MLB: 5 Prospects Who Will Soar Up The Top-100 Rankings
When looking at top baseball prospect lists, it can be tough to form opinions on certain players. The top prospects are easy to identify. It’s the bottom guys on the list that make life a lot more difficult. While MLB Pipeline and Baseball America have a pretty good grasp on who the top-100 are, some guys might be viewed higher by many other evaluators.
There are players who deserve a lot more respect on top-100 lists. While some mentioned might not be there yet, a few on this forthcoming list are players who are top-100 looking to shoot up the rankings. These are five guys whom I believe will make drastic jumps from their current spot in the near future.
Harry Ford
Ford was the Seattle Mariners 1st round selection in 2021. He is currently situated on MLB’s top 100 at number 100. While already a member of the top prospect club, Ford is going to be the biggest riser of all current prospects there. He’s become the darling of many prospect evaluators.
A catcher by trade, Ford is one of the most intriguing of that position in quite some time. High School catchers are deemed as risks. They usually don’t pan out at that position. Ford is probably going to follow that path. He’s a player that best profiles as an outfielder or first baseman.
What has so many intrigued by Ford, his 60-grade speed? He’s got a lot of power in his bat that will develop over time. Ford is obviously more intriguing as a catcher. However, Harry Ford is going to be good wherever he plays. Once we see a bigger sample size offensively, he soars up. If that’s at catcher, we will see even greater increases.
James Wood
San Diego is loaded with phenomenal talent. Robert Hassell, Josh Mears, and now, James Wood. Deemed a very hard sign by any team, San Diego signed him well over slot value. The potential is very high for a prospect who just started to focus on baseball full-time his senior year of High School (a year ago).
Ford is an athletic freak. He’s going to steal bases (10 in 86 ABs in the AZL). The young star has a 60-grade arm. He has the ability to play deep in the outfield. With a 1.000 OPS, the hit tool and power look to be coming right along. Wood might not be top-100 yet, however, if he sees Lo-A Lake Eisnore next season, I expect him to have a meteoric rise.
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Pete Crow-Armstrong
Depending on whom you ask, PCA is a top-100 prospect. However, an injury to his non-throwing shoulder shut him down after only 24 ABs.
Crow-Armstrong was traded to the Chicago Cubs in a mid-season trade. The Mets 2020 1st round pick would easily be a consensus top-100 guy had he not gotten hurt. He’s viewed as one of the best defensive prospects in baseball with a 65-field grade. And there is a good source of speed and power as well. If PCA gets a full year under him, he’s back in the conversation.
Norge Vera
The Chicago White Sox might have made out big with Vera. Signing the Cuban-defectee in February of 2021, he’s done nothing but dominates the DSL. A strikeout machine with 34 in only 19 IP. His best pitch is a low-90’s fastball. Some see his curve as the best offering he will have down the road.
The downside, Vera is already 21-years-old. He faces the same development timeline as most of the other young prospects on the White Sox farm. He’s going to be one of the older first-time players in Affiliated ball, whenever he makes it to Kannapolis. The upside is so freakishly high, however, so is the risk. This might be a guy who has one big rise up the rankings, and then a giant fall.
Ryan Murphy
San Francisco has so much pitching depth it feels surreal. Murphy doesn’t have the best stuff in the system. He doesn’t have the Kyle Harrison slider, or Will Bednar curveball ( I think that’s his best secondary pitch), but he might be the best strike-thrower in all of the San Francisco system. He was one of the leaders in all of minor league baseball with 164 K’s in 107.1 IP across the A affiliates.
The thing I find most appealing about Murphy, in 6 starts in the regular season for Hi-A Everett, he maintained a .067 WHIP. The only starter to have a similar WHIP starting that many games was Tri-City’s, Ryan Smith, who had a .085 WHIP in 8 games started. If this continues we are looking at a player who can miss a lot of bats and not walk a ton of batters.
Murphy will gradually increase his stock. I do see the K’s falling off at the higher levels, especially because he doesn’t have a fantastic assortment of breaking pitches. However, he can develop those pitches while keeping that same control as he advances.
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Daniel is a guru of baseball and basketball prospects. He’s a very experienced Amusement Park traveler as well. Follow him and his hot takes on Insta @dgentleman9288
