John Sickels, who runs MinorLeagueBall.com, has published his top 120 prospects for the 2012 season. Normally Sickels does separate lists for hitters and pitchers, although this year he combined them in to one big list. In the link above, Sickels provides some explanation for his rankings process. The big thing he notes is that he leans towards guys who are closer to the majors.
Five Pittsburgh Pirates prospects ended up on the list. The top two were Gerrit Cole and Jameson Taillon, who ended up ranked 11th and 16th, respectively. The Pirates had the highest pitching combo in this ranking, as no other team had two pitchers ranked before Arizona saw their second pitcher ranked 23rd overall. Arizona did have their third pitcher ranked 24th.
The position players were the next to end up on the list. Josh Bell got the highest rating by Sickels, coming in at number 49. Starling Marte came next, ranking 64th overall. Robbie Grossman was the last player to be ranked, coming in at 118th.
There was no Luis Heredia on the list, although that could have something to do with how he’s very far away from the majors.
All of the individual rankings are in line with what we’ve seen from other top prospect lists. The biggest difference in this one is the ranking of Josh Bell. Sickels joins Baseball Prospectus as the only outlets who had Bell in the top 50. Baseball America, Keith Law, and MLB.com rated Bell in the 60-69 range. Baseball Prospectus had the highest rating at 43rd.
