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The Baseball America listing is tucked away behind a pay-wall, but I’ve been able to confirm that there are two Diamondbacks present on it:
- #59 - Jazz Chisholm
- #86 - Jon Duplantier
Chisholm wasn’t listed at all last season, so that’s a significant leap forward for our young shortstop. He batted .272 with 25 home-runs between A-ball and High A last year, despite being young for both levels - he won’t turn 21 until the a week Friday. Duplantier is a hold over from the 2017 ranking, though has slipped a few notches from there - he was previously ranked #73 in last year’s rankings. This probably reflects an injury-limited 2018 campaign, where he managed only 16 starts in the minors, due to bicep tendinitis. Though he did get work in the Arizona Fall League, and put up impressive strikeout numbers, with 32 K’s over 21.2 innings there.
The Baseball Prospectus list is actually 101 players, and there are some differences from the Baseball America selection, though both agree that Vlad Jr is the top prospect in all baseball. The D-backs listed are as follows:
- #69 - Jazz Chisholm
- #90 - Jon Duplantier
- #100. Kristian Robinson
Chisholm and Duplantier are also on the BA list, and similarly ranked, both within 10 spots of their positions there. Robinson is the interesting one, especially in light of his age. He’s not just 18 - he only turned 18 last month. Yes, he wasn’t even a year old when the D-backs won the World Series. I now feel ancient... :) I’ve not done any kind of check, but strongly suspect there are likely few younger players present in the top hundred. Of course, that youth means he’s a long way from the majors, and a lot can happen. If he’s here before late 2022 he’ll be part of a small group: only four position players have appeared in 50+ games for the D-backs on or before their 22nd birthday. [Trivia question: name them].
There are general signs that the Diamondbacks farm system is moving in the right direction once more. It’s still very much a work in progress, and outside of Duplantier, most of the potential high-impact talent is in the lower portions of the farm system. So it’s likely to be some time before the prospects are ready to make an impact at the major-league level for the D-backs. However, throw in the slew of early picks in the upcoming draft, and things are certainly looking a lot better than they were for Arizona’s minor-league system. Fingers crossed the improvement continues in 2019, and perhaps next year, we’ll get some more names present in these lists.
The four position players to have appeared for the D-backs 50+ times on or before their 22nd birthday are: Justin Upton (411 games), Gerardo Parra (144), Karim Garcia (113) and and Chris Owings (92).