By Jason Wojciechowski on February 24, 2015 at 10:59 PM
The first update to this perma-page since it debuted is now live because Kiley McDaniel finally got around to the A's at FanGraphs. He ranked 22 prospects and mentioned a bevy of others. There's a lot of information to digest over there. For now, I've put his ranks into my spreadsheet and updated the consensus.
Positions are where the player is currently; level assignment is a guess.
The Top
- Franklin Barreto, SS, Low-A Beloit
- Matt Olson, 1B, Double-A Midland
McDaniel breaks the tie at the top, giving Barreto one more first-place vote, pushing him into a solid "best prospect in the system" overall ranking.
The Great Middle
- Renato Nunez, 3B, Double-A Midland
- Matt Chapman, 3B, High-A Stockton
- Dillon Overton, SP, Low-A Beloit
- Kendall Graveman, SP, Triple-A Nashville
- Sean Nolin, SP, Triple-A Nashville
- Chad Pinder, 2B, Double-A Midland
- Raul Alcantara, SP, Double-A Midland
This group is McDaniel's nos. 3 through 10, except for 6 (R.J. Alvarez), and his slight deviations from prior consensus (e.g. Overton at 7) were not enough to change any ranks.
The Rest
- Yairo Munoz, SS, Low-A Beloit
- Bobby Wahl, RP, High-A Stockton
- Joe Wendle, 2B, Triple-A Nashville
- R.J. Alvarez, RP, MLB
- Daniel Gossett, RP, Low-A Beloit
- Bruce Maxwell, C, Double-A Midland
- Chris Bassitt, SP, Triple-A Nashville
- Brett Graves, RP, Low-A Beloit
- Rangel Ravelo, 1B, Triple-A Nashville
- Max Muncy, 1B, Triple-A Nashville
- Billy Burns, CF, Triple-A Nashville
- Chris Kohler, LHP, Low-A Beloit? Extended spring followed by Short-Season Vermont? Who knows
- Dustin Driver, RHP, see Kohler
- Jesus Lopez, SS, Arizona League
- Jaycob Brugman, LF/RF, Double-A Midland
- Branden Kelliher, RHP, see Driver
R.J. Alvarez jumped a few slots due to McDaniel ranking him sixth. I know he's just a reliever, but he seems to get very little love for a late-innings high-90s arm who should be in the majors this year. Proximity to The Show matters.
Chris Kohler and Dustin Driver are new to the list, ranked by McDaniel toward the bottom of his list after neither pitched in 2014 with injury problems. Kelliher is a small high-school pitcher drafted in the eighth round in 2014 with reliever upside.