200+ Astros Prospects, by the Numbers

Last week was TCB Prospect Week, during which we unveiled our Astros Top 30 prospects list.  Our method in creating this list was to collect in a spreadsheet the subjective rankings of all of our writers who felt qualified to participate.  We then averaged the scores to get our final ranking.  Tiebreakers were discussed internally to get a final ranking within the Top 30, but their scores were not changed.

The grading scale is below, with the intention of matching John Sickels' letter grade scale from minorleagueball.com.

• 10 (A+) - A mythical prospect. A unicorn. Babe Ruth. Cy Young himself.
• 9 (A) - Worthy of considering among pro baseball's Top 5 prospects
• 8 (A-) - Top 25
• 7 (B+) - Top 50
• 6 (B) - Top 100
• 5 (B-) - Guys outside the Top 100, but likely to have decent careers.
• 4 (C+) - generally speaking, should reach the major leagues.  Might be a great player, might not play much at all.
• 3 (C) - Has a skill or two that looks like it would translate to the majors, but also some traits that will hold him back if not addressed
• 2 (C-) - There's a glimmer of hope there, but typically these prospects don't reach the majors.
• 1 (Non-prospect) - Stranger things have happened than a 1 reaching the majors, but significant deficiencies will probably prevent it
• 0 (Non-prospect) - either we don't see a path to the majors under any circumstances, or nobody rated the player due to lack of information.

Below, for discussion purposes, I've compiled a list of the 224 players who were considered for this evaluation.  Please understand that grading prospects is an in-the-moment subjective opinion based on whatever information the evaluator chooses to use or has access to.  There is not one player on this list that the TCB staff recommends should give up on his dream of the big leagues.  Rather this is an attempt to (as objectively as possible while still recongizing the subjectivity of the whole activity) give fans a snapshot of the Astros' farm through our eyes.

The Variance and Vote Counts are provided for background information.  A player with a high variance means that the authors' grades were in less agreement with each other than a player with lower variance.  Typically, the high-variance players were younger guys for whom scouting reports and performance results have not matched, or players who only received a couple of votes.  Players with lower vote counts are more prone to having an inaccurate rating or ranking due to fewer inputs.

If you are a parent or relative - these rankings aren't personal (well, except for Aaron West, who has been on our podcast and routinely wins our annual popularity contest, but also, he's awesome), and we wish all of these players long and successful careers.

Without further ado, for your consideration and mockery: