One day after releasing his list of top farm systems in baseball, ESPN Insider Keith Law revealed his rankings of baseball's top 100 prospects on Thursday. Both the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs each have two in the top 10.
The Los Angeles Dodgers have shortstop/third baseman Corey Seager (No. 5) and left-hander Julio Urias (No. 9) on Law's list. Seager, 20, and Urias, 18, are also listed as the Dodgers' top prospects by Baseball America.
Seager is the brother of Kyle Seager, the third baseman for the Seattle Mariners, and Law expects Corey to be a third baseman once he hits the majors. The Dodgers' prospect has played shortstop for about 99% of his time in the minors and slashed .349/.402/.602/1.004 with 20 home runs and 97 RBIs between Advanced Class-A Rancho Cucamonga (80 games) and Double-A Chattanooga (38 games) in 2014. The former first round pick may reach the majors at the end of 2015, but we'll see what the Dodgers decide to do with him.
On the other hand, Urias is a promising starter who hails from Mexico. The left-hander began his minor league career at the age of 16 when he spent the 2013 season at Class-A Great Lakes. That year he went 2-0 with a 2.48 ERA, 1.10 WHIP and 67 strikeouts in 18 starts (54 1/3 innings). He followed up that stellar campaign in 2014 and went 2-2 with a 2.36 ERA, 1.11 WHIP and 109 strikeouts in 25 games (20 starts), totaling 87 2/3 innings. MLBPipeLine predicts he'll reach the majors in 2016.
While the Dodgers had two prospects in the top 10 as well as the 10th overall ranked farm system, they were bested by the Chicago Cubs, who had the top-ranked farm system and two prospects in the top 5 among Law's lists. Third baseman Kris Bryant is the No. 1 overall prospect and shortstop Addison Russell is No. 4. Bryant is expected to hit the majors in 2015, while Russell's status is unclear because Starlin Castro could be blocking him from being promoted sooner.
Bryant, who led the minor leagues in home runs this past season, slashed .325/.438/.661/1.098 with 43 home runs, 110 RBIs and 15 stolen bases in 138 games between Double-A Tennessee and Triple-A Iowa. The 23-year-old should be joining the Cubs' roster early on in the upcoming season.
Russell was acquired in July from the Oakland Athletics in a trade that sent starters Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel to the Oakland Athletics. The 21-year-old slashed .295/.350/.508/.858 with 39 runs scored, 13 home runs and 45 RBIs in 68 games between Advanced Class-A Stockton, Double-A Midland and Double-A Tennessee. He was limited this past season because of a torn hamstring.
These four prospects should be making an impact in the MLB within the next few seasons. Keep your eyes peeled for their arrival.
