Written by: M-Rod (@MRodProspects)

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The fantasy baseball community loves rankings. Rankings season is a fun time to get excited about Spring Training and to evaluate where your prospects stack up against the competition. And trust me, I’m as pumped as anyone this time of year.

But with so many rankings being published from different outlets, using different criteria, and intended for different purposes, how do we make sense of it all? How do we take in the abundance of information and correctly apply it to our own unique league dynamics?

The short answer is: well, it depends. Every league has specific scoring, different owner dynamics, and figuring out how to translate rankings into actionable information is largely going to be up to you. But putting the impact that defensive skills have on fantasy value into context is a potential edge to be had.

The first and most obvious distinction between lists is that most of the major outlets are ranking prospects for projected real-life value. Be weary (but not too weary) of prospects being propped up by defensive tools, particularly ones who project to play an up the middle position such as SS, 2B, and CF. For example, there should be a sizable discrepancy on where Cristian Pache lands on a real-life ranking versus a fantasy-specific ranking. Pache is probably the single best defensive prospect in baseball, and his skills in CF are going to give him a tremendous floor as a potential Gold Glove outfielder.

With this is mind, be careful not to overcompensate and write him off completely for fantasy purposes. Plus defense can prop up a player’s fantasy stock by accelerating his timeline to reach the bigs and earning that player a longer developmental leash to contribute on the offensive side of the ball. This is why we see players like Byron Buxton come up before the bat might be ready. Like Buxton, Pache may require supreme patience in dynasty leagues, but with these elite athletes, offensive upside absolutely exists.

On the other hand, if someone like Willie Calhoun or Peter Alonso doesn’t produce immediately at the plate, a once highly-coveted fantasy asset can spoil in an instant. This invites some seemingly hidden risk into the mix for players who don’t offer value on defense.

In short, defense matters. Make sure you are aware of what it is about a prospect’s profile that is fueling his ranking, but be sure to further examine why he might be over or undervalued in your league.

Without further ado, my own take on the Dynasty Top 100 is complete. This is an important part of my own process and I hope that there is some value in it for you as well. If there is one thing I hope you take from this list it’s that prospects, to me, are about chasing upside.

Player Pos. Team 1 Vlad Guerrero Jr. 3B TOR 2 Eloy Jimenez OF CWS 3 Fernando Tatis Jr. SS SD 4 Nick Senzel 3B/2B CIN 5 Forrest Whitley SP HOU 6 Victor Robles OF WSH 7 Alex Kiriloff OF MIN 8 Wander Franco SS TB 9 Keston Hiura 2B MIL 10 Bo Bichette SS/2B TOR 11 Taylor Trammell OF CIN 12 Jo Adell OF LAA 13 Kyle Tucker OF HOU 14 Carter Kieboom SS/2B WSH 15 Ian Anderson SP ATL 16 Royce Lewis SS/OF MIN 17 Sixto Sanchez SP MIA 18 Casey Mize SP DET 19 Michael Kopech SP CWS 20 MacKenzie Gore SP SD 21 Francisco Mejia C SD 22 Corbin Burnes SP MIL 23 Jesus Luzardo SP OAK 24 Kristian Robinson OF ARI 25 Touki Touissant SP ATL 26 Justus Sheffield SP SEA 27 Mitch Keller SP PIT 28 Yordan Alvarez 1B HOU 29 A.J. Puk SP OAK 30 Luis Garcia SS WSH 31 Brendan Rodgers SS/2B COL 32 Brent Honeywell SP TB 33 Luis Robert OF CWS 34 Adrian Morejon SP SD 35 Luis Urias SS/2B SD 36 Chris Paddack SP SD 37 Alex Reyes SP STL 38 Nolan Jones 3B CLE 39 George Valera OF CLE 40 Keibert Ruiz C LAD 41 Dylan Cease SP CWS 42 Peter Alonso 1B NYM 43 Kyle Wright SP ATL 44 Bryse Wilson SP ATL 45 Griffin Canning SP LAA 46 Ke’Bryan Hayes 3B PIT 47 Vidal Brujan 2B TB 48 Adonis Medina SP PHI 49 Jazz Chisholm SS ARI 50 Jesus Sanchez OF TB 51 Shane Baz SP PIT 52 Alex Verdugo OF LAD 53 Andres Gimenez SS NYM 54 Jahmai Jones 2B LAA 55 Triston McKenzie SP CLE 56 Josh James SP HOU 57 Cristian Pache OF ATL 58 Justin Dunn SP SEA 59 Dustin May SP LAD 60 Jarred Kelenic OF SEA 61 Austin Riley 3B ATL 62 Yusniel Diaz OF BAL 63 Nate Pearson SP TOR 64 Tony Santillan SP CIN 65 Brendan McKay SP/1B TB 66 Brandon Marsh OF LAA 67 Luis Patiño SP SDP 68 DL Hall SP BAL 69 Hunter Greene SP CIN 70 Yusei Kikuchi SP SEA 71 Jonathan India 3B CIN 72 Jhon Torres OF STL 73 Ronaldo Hernandez C TB 74 Matthew Liberatore SP TB 75 Seuly Matias OF KC 76 Jonathan Loaisiga SP NYY 77 Mike Soroka SP ATL 78 Nathaniel Lowe 1B TB 79 Estevan Florial OF NYY 80 Drew Waters OF ATL 81 Christin Stewart OF DET 82 Alec Bohm 3B PHI 83 Leody Taveras OF TEX 84 Gavin Lux SS/2B LAD 85 Danny Jansen C TOR 86 Tirso Ornelas OF SD 87 Trevor Larnach OF MIN 88 Nolan Gorman 3B STL 89 Ronny Mauricio SS NYM 90 Matt Manning SP DET 91 Deivi Garcia SP NYY 92 Jeisson Rosario OF SD 93 Isaac Paredes SS DET 94 Esteury Ruiz SS/2B SD 95 Brusdar Graterol SP MIN 96 Garrett Hampson 2B/SS COL 97 Hudson Potts 3B SD 98 Micker Adolfo OF CWS 99 Spencer Howard SP PHI 100 Nick Madrigal SS/2B CWS Anderson Espinoza SP SD Ryan McKenna OF BAL Logan Allen SP SDP Khalil Lee OF KC Jon Duplantier SP ARI Joey Bart C SFG Franklin Perez SP DET Jose Suarez SP LAA Evan White 1B SEA Mark Vientos 3B NYM Jordyn Adams OF LAA Bubba Thompson OF TEX JoJo Romero SP PHI Marco Luciano SS SF

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Featured image courtesy of photographer Brian Westerholt and Four Seam Images