Every year, I put together a draft list of the top 100 prospects, send it around to scouts and front-office execs, get their feedback, send around a fresh list ... and end up considering 20 to 30 more names than those I ultimately include. If I had continued past 100, here are the next 10 names I would have included, with a thought on why they fell short of the ultimate list.
Prospects 1-50 | Prospects 51-100 | Full Top 100 index
Eddy Julio Martinez, CF
Chicago Cubs
Age: 21 | Top level: Cuba
Martinez was supposed to get something around $10 million in the last international signing period, but for reasons that aren't entirely clear, the rumored deal never came to fruition and he ended up signing with the Cubs for $3 million in October. He's a toolshed, with great bat speed, raw power and plus speed, but has barely any game experience, with only 46 games in Cuba's Serie Nacional under his belt before he defected. He hit .233/.329/.319 at ages 18 and 19. Now 21, Martinez should be ready to go to high-A, but no one seems to have any feel for how advanced he is as a hitter, and we won't really know until he gets back out on the field. He has the tools of a top-50 or even top-25 prospect, but we need to see if those tools play.
Tyler Stephenson, C
Cincinnati Reds
Age: 19 | Top level: Rookie
The Reds rolled the dice on some upside with their first pick in the 2015 draft, 11th overall, taking this 6-foot-4, 225-pound catcher from Georgia, a power-hitting, hard-throwing receiver who looks a lot like Matt Wieters at that age. Stephenson has plus raw power and a 70 arm, and had a solid offensive debut in the advanced rookie Pioneer League. If his receiving ability holds up now that he'll be catching better quality stuff, and he can continue making quality contact, he'll be in the Top 100 next year.
Michael Reed, CF
Milwaukee Brewers
Age: 23 | Top level: MLB
Reed, the Brewers' fifth-round pick in 2011, made his major league debut in September, and should be in the mix for the team's center field job this spring. He's an average defender there, an above-average runner with outstanding plate discipline and a career .375 OBP in pro ball. He should have enough power for double-digit homers, as he makes a lot of hard contact but has to work more on elevating the ball to become a solid-average or better regular.
Ke'Bryan Hayes, 3B
Pittsburgh Pirates
Age: 19 | Top level: Low-A
The Pirates focused on hitters who rarely strike out in the 2015 draft, landing top-100 prospect Kevin Newman with their first pick, and Hayes, son of longtime big leaguer Charlie Hayes, with their second. Hayes is an elite defensive third baseman who hits for average but not much power, although with contact this hard, he should at least become a 30-40 doubles guy in time.
Conner Greene, RHP
Toronto Blue Jays
Age: 20 | Top level: Double-A
The Blue Jays' seventh-round pick in 2013 was a super-skinny, projectable kid throwing 89-90 mph in high school, but has now been up to 97 and will sit 92-94 with good command and an above-average changeup. He gets on top of the ball well, but still needs to develop his breaking ball to get toward that No. 3-starter ceiling.
Carson Fulmer, RHP
Chicago White Sox
Age: 22 | Top level: High-A
The eighth overall pick in the 2015 draft could see the majors this year as a reliever, but the White Sox seem set to keep him as a starter, at least for now, a role he excelled in at Vanderbilt last spring. He has a very violent delivery and tends to work too much out of the zone to be a big league starter, so I project him as a reliever, as did many scouts who saw him dealing for the Vanderbilt Commodores before the draft.
Daz Cameron, OF
Houston Astros
Age: 19 | Top level: Rookie
The son of Mike Cameron was a first-round talent, but took a deal with Houston in the sandwich round for top-five money. He's an above-average to plus defender in center field with a good idea of the strike zone, but limited power and good speed but not plus. It's a solid package of tools -- lots of 55 and 60 grades (on the 20-80 scouting scale), but no 70s -- that could make him better than a regular but will require a lot of development at the plate to make him a star.
Tyrell Jenkins, RHP
Atlanta Braves
Age: 23 | Top level: Triple-A
Jenkins has power stuff, showing two plus pitches on his best nights, and is an outstanding athlete who repeats his delivery really well. But under my general theory that a starting pitcher has to do two of three things -- miss bats, avoid walks, keep the ball on the ground -- Jenkins is still one checkmark short; he gets a lot of ground balls, but either has to tighten up his control or start to miss more bats, probably with his breaking ball, to reach his mid-rotation starter ceiling.
Reynaldo Lopez, RHP
Washington Nationals
Age: 22 | Top level: High-A
Starter stuff with a reliever's delivery. He's a bit like Luis Severino, who did have an outstanding rookie season in the New York Yankees' rotation, with a better fastball and worse command. I think he ends up the Nats' eighth- or ninth-inning guy in a year or so.
Junior Fernandez, RHP
St. Louis Cardinals
Age: 18 | Top level: High-A
Fernandez was the second-best pitching prospect in the Gulf Coast League in 2015, behind Anderson Espinoza, working 94-100 mph with a grade-60 or 70 changeup, with good deception in the delivery. The breaking ball gets mixed reviews, showing above-average but not consistently there, and he doesn't use it much given the other two pitches he has. He's not very physical or projectable, so there's some question whether he's a starter, but the arm works, and a full season in low-A this year should tell us more about his durability.