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Astros place five on Baseball Prospectus Top 101 Prospects of 2014

Houston has five prospects on BP's annual ranking of the top minor leaguers.

By David Coleman
Troy Taormina-US PRESSWIRE

Prospect season is upon us and that means more Top 100 lists. Baseball Prospectus has long bucked that trend, ranking the top 101 prospects each season. Those cheeky bastards.

Houston placed five players on the list, which you can find here.

5. Carlos Correa (SS - age 19)
20. George Springer (OF - age 24)
21. Mark Appel (RHP - age 22)
43. Mike Foltynewicz (RHP - age 22)
57. Jonathan Singleton (1B - age 22)

There is plenty of great stuff over at BP, including a breakdown of the list, sliced and diced many different ways. Here are my takeaways from another set of rankings.

  • No surprise with the top three. Buxton was set to be the best prospect in baseball since July. Xander Boegerts still has rookie eligibility, but the potential he showed there was enough to put him at No. 2 and Oscar Taveras has been at the top of these lists for a solid year. Though he was injured in 2013, he didn't hurt his stock terribly.
  • Rounding out the top five are a pair of intriguing shortstop prospects. Javier Baez went from a talented, but raw, player drafted in the Top 10 when Houston took Springer and turned into a monster. He may move to third long-term, but he's got plenty of potential and deserving of his lofty ranking. Ditto Correa, who profiles almost the same way, but is younger and hasn't done it at as high a level as Baez yet.
  • Six teams have more players in the Top 101 than the Astros, which seems excessive. That's not a guarantee Houston would be the seventh-best system in the league according to their rankings, but it does seem slightly off.
  • Biggest omission? DDJ, who went from underrated to overrated and is now squarely back to being underrated. We love Nolan Fontana's plate discipline (OK, maybe just I do), but DDJ arguably has better plate skills. He doesn't walk as much, but he's also cut down on his strikeouts and still makes contact. He can drive the ball on occasion and his speed is a weapon. He's also going to be 21 in the Texas League in 2014, making him one of the younger guys there. What are we missing?
  • Also weird not to see Lance McCullers, Jr. on here, as he's consistently been ranked on other Top 100 lists. Of course, his lack of a third pitch might have affected that. No Rio Ruiz or Domingo Santana is less surprising, but still notable.
  • Speaking of that, let's talk positional rankings. Only one first baseman made the list and it was Singleton. Nine third basemen made it with no Ruiz. Correa was the third of 10 shortstops on the list. Appel was the 10th of 37 right-handed pitchers on the list, five spots behind fellow 2013 draftee Jonathan Gray.
  • Only 10 prospects were as old or older than George Springer on the list. Of those guys, Springer ranked the highest. In fact, only two 23-year olds ranked higher than Springer (Kevin Gausman, Yordano Ventura). Outside of Oscar Taveras, the entire top 10 of this list was 21 or younger.

What do you think? Was this a fairer list than MLB.com or Baseball America? Does this one diverge wildly from your expectations? How does it sit for you?

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