With the demise of the John Sickels prospect book, there’s one less news peg to use during the offseason. Hence, today’s post.
For those who prefer to cut to the chase – IN: Armond Upshaw, Jose Marmolejos, and Jose Sanchez; OUT: Rhett Wiseman, Tres Barrera, and Spencer Kieboom.
I mainly bring this to folks’ attention because the 2017 list has the most up-to-date scouting reports (although some have just barely been changed). When I was using the 2016 List to write the player capsules for the 2017 Watchlist, it was frustrating to see that for all the updates that were made to the list as players hit rookie limits last year (e.g. Wilmer Difo) or trades, the scouting reports weren’t changed; just the new players added.
This is also something to keep in mind for during the 2017 season, as several players on this year’s list could be dropped for that reason… Koda Glover, A.J. Cole, Pedro Severino, and Brian Goodwin.
As for movement up and down the list: Nos. 1 and 2 are the same. Juan Soto jumped from 12 to 3, Luis Garcia jumped from 21 to 11 (without playing a single game), Anderson Franco edged up from 17 to 15 (despite a back injury and playing at a lower level in ’16 vs. ’15), Drew Ward dropped from 7 to 14 (despite making the All-Star team and getting promoted), Nick Banks fell from 8 to 25.
In other words, rankings have changed based on largely arbitrary factors that question the validity of the original enumeration. But they’re worth some pageviews (*ahem*).
First spring training game is tomorrow… not a day too soon.