Photo courtesy of Bryan Green

Every year as I write the opening to my Top 100 post, I think about the introductory track from the classic hip hop album “Train of Thought” by Reflection Eternal. First the beat is dope, as are all the beats on this record, but the quality of the soundtrack is not why I reference this. In many ways it’s a musical representation of the struggle to balance creation, quality, and the readers’ frenzied excitement. At one point Talib says “This dedicated to everybody who came up to me and who came up to Hi-Tek after the shows, We came to your town you showed us love (one love), Everybody would ask us when the album was coming out, And I said "when it is finished!".

This is how we feel. After weeks (and months even) of debate, we were able to develop a process, refine the process, and in my opinion deliver the best list available on the internet. This is a big moment for us, and I’m glad to share in it with all of you. Now let’s explain our process, and how we ultimately settled upon these ranks.

The Process

I guess I’m building this up to be more complicated than it is, but that’s what I do; I’m a showman. Essentially, the six of us (myself, Jason Woodell, Jason Pennini, Matt Thompson, Lance Brozdowski, and Eddy Almaguer) all submitted real life top 100 lists. We then combined the six into a single ranking via the genius of Smada, who built us a spreadsheet that averaged together our ranks. Once this was completed, we moved onto applying future value grades, and risk labels. Because of their experience and understanding on the scouting side we decided to lean heavily on our pair of scouts to provide scouting grades and risk assessments. This is the cornerstone of our SFV, or Scouting Future Value grades. I’ve linked a detailed explanation of our grades and grading system here courtesy of Jason Woodell. He does an excellent job of explaining our perspective on risk, and how the combination of SFV + Risk = a nuanced grade.

I can hear your first question, and it’s a very reasonable one, “Why are higher graded players ranked lower than those with lower grades?” Simple answer… RISK! Despite Luis Garcia and George Valera owning some of the highest upside on the list, they carry a significant amount of risk. So while they might be Top 25 prospects within 12 to 24 months, a lot could go wrong as well. You know, because RISK! Now I hear your second question. You have a lot of questions. “Why doesn’t this line up perfectly with the team top 30s?” Simple, as you may have learned from our many “system scrums” this off-season, the Top 30s were written by one of our team members with little to no outside influence. In other words we don’t all agree on all of the top 30s. You know, human stuff.

Hopefully this has given some context to the list you just read. Hey, I’m not delusional enough to think you read this first. - Ralph

