. KC is interesting…tough to value that system as a whole. They dropped some based on graduations, injuries, and a few not-so-great performances. But they still offer a number of intriguing players.
The only problem that the Padres have is that they don’t have any truly elite prospects. For me, Grandal is probably the best in the system now, but he’s not an A grade/5 star prospect for me. The system is incredibly deep, which should allow them now to take more gambles on high-risk, high reward sorts of guys.
By the way…after picking up Alonso,Grandal,and Boxberger,the Padres have to be considered at….or at least near…..the top Farm system going into 2012.
They were top 5 before the Latos trade IMO……..
Hey Bradley……You may not know but Drew Cumberland has been cleared to resume baseball activities for the Padres.
He is not retiring after all…..I believe he may start the year in San Antonio.
Although a little old for the league,he was absolutely tearing it up in Lake Elsinore before his injury… .
You may want to consider him again for this list.
For sure, Simon! A message board has the chance to be really fun, and I wish we had installed it earlier because there is lots of good content people can’t find b/c it’s not categorized. I thought about sifting through the comment board and reposting the most helpful stuff people wrote in the forum.
Hopefully, the message board will keep building up. One challenge is getting people to register. For example, the traffic on this comment board picked up after we figured out how to delete the requirement that commenters post an email. I can’t stand that requirement because it does not stop comment spammers: it only stops people who post legitimate content b/c they don’t want to put their email. But I’m not sure if we can get rid of it on the message board?
People should post on the forum, if only so that I don’t have more than half the posts. I think this could be really good if everyone takes part and contributes.