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Prospects lists are already publishing, but Baseball Prospectus hasn't released their top-101 just yet. Despite this, we got a little hint of what's to come on it, at least for the Red Sox, thanks to the Twitter account of BP's own Jason Parks.
Looks like the #Twins will place eight prospects on the BP 101; #Cubs, #Royals, #Pirates and #Rangers with seven; #RedSox with six.
— Jason Parks (@ProfessorParks) December 30, 2013
Boston doesn't have the most prospects in the top-101 -- which is a change of pace from the optimism we've seen out of Baseball America, an outlet that thinks the Sox might have 10 prospects in their own top-100 -- but six is still a great number representative of a healthy farm system.
We also know which six prospects are ranked on this list, thanks to a guess by Sox Prospects' Will Woodward that Parks confirmed to be true. Well, mostly: Woodward didn't get the order down, and the true order wasn't revealed to us, but the six are: Xander Bogaerts, Henry Owens, Jackie Bradley Jr., Blake Swihart, Garin Cecchini, and Matt Barnes. It's safe to assume Bogaerts is at the head of that list.
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That would mean Baseball Prospectus is a bit lower on Allen Webster, Brandon Workman, Mookie Betts, and Trey Ball than Baseball America, based on what little we do know at this stage. That's not exactly a surprise, given Ball was just drafted and opinions differ on his ceiling, Betts is coming off his first strong campaign, and Webster's 2013 was up-and-down in more ways than one. Workman has been someone Parks has liked for quite some time, but seeing him in the top-100 for Baseball America will be more surprising than his not being in BP's, so again, understandable.
It'll be interesting to see just where these six fall within the top-101. Luckily, we'll get the order they're in sorted out soon, as Baseball Prospectus should be releasing Boston's top-10 list relatively early in 2014.