Red Sox top prospect voting: It’s a new year and a new(ish) farm system

Well, it’s already that time of year again as we are about to embark on a winter tradition here at Over The Monster. For those who are new to the show or have some trouble remembering last winter (or the one before, or the one before that, or the one before that...), this is the time of year in which we as a community make our own Red Sox top twenty prospect list. We’ll be doing two of these votes a week — every Tuesday and Friday — and after ten week we’ll have a shiny new list. For those of you who do remember, this may seem like an early start but remember that MLB has moved up the start of the regular season. I’m trying to have this done the week of Opening Day.

Before we get started with this year’s rankings, though, we should take a quick look back at last season’s. Here’s the final result from our voting prior to last season.

1. Andrew Benintendi
2. Rafael Devers
3. Jason Groome
4. Sam Travis
5. Bobby Dalbec
6. Brian Johnson
7. Marco Hernandez
8. Roniel Raudes
9. Michael Chavis
10. C.J. Chatham
11. Josh Ockimey
12. Nick Longhi
13. Travis Lakins
14. Mike Shawaryn
15. Jake Cosart
16. Jalen Beeks
17. Trey Ball
18. Luis Ysla
19. Shaun Anderson
20. Kyle Martin

That was an uninspiring list at the time, though there were certainly some interesting names throughout the list. Of course, things have changed some over the last year. The top two prospects in the system were both bonafide studs, and now they have both graduated from the prospect ranks. Fortunately, they are both still members of the organization. Beyond those two, the Red Sox did lost a couple players from this top twenty list in Luis Ysla and Shaun Anderson. The former was sent to Los Angeles for cash after being designated for assignment while the latter was dealt to San Francisco as part of the package that netted Boston Eduardo Nuñez. Everyone else on the list remains in the organization, though in many cases their value and perception has fluctuated wildly.

There is going to be plenty of change as we look ahead to our new top twenty, with some new exciting names joining the system and some old friends falling off the list completely. It’ll be a long road, and today we will be voting on the number one prospect on the farm.

As for how the voting will work, once again we’re going with the poll system. We’ve had some trouble with this in the past as some nincompoops decided it would be fun to flood the system and totally ruin the process for everyone else. If that’s your plan, just don’t. Be cool for once in your life. By using the poll, we are able to open this process up to a much wider audience, and this type of project is always better with as many voices participating as possible. If you guys can’t be cool, we’ll have to go back to the “rec” system, which I’ll explain if/when the time comes. In the meantime, vote below for the number one prospect in the Red Sox farm system. For Tuesday votes, polls will close at 9 PM ET on Thursday. For Friday votes, they will close at the same time on Monday. As always, if I’m missing a name you feel should be included in the conversation, give me a shout in the comments.

Note: Some were looking for clarification on this, so I’ll add some. Anyone who is eligible for the Rookie of the Year award this year is eligible to be included in these rankings.

Note #2: Well, you guys couldn’t be cool. This will be the first and last vote using the poll system. We made it about eight hours before someone had to ruin it for everyone. So, starting on Friday the voting will take place in the comment section. If you want to vote you will have to register an SBN username (click the little body at the top of the page between the Facebook and search buttons to sign up). After that, I’ll have comments for each player for whom you can vote and you’ll simply click the star button at the bottom of that comment to cast your vote. I’ll give a refresher on this for each vote, too.