Reader Participation: The Top 30 Prospects

I'm going to sticky this at the top for the next few days. Keep turning in those ballots.

As news slows down, I find myself starting to run low on things to write about. When this happens, I do what all great writers do, blatantly steal ideas from elsewhere. The source of my newest idea is the SBN Rockies blog Purple Row, and their reader poll of the top 30 prospects in the organization.

The idea is simple, the readers simply make their list of the top prospects, and then they receive points based on where they finished on the ballot, 30 points for first, 29 points for second, etc. After a couple weeks, I tally them all up, and we have an official True Blue L.A. top prospect list.

The one change that I'm going to make is that 30 prospects is asking a bit too much, it brings the list down to some players who have almost zero chance of making the big leagues, and it requires that you spend way too much time watching baseball. The compromise I came up with is that you can vote for anywhere between 10 and 30 prospects, any positions that aren't filled simply won't be counted.

To kick things off, here's my list. Keep in mind how much of a stat guy I am, so players have to actually do something to impress me. I do pay attention to the scouting reports, but players like Preston Mattingly and Josh Wall are going to take a hit. Of course, since I'm not a huge prospect guy in general, I probably left someone of the list. Because of this, my list will be changing over the next couple weeks as people point out my grevious errors.

When I put together this list, the big jump down after Mark Alexander and Preston Mattingly was noticeable, as well as the lack of catchers and outfielders in the organization. Still, I had trouble narrowing the list down to 30, and if the biggest problem with the farm system is that it peters off after the first 13 prospects, it's a good sign.

Cast your votes, and in a couple weeks, I'll tally up the results.