Pete Crow-Armstrong – Picture by Todd Johnson

It wasn’t too long ago that all four of us here at North Side Bound put out our midseason prospect lists. Our reasoning behind that was that we wanted to see the draft picks and any newly traded for prospects get some action in. Little did we know that the Cubs would take 15 pitchers and most of them are not going to play much if at all this year and we also saw the emergence of a couple of outfielders in Tennessee over the past month.

Over the next couple of weeks there’s going to be some new lists popping out. MLB Pipeline will probably have their updated list next week. Luckily, today there is a new top 30 list from Baseball America (subscription required). It includes a few draft picks and a couple of traded players. Let’s get to it. Because it is behind a pay wall, I can only tell you a few things about it. Let’s get to the bullet points.

*Pete Crow-Armstrong is the number one ranked prospect in the Cubs’ system according to Baseball America. Brennen Davis, through no fault of his own, is at number two.

*The newly acquired guys showed up well. Hayden Wesneski came in at number six and then Ben Brown came in at number 11.

*The two big risers – Alexander Canario is at number 10. I still think that’s a little low, but then again, I have him at six. Kevin Made also moved up quite a bit to number 12.

*Moises Ballesteros has a nice first showing at number 18.

*Matt Mervis shows up at 20. This is probably too low for him.

*And newcomer Darius Hill finds his way in at number 22.

*Only two draft picks in Cade Horton and Jackson Ferris made the list.

*And Cam Sanders shows up in the list as well as Bryce Ball.

There are distinct names noticeably absent in Luis Devers and Yonathan Perlaza. Perlaza’s ascent has been meteoric the past two months. As well, there is no Porter Hodge who probably will be on a list next spring or this winter.

By itself, this list is interesting for where it ranks some new players and for those it leaves out. It does have a lot of new guys and at the same time it is still holding onto Marquez, Amaya, and Riley Thompson. It has Daniel Palencia in the mid 20s and some other weird rankings that if I tell, it would not be good.

The list itself will take on greater importance when we have other lists to compare it to in the coming weeks. I have no doubt BA is going to be higher on some prospects then say MLB Pipeline or Prospects Live who all should be putting out a list any time now. We will cover all of those and compare them as they each trickle out over the next month. Both Pipeline and Prospects Live are free to read so those analyses will be much more in detail.