Top takeaways from the 5 MLB prospect lists

Prospect lists are a fun part of the offseason, particularly when the winter freezes the hot stove like it did this year.

During 2018's winter doldrums, the five notable sets of prospect rankings from MLB Pipeline, Baseball America, ESPN, Baseball Prospectus, and FanGraphs drew significant interest. Of particular note was where Los Angeles Angels prospect Shohei Ohtani would be ranked.

Before we dig into where each publication agrees and disagrees, let's start with which farm systems were ranked among the best in baseball overall.

Best farm system

By assigning points to each prospect based on where they place on every list (100 points for ranking first, one point for finishing 100th), we can establish a rough estimate of which team boasts the best farm system. The best possible score for a prospect, then, would be 500 (five lists multiplied by 100 points).

Between the five lists, 160 different players were named in the top 100. With that in mind - and considering there are plenty of good prospects outside the top 100 - here are the top 10 farm systems:

It's no surprise the Atlanta Braves own far and away the best farm system by this measure. Ronald Acuna ranked no lower than second on any prospect list, topping three of the five lists. Granted, Shohei Ohtani was omitted by ESPN and Baseball Prospectus, but Baseball America included both Ohtani and Acuna and still gave the Braves outfielder the edge.

Interestingly, the Houston Astros and Tampa Bay Rays have the strongest systems by points per player. The Astros scored 279 points per player, while the Rays scored just over 275. While they lack the depth of the Philadelphia Phillies or Chicago White Sox, their prospects rank much higher on average. The Astros' system is carried by Forrest Whitley (eighth) and Kyle Tucker (13th), while the Rays have Brent Honeywell (11th), Willy Adames (17th), and Brendan McKay (25th).

Worst farm system

Of course, the prospect rankings are a double-edged sword. While the Braves and San Diego Padres showed progress in their rebuild, other teams leave much to be desired among their minor-league affiliates. Here are the bottom five:

Somewhat surprisingly, every team was represented by at least one prospect, but no club had a single prospect rated lower than Kansas City Royals outfield prospect Seuly Matias. Ranked 75th by Baseball Prospectus, Matias was the lone Royals farmhand to appear on any list.

Best prospect to go unranked on one list

As noted previously, both Baseball Prospectus and ESPN omitted Ohtani from their lists. However, that appeared to be intentional, as both chose not to rank the two-way star due to his professional experience in Japan.

The most highly touted prospect to go unranked by at least one list was Texas Rangers outfielder Willie Calhoun (consensus 49th), who was kept off of Keith Law's list for ESPN. Part of the haul that sent Yu Darvish to the Los Angeles Dodgers last season, Calhoun ranked as high as 36th (Baseball America).

The next-highest-rated prospect to not be included on a top-100 list was New York Yankees outfielder Estevan Florial (consensus 52nd) - also omitted by ESPN - after he was ranked as high as 26th by Baseball Prospectus. Fellow Yankees prospect Miguel Andujar (consensus 53rd) wasn't included by Baseball Prospectus despite being ranked as high as 14th by FanGraphs.

Most and least polarizing prospects

It should come as no surprise that there's little disagreement when it comes to the highest-rated prospects. Acuna, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (second), Nick Senzel (seventh), and Forrest Whitley (eighth) all had fairly even distributions between the five lists.

Among prospects that appeared on all five lists, no player was more polarizing than Baltimore Orioles outfielder Austin Hays, who was ranked 21st by Baseball America and 90th by FanGraphs.

Phillies shortstop J.P. Crawford was one of the higher-rated prospects with a high variance from list to list, appearing as high as 10th by ESPN and 37th by MLB Pipeline. Similarly, Cleveland Indians catcher Francisco Mejia appeared as high as fifth by Baseball Prospectus and as low as 20th by Baseball America.

The consensus top prospects

Here are the top 11 prospects, as there's a tie for 10th. Appearing on MLB Pipeline's list was used as the tiebreaker: