As we gear up for Spring Training, which is miraculously right around the corner, major outlets have been releasing their top prospect lists at a dizzying pace.

When comparing one list to another, it becomes clear the way outlets value prospects can reflect wild swings in opinion. Some outlets put more weight on a prospect’s proximity to reaching his ceiling; others base their opinion on the likelihood that ceiling is reached relative to the player’s risk. Some outlets bristle at injuries while some continue to gamble on a combination of ceiling and tools until a the side effects of an injury - or injuries - become excessive. Sometimes hitters get preferential treatment to pitchers, and in some cases, it’s vice versa. Ranking nearly anything is subjective - but ranking humans takes this to a new realm.

To inject some objectivity into these varying opinions, I combined them all into one handy list and built the 2019 MLB Prospect Composite Rankings, which you can view by clicking this link right here. I used five lists when building this composite - MLB Pipeline, Baseball America, ESPN, Baseball Prospectus 101, and Prospects Live. This will be further updated when Fangraphs releases their list.

I assigned a reverse point system, in which the 100th ranked player received one point, the 99th ranked player received two points, all the way up to #1 where the top ranked prospect received 100 points (this exercise was adjusted to 101 in the case of Baseball Prospectus’ list). By adding up any points generated across each outlet, the players were then ranked according to point values. This list can be viewed on the first tab.

The individual list was then used to build Organizational Rankings on the second tab. I assigned the same point system but expanded it to 150, to reflect the 150 total players who made the list. Each prospect’s parent organization was then assigned the corresponding point value. For example, the Blue Jays received 150 points for having the top prospect, Vlad Guerrero, Jr. The Padres pulled in 149 points for having #2, Fernando Tatis, Jr. The was repeated all the way down to #150 - Oakland A’s OF/QB Kyler Murray, whose inexplicable presence earned one point for Oakland’s column.

The third tab is similar to the Overall Farm System Rankings, but instead reflects the points attributed to each individual player on the list, instead of the organizational rankings.

This is a similar point system used with previous composites, but it wasn’t for lack of trying to build a better way. I wanted to find a way to “reward” the 59 players on this composite who were ranked on each of the five outlets, or - at the very least - “punish” the 91 who didn’t make all five. After kicking around ideas with the Talking Chop team, it became obvious that finding an accurate scaling system would prove problematic, and we eventually came to the conclusion that trying to remove the subjectivity from an inherently subjective process is complicated enough as it is, and there was no need to further convolute the method. The 59 players who appeared on each list have been given a gold cell. Scientific, I know! As there is no perfect system, this is what we’ll roll with for now.

The San Diego Padres and Tampa Bay Rays were the best-represented organizations on the composite, with each team having 11 players featured among the lists. The Atlanta Braves come in third, with 10. Beyond that, the next closest team - the Blue Jays - only had seven.

The Padres also tallied the most organizational points - 958 - and the most individual player points - 2437. Their farm system is pretty clearly the top system in the game, and the. The Braves were not far behind, coming in second in organizational points - 910 - and individuals - 2157. The Rays’ 854 / 1938 rounds out the top three. After this top tier, there was a significant step down to the White Sox and Astros systems, ranked #4-#5. The Reds and Blue Jays slide after that at 6 & 7, and the organizational / individual lists diverge from there.

Of the top teams listed, the Braves actually had the lowest-ranked top prospect - Ian Anderson, who topped the organization at #25. But it is that depth between 25 and 40 that helps to buoy the system, with Mike Soroka (30), Kyle Wright (35), Austin Riley (36), and Touki Toussaint (40) all following closely behind Anderson. Whether Alex Anthopoulos ever turns these prospects into trade ammunition remains to be seen - but even if he holds every single one of them, there’s (some) safety in numbers.

Regarding prospects, one fun note as it pertains to the JT Realmuto trade - subtracting Sixto Sanchez (the only listed prospect included in that deal) from Philadelphia dropped them from 10th place to 19th on the organizational list, and only bumped Miami from 28th to 24th. So, while this trade didn’t help the Braves in 2019 or 2020 (see above about Anthopoulos holding tight on Atlanta’s prospects), abstaining from that deal actually may have helped beyond those years. Philadelphia’s future got notably worse, and Miami’s hardly got better. That’s fun, right?

Just so you don’t have to scroll all the way back up to access the link, here it is again. Enjoy!