Last year, I lined up top ten White Sox prospect rankings in one post to compare them and see which publications liked certain prospects better than others. It was one of our most popular posts so let’s do it again.
Here is the top ten (ten because some stop at ten) of eight different websites/publications including ours. Some of the sites added commentary, which you can view by clicking on the links within the table. Keith Law’s list for ESPN requires a subscription. Note: Dayan Viciedo wasn’t eligible for Baseball Intellect’s list and I assume the same is true for Law’s list.
| Baseball America | Baseball Prospectus | Fan Graphs | Keith Law | Baseball Intellect | John Sickels | South Side Sox | FutureSox | |
| 1 | Chris Sale | Chris Sale | Chris Sale | Chris Sale | Chris Sale | Chris Sale | Chris Sale | Chris Sale |
| 2 | Brent Morel | Eduardo Escobar | Jared Mitchell | Jared Mitchell | Brent Morel | Brent Morel | Brent Morel | Dayan Viciedo |
| 3 | Dayan Viciedo | Brent Morel | Brent Morel | Brent Morel | Jared Mitchell | Dayan Viciedo | Jared Mitchell | Brent Morel |
| 4 | Jared Mitchell | Dayan Viciedo | Dayan Viciedo | Jacob Petricka | Jacob Petricka | Addison Reed | Dayan Viciedo | Jared Mitchell |
| 5 | Eduardo Escobar | Jared Mitchell | Tyler Flowers | Addison Reed | Trayce Thompson | Jared Mitchell | Tyler Flowers | Tyler Flowers |
| 6 | Gregory Infante | Jacob Petricka | Jacob Petricka | Eduardo Escobar | Addison Reed | Jacob Petricka | Trayce Thompson | Trayce Thompson |
| 7 | Jacob Petricka | Gregory Infante | Eduardo Escobar | Brandon Short | Eduardo Escobar | Eduardo Escobar | Gregory Infante | Eduardo Escobar |
| 8 | Brandon Short | Trayce Thompson | Josh Phegley | Miguel Gonzalez | Tyler Flowers | Gregory Infante | Eduardo Escobar | Jacob Petricka |
| 9 | Trayce Thompson | Addison Reed | Trayce Thompson | Anthony Carter | Gregory Infante | Andre Rienzo | Jordan Danks | Jordan Danks |
| 10 | Anthony Carter | Thomas Royse | Santos Rodriguez | Josh Phegley | Thomas Royse | Thomas Royse | Andre Rienzo | Addison Reed |
Chris Sale is everyone’s top Sox prospect as he should be. However, Project Prospect, who doesn’t release rankings within an organization, ranked Brent Morel (57) higher than Chris Sale (75) in their top 100. That’s strange enough, but they regarded Sale as a high risk prospect. How a pitcher who already has success against Major League hitters can be regarded high risk is beyond me.
After Sale there is some variation, but for the most part it’s the same names. Addison Reed made a couple top fives which surprised me. Tyler Flowers obviously took a big hit in the rankings this year. I find it interesting that the fan sites had Flowers and Jordan Danks higher than anyone else. Maybe we have some bias?
Please let us know what stands out to you in the comments!