Red Sox land two on Baseball America’s top 100 list

We are inside a month to pitchers and catchers reporting to Florida and Arizona to kick off the spring, and websites around the ol’ interwebs are well into prospect season. Team list season is just about done at some of the sites, including Baseball America. With that process out of the way, they have moved on to their top 100 list, which is always the most prestigious of the top 100s in the industry. Said list was released on Tuesday, and the Red Sox got two names on there.

If we’re being honest, this is better than I thought they would do. Triston Casas, I think, will be on most if not all lists this offseason as he held his own and then some in his professional debut and was generally liked by scouts in his draft year. He’s not elite, but the bottom third or so of top 100 prospects are more very good prospects than elite ones. Here, he comes in at number 70, between the Indians’ Tyler Freeman and the Rays’ Shane Baz.

Joining him in that same range is Bobby Dalbec. I am not as confident in Dalbec making other lists. In fact, if I were to bet on it I would bet that this will be the only other list he makes. MLB Pipeline would probably be the other publication that may be this high on him. Either way, the argument for including Dalbec is a fair one, even if I’m not sure I agree with it. He is almost certainly going to be a major-league contributor this year, he made a major adjustment last year to cut down on his strikeout rate, and he has an elite tool in his power. There isn’t a realistic elite ceiling (in my opinion, at least), but the proximity makes up for that. And, as I said, this area is not one that requires a prospect to be elite. Dalbec came in at number 75 between Arizona’s Kristian Robinson and the Reds’ Hunter Greene.

On their podcast, they indicated that Casas and Dalbec were two of the most common names they heard should be moved down the list by front office members around the league.

Be sure to click to link to read what BA has to say about each of these guys as well as the other 98 prospects on the list. Also check out their Red Sox top ten here.

Also included yesteday from Baseball America was a list of the prospects who missed out on the main list. The way they compile their top 100 is to get a top 150 from their editorial staff and go from there. Red Sox prospects to make at least one top 150 list but not the overall top 100 were (in alphabetical order): Jarren Duran, Jay Groome, Bryan Mata and Gilberto Jimenez. I was a little surprised Noah Song didn’t make it as a hedge in case the ruling with his Naval service is overturned, but that’s obviously a pretty risky hedge.