Updated 8/2

 

The 2023 MLB Trade Deadline saw a lot of movers and shakers making trades. From the New York Mets upgrading their system to the Los Angeles Angels trading from theirs, it saw a lot of trades involving prospects. The latest Top-400 MLB Prospect Rankings list has taken all of those trades into account and reranked the players based on their new organizations and recent performances. 

The process for coming up with these rankings generally revolves around the value the prospects provide for fantasy baseball lineups and dynasty leagues. So just because some one was drafted highly in the 2023 MLB Draft or previous year’s drafts doesn’t mean they’re locked in to the top of the rankings. A few examples from this year are Jacob Wilson and Tommy Troy. Both are shortstops drafted by the Oakland Athletics and Arizona Diamondbacks respectively. Both are guys I described as “baseball players” in my pre-draft analysis and on this week’s MLB podcast. So while they were both taken in the top half of the first round this year, they’re both outside of the top-150 because there’s nothing spectacular about their skillsets for fantasy baseball managers.

Hitters mainly come down to their overall skill package and what that means for fantasy baseball rosters going forward, however, it’s a bit different for pitchers. The main thing that I take into account for pitchers, aside from pure stuff, is what their team has done in terms of development and park factors. So, for another example from the 2023 MLB Draft, a guy like Chase Dollander gets a big knock for winding up in Colorado. While the stuff speaks to being a frontline starter, the Rockies and Coors Field haven’t been kind to developing pitching and thus he lands outside of the top-150 despite being arguably a top-three arm in the draft class. We also have to take into account the “reliever risk” of certain pitchers. For example college arms with a lack of control or solid third pitch typically wind up more on a reliever path than starter and that dings their overall fantasy value as well.