Thanks Gerry.

I will put my top 40. G Conine just made it at #38 or so.

Does Canada have the dog days of winter?  If so and this is the time for them, we are grateful for prospect ratings to help us get through them.

Conine is top 15 or better for me. Pardinho is the one that I predict to be overrated.

PeterG I will wait for your details.

I gave him a bad mark. I was being unfair I know. He was old for Lansing and K'd too much. If his power works in the FSL he will make a massive move up my list.

1) Pearson
2)Manoah
3)SWR
4)Kloff
5)Groshans
6)Kirk
7)G Moreno
8)Pardhino
9)O Martinez
10)Zeuch
11)M Hiraldo
12)A Kay
13)P Murphy
14)Y Diaz
15)H Perez
16)M Castillo
17)J Murray
18)J Winckowski
19) A Hatch
20)J Romano
21) A Alford
22)R Adams
23)J Merryweather
24) Chavez Young
25) L Warmoth
26)K Smith
27)J Davis
28)J Harris
29)K Williams
30)M Dominguez
31)H Danner
32)O Lopez
33)S Espinal
34)R Pruitt
35)S Taylor
36)L Jimenez
37)J Solarte
38)G Conine
39)Kyle Johnston
40)Dasan Brown

I put my prospects in layers. #10 Zeuch to #20 Romano can interchange a lot. Zeuch, Kay and Romano made to the Majors and could stay.
#31 to #40 have high upside in Conine, D Brown and H Danner.

Z Logue should be in there somewhere but I sort of forgot him. Some of those relievers may make it this year Z Jackson, T Tice and J McClelland.

Bpoz, you are to be commended for sticking your neck out early with a top 40 knowing that it will be criticized.

As for Conine, I don't think that you can overlook 20 HR in 80 games regardless the K's. He seemed to be making progress towards making more contact towards the end of the season.

However, I try not to overly rely on stats when making assessments, preferring to weigh more heavily what his bosses and peers say about him and with Conine it has been all good. He has been praised as a hard worker who wants to improve, who is willing to do what it takes. Here is what manager MacPherson had to say about him:

"He can literally single-handedly carry a team when he's doing well," McPherson said. "His greatest challenge is knowing how to keep those hot streaks a little bit longer and to swing and miss a little bit less. He's going to swing and miss, that's who he is as a hitter. But the upside that comes with that is the ability to hit the ball out of the ballpark any time when he swings to any part of the ballpark."

On Pardhino, he is far too much injury risk to place in top 10, especially with his velocity being down a bit last season. Until it returns or improves, he is a 10-20 guy for me.

I notice that you did not rank Logan Warmoth at all and no doubt many agree with you as he has been a disappointment so far. I like what he was doing in the AFL and the utility he was showing at different positions along with a much improved plate production. He is my pick for a 2020 surprise. Am not sure where I would rate him now but believe his post 2020 ranking will be much higher than it might be now.

My other surprise for 2020 is Winder Garcia who who is not ranked by anyone now but who will turns heads before the summer is done.

SN is saying that Luhnow and Hinch have reportedly been suspended for one year.

In addition, Astros will lose 1st and 2nd round draft picks in 20 and 21 and are fined 5 mil.

I read the full report, and it's extremely damning for the Astros. I believe there's enough evidence to support their 2017 World Series title being vacated. Two quotes in particular:

1) After the Red Sox were caught and all teams were warned in September 2017... "the Astros continued to both utilize the replay review room and the monitor located next to the dugout to decode signs for the remainder of the regular season and throughout the Postseason."

2) "Most of the position players on the 2017 team either received sign information from the banging scheme or participated in the scheme by helping to decode signs or bang on the trash can. Many of the players who were interviewed admitted that they knew the scheme was wrong"

Virtually the entire team was involved and the cheating continued throughout the postseason, even after a specific warning. I don't see how they can continue to be recognized as World Series champions.

Thanks Cracka, and I agree about vacating the World Series. I'm already seeing the "Flags Fly Forever" comments on social media. The only way to truly deter cheating in the future is to hit teams where it hurts the most - legacy.

They can polish things as much as they want, this is a slap on the wrist. If anything this will incentivize similar behaviour in the future.

When you read the evidence it merited stripping the series and wholesale suspensions.

Thanks PeterG for your detailed post about my list.

Logan Warmoth is #25. Z Logue is someone I missed. I just missed him ... I really don't have a life. A pleasant success.
So no excuses for that mistake. Cheers to all of you who do have a life and thanks for giving me some some life. Hahaha!!

Nobody needs to be shy about criticizing my list. The attention is appreciated. If I get a lot of criticism I would start to feel like the next Keith Law and Richard Griffin. Both were masters of attracting attention.

I made a few choices that were not corrected. Being lazy. The correct (dishonest) Psychology is to sprinkle in some attention grabbers like Switching O Martinez #9 with L Warmoth #25. That could generate some responses.

I now have Z Logue as a co #25 with L Warmpth. I would love it if he can be a non power lefty capable of 5-7 outs from the pen. If successful I did not miss the boat by completely ignoring him.

Well, Logue isn't in my top 40. But neither is Warmoth. J. Davis is too old for this list, he's 28 in a few months, and is highly unlikely to be a decent mlb hitter. J Harris is pretty much done as a prospect, IMO. He's 26, has had injury problems, and hasn't pitched well when healthy, aside from 16 starts with Lansing in 2016. Michael Dominguez is a fair bit too high. K. Johnston was terrible after the Jays got him - I don't think he belongs here. I don't think Pruitt is ever going to hit enough to be a big leaguer, so isn't top 40 material. I have Perez barely hanging on to a top 40 spot. Other than those, the list looks fine to me. Outside of the top half dozen or so, I don't so much care about where a player is on the list, as whether a player is on the list or not. Putting somebody 10th instead of 20th, 25th instead of 15th, etc., is mainly just guesswork, personal preferences & biases, etc. I enjoy reading the writeups and the reasoning for a player being on the list - there are always a few guys that I have either somewhat overlooked or underrated.

Here is my top 30:

1 Nate Pearson
2 Jordan Groshans
3 Alek Manoah
4 Simeon Woods Richardson
5 Orelvis Martinez
6 Alejandro Kirk
7 Gabriel Moreno
8 Adam Kloffenstein
9 Miguel Hiraldo
10 Eric Pardinho
11 Anthony Kay
12 Patrick Murphy
13 Kendall Williams
14 Griffin Conine
15 Reese McGuire
16 Leonardo Jimenez
17 Otto Lopez
18 Maximo Castillo
19 T.J. Zeuch
20 Will Robertson
21 Thomas Hatch
22 Tanner Morris
23 Alberto Rodriguez
24 Dasan Brown
25 Josh Winchowski
26 Jackson Rees
27 Santiago Espinal
28 Kevin Smith
29 Hector Perez
30 Yennsy Diaz

Here's my current top 30:

1 . Nate Pearson
2 . Simeon Woods Richardson
3 . Alek Manoah
4 . Jordan Groshans
5 . Gabriel Moreno
6 . Alejandro Kirk
7 . Eric Pardinho
8 . Orelvis Martinez
9 . Adam Kloffenstein
10 . Anthony Kay
11 . T.J. Zeuch
12 . Miguel Hiraldo
13 . Kendall Williams
14 . Leonardo Jimenez
15 . Reese McGuire
16 . Maximo Castillo
17 . Anthony Alford
18 . Griffin Conine
19 . Otto Lopez
20 . Patrick Murphy
21 . Joey Murray
22 . Dasan Brown
23 . Kevin Smith
24 . Rikelvin de Castro
25 . Yennsy Diaz
26 . Samad Taylor
27 . Josh Winckowski
28 . Joshua Palacios
29 . Will Robertson
30 . Tanner Morris

Honourable mentions:
Thomas Hatch, Riley Adams, Chavez Young, Forrest Wall, Hector Perez, Edisson Gonzalez, Ty Tice, Kevin Vicuna.

In my respectful opinion, some of you are significantly underrating Simeon Woods Richardson. His performance was astounding last year. He pitched as an 18 year old in two different A+ leagues and will likely make AA this season as a 19 year old at some point. He's big and strong - 6'3", 210 lbs - and his k/bb rate is stellar for someone at his age pitching at those levels. He should be #1 or #2 on anyone's list.

Agree, eldarion.

After seeing the results of Richardi's and AA's drafts I formed a slight dislike for college picks and a big liking for HS picks.

So to see some promising/good lower round college picks in the 2016 and forward drafts is great. Examples 2016 Biggio, 2017 K Smith, 2018 J Murray. For 2019 some Bauxites like Will Robertson and Tanner Morris. I like Philip Clarke.

Recent Int'l pick Rikelvin de Castro made Jonny German's list. Future Blue Jays speaks to A Tinnish each year. Tinnish mentioned G Moreno a year or so ago as someone that was good (cheap too $8,000). A very good call. He has mentioned quite a few in a recent interview. Tinnish also said that in the Carribean the guys that stand out are up the middle and big bats.

I think Will Robertson is one of the bigger sleepers going into this season. He has plate discipline and big time power, even though he hasn't shown it in pro ball yet.

Alek Manoah had a 32.4 K-Bb% in his pro debut after posting a similar ratio in the Big 12 and in the Cape Cod League. If you are looking at that metric to say SWR is a better prospect than Manoah than I disagree.

I think if you are comparing the two then SWR has superior athleticism, is younger and has more projection. I think Manoah has the better fastball/slider combination in terms of present ability.

Robertson started terribly for Vancouver, 8 for 63, a .127 average, but after that, he was excellent, hitting .321 with all 6 of his HR's, in 155 AB's. He closed on an absolute tear, 16 for 35 with 3 HR's and 6 walks vs only 4 K's. Great to see a prospect adjust quickly like that, and I agree that he looks very promising. Another recent, possibly great find, just outside the 1st round, like Biggio in round 5, Bichette in round 2 and maybe Kloffenstein in round 3.