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Baseball Prospectus releases top ten Astros prospects list for 2015

One of the Big Two prospect-rating groups has released their take on the Astros' deep farm system and the road ahead for Houston's prospects.

Was there any doubt who would be #1?
Was there any doubt who would be #1?
Ryan Dunsmore

First, here is the 2015 list.

1. Carlos Correa

2. Mark Appel

3. Vincent Velasquez

4. Brett Phillips

5. Derek Fisher

6. Michael Feliz

7. Lance McCullers

8. Domingo Santana

9. Colin Moran

10. Teoscar Hernandez

The top three are no surprise, but once again, we see that another major professional publication has echoed our own high praise of Phillips. Derek Fisher is ranked rather generously too, considering the low level of competition he played against, as well as some of the names that follow him in the rankings.

While I won't post large sections of the actual content of their article (it is paid content, after all), there was an especially-interesting bit about Appel:

Appel serves as an interesting Rorschach test for evaluators. The cross-section of scouts that like to see fire and a mean streak in their future front-enders have roundly dinged the former Stanford Cardinal for being soft and lacking the mental fortitude to thrive as an impact starter at the major-league level. Other evaluators see three plus or better offerings, a good body, easy arm action, and impressive pedigree and have no concerns projecting the emergence of a legit number-two starter from this amalgamation of attributes.

It's notable because Baseball Prospectus, and specifically former head prospect guy Jason Parks, seemed to buy into the former line of thinking heavily, and more than a few of the TCB writers (and many of you readers, as well) felt a little miffed at the seemingly emotion-based, rather than fact-based, evaluation. While there are no doubt still going to be detractors of Appel from all sides (until he proves them wrong in the Majors, at least), it was nice to see BP acknowledge the concern that some have while also presenting the other side and taking a much fairer approach.

A quick look at 2014's list for comparison:

1. Carlos Correa

2. George Springer

3. Mark Appel

4. Mike Foltynewicz

5. Jonathan Singleton

6. Vincent Velasquez

7. Lance McCullers

8. Domingo Santana

9. Rio Ruiz

10. Michael Feliz