Baseball America Unveils Top-10 Rangers Prospects

Baseball America has released its top-10 Texas Rangers prospects for 2015, with Ben Badler offering a writeup, to boot. Below is the list:

1. Joey Gallo, 3B

2. Jake Thompson, RHP

3. Jorge Alfaro, C

4. Nomar Mazara, OF

5. Nick Williams, OF

6. Chi-Chi Gonzalez, RHP

7. Luis Sardinas, SS/2B

8. Ryan Rya, OF/3B

9. Luis Ortiz, RHP

10. Josh Morgan, SS/2B

There are a few surprises here to consider. For starters, Jake Thompson being rated as highly as #2 suggests a fond opinion from BA; I thought it was a foregone conclusion that Gallo and Alfaro would be ranked 1st and 2nd. That Baseball America has him above (what most view as) premium prospects like Alfaro and Mazara leads one to believe they view him as better than a number three starter down the road. 

Nick Williams, too, is a surprise being rated so highly, which is something I mentioned the other day when Calvin Watkins had him 4th on his top-10 list. Watkins doesn't look as crazy anymore. I still don't see it, but it's worth mentioning. 

I'm also a bit perplexed as to where Luis Sardinas is ranked, or, really, that he is ranked at all. As Jamey Newberg writes, "I didn’t include Sardinas on my own top 72 list since he exhausted his rookie status in 2014..." For a middle infielder whose main tools revolve around supreme defense and good wheels, I figured not having a real bat to speak of would omit him from these sort of lists. 

The most surprising non-top-10's have to include Luke Jackson, who was #3 on Watkins' list, hard-throwing reliever Corey Knebel and outfielder Lewis Brinson. 

This is an interesting list, but I would encourage you to check out Badler's writeup of the overall state of the Rangers organization. It's really good.