Fangraphs drops Top 40 Prospects List

It was a pleasant surprise to wake up this morning and discover that Fangraphs had dropped their evaluation of the Astros’ farm system, especially since it was only the 8th system evaluated this offseason, and the first from the AL West. In years past, their evaluation of the Astros has landed in March.

There’s no point of reduplicating what they say, but as a longtime prospect hound, I’ll mention a few things of note. Please join in:

• Of all of the free lists, Fangraphs is for me the gold standard
• Their rankings are low across the board, but it’s crazy that Houston only has two players with a FV of 50 or higher.
• They like a lot of Houston’s pitching prospects, including guys in the lower levels that have not been on our radar
• They really like Urquidy, now rated as the 2nd-best prospect.
• Kyle Tucker became ineligible by the slimmest of margins in September, so that makes the system seem weaker.
• The biggest surprise to me is Hunter Brown as the 9th-rated prospect. I hadn’t noticed him do anything of note after getting drafted in June.
• I think they’re too low on Tyler Ivey, whom I would have had 7th or 8th.
• They’ve also given up on Joe Perez (out of the top 40), who got back on the field in 2019, is still only 20, has 2nd-round pedigree, a plus arm, and plus power. If Perez puts up a big season in the MWL at in his age-20 season, he will rocket up lists.