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Six Arizona Diamondbacks among Baseball America's Top 100 prospects

Baseball America have come out with their top prospect list, and there are no less than six Arizona Diamondbacks listed.

By Jim McLennan
Dustin Bradford/Getty Images

That's one more than we had in the MLB Top 100 prospects list which was revealed last month, with the obvious addition of Yasmany Tomas, who was not considered eligible for some reason: BA have him at #57. However, there are some sharp differences in the ranking of the other five players. Aaron Blair is the biggest beneficiary, being ranked at #40 by Baseball America, compared to the #81 ranking he received from MLB.com. Others moving up from the spots they had in the MLB rankings include Braden Shipley (#26 here, #39 with MLB) and Touki Toussaint, who is #71 by Baseball America, after barely making the MLB list at #98.

Not so good news for Archie Bradley, however, who just manages to hang on to his position as Arizona's top prospect, coming in one spot ahead of Braden Shipley at #25. That's down from #15 in MLB's ranking, and is also a sharp drop from the #9 position he had in Baseball America's 2014 rankings. Shipley, incidentally, was #62 on that list, which also had Chris Owings as #66, who graduated to the majors last season, but it's still impressive to see Arizona doubling their number of entrants. Oh, and almost forgot Jake Lamb (shown above), who is #78 here, almost the same spot as he had on MLB's list (#80).

They also give their grades for the prospects in various areas. These are on the standard scale for prospects, whose invention is credited to Branch Rickey, which goes from 20-80, for reasons explained elsewhere. Obviously, pitchers and position players are graded in different areas, and BA warns

  • #25. Archie Bradley - Fastball: 65. Curve: 55. Changeup: 50. Control: 45.
  • #26. Braden Shipley - Fastball: 60. Curve: 55. Changeup: 55. Control: 50.
  • #40. Aaron Blair - Fastball: 60. Curve: 50. Changeup: 55. Control: 60,
  • #57. Yasmany Tomas - Hit: 45. Power: 70. Speed: 50. Defense: 50. Arm: 60.
  • #71. Touki Toussaint - Fastball: 60. Curve: 70. Changeup: 55. Control: 40.
  • #78. Jake Lamb - Hit: 50. Power: 60. Speed: 40. Defense: 50. Arm: 55.

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