This is Baseball America's 21st annual Top 100 Prospects list, our definitive annual ranking of the best professional talent in baseball below the major league level. And this year, we're turning the focus in the list to the best tool for each player. We'll highlight that tool, as well as giving it a grade on the 20-80 scouting scale—where 20 is the worst, 80 the best, and 50 major league average.



The Top 100 Prospects list is the culmination of our offseason prospect coverage, which begins with our reviews of the top talent in each minor league and proceeds with ranking the talent in each major league farm system. Our staffers and correspondents talk to general managers, managers, scouting directors, farm directors, scouts, coaches and other people in the game. Four people contributed to the voting this year: Co-Editors Will Lingo and John Manuel, executive editor Jim Callis and assistant editor Conor Glassey. Each person compiled a top 150 list, and we then reviewed the composite numbers and made adjustments before locking down the final list.

The rankings follow our standard prospect guidelines, which means any player who has not exceeded 130 at-bats, 50 innings or 30 pitching appearances in the major leagues (without regard to service time) is eligible. As always, our view is not necessarily to what a player will do this season, but what his ultimate major league ceiling is, weighed against the likelihood that he will reach that ceiling.