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One of my favorite aspects of the MLB Draft is the diverse set of prospect rankings. In other sports, experts and fans alike seem to generally agree on where certain players should be drafted. In baseball, you can have one well-respected prospect evaluator rank a prospect in his top 10 – the same prospect who another "expert" has off his top 50, completely.
At the tail-end of last week, we took a look at Keith Law's top 50. Last night, another ESPN draft expert, Chris Crawford – also of MLB Draft Insider fame – released his new top 30. The lists are much different than most pre-season top 30s, reflecting the risers and fallers of the college baseball season.
Below is a comparison between Law, Crawford and Baseball America's (February 1) top 30 prospects.
| Law | CC | BA | |
| 1. Mark Appel | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2. Austin Meadows | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| 3. Sean Manaea | 2 | 6 | 2 |
| 4. Ryne Stanek | 4 | 8 | 5 |
| 5. Clint Frazier | 7 | 7 | 4 |
| 6. Kris Bryant | 6 | 4 | 12 |
| 7. Austin Wilson | 5 | 9 | 11 |
| 8. Jon Denney | 9 | 11 | 7 |
| 9. Trey Ball | 11 | 10 | 13 |
| 10. JP Crawford | 13 | 13 | 9 |
| 11. Kohl Stewart | 14 | 5 | 18 |
| 12. Dom Smith | 19 | 21 | 8 |
| 13. Jon Gray | 8 | 2 | UR |
| 14. Marco Gonzalez | 22 | 16 | 22 |
| 15. Colin Moran | 30 | 25 | 6 |
| 16. Ian Clarkin | 21 | 14 | 28 |
| 17. Jon Crawford | 26 | 28 | 10 |
| 18. Ryan Eades | 15 | 17 | 32 |
| 19. Reese McGuire | 28 | 23 | 14 |
| 20. Ryan Boldt | 18 | 29 | 24 |
| 21. Chris Anderson | 12 | 12 | UR |
| 22. Braden Shipley | 10 | 15 | UR |
| 23. Aaron Judge | 32 | 24 | 21 |
| 24. Trevor Williams | 20 | 20 | 38 |
| 25. Andrew Mitchell | 16 | 19 | UR |
| 26. Matt Krook | 17 | 24 | UR |
| 27. Andy McGuire | 23 | 18 | 50 |
| 28. Connor Jones | 25 | 27 | UR |
| 29. Andrew Thurman | 24 | 30 | UR |
| 30. Oscar Mercado | 34 | 50 | 19 |
What I gathered from this consensus rankings, is how much things have changed during the season. Baseball America's list was published on the first of February, without Jonathan Gray, who was in both Law and Crawford's top 8. Comparing the two recently-published lists also gives us a good idea of the "risers", as opposed to the guys who have performed as expected.
How would your top 30 compare to these industry experts? It seems I'm the only guy in the world with Phillip Ervin in my top 10.