It is time for the LSB Offseason Community Prospect Rankings!
As we do every year, twice a year — once midseason and once offseason — we are voting on who we think is the top prospect in the Rangers farm system right now. If the voting is close, we have a runoff. We then vote on each successive spot, removing each prospect from consideration as they are voted in.
Because there has been a history of vote-spamming shenanigans in the rankings, I used Google Forms for the last several of community rankings, and it worked out well, so we will use it again. You will need to include your LSB user name when you vote. If you don’t have an LSB user name, you need to use some sort of identifier. While this won’t eliminate the possibility of vote spamming, it will make it harder.
So who is the #1 prospect in the Rangers system right now?
Cast your vote below…
Jeff Kent, longtime second baseman who played for six teams but had his best years with the San Francisco Giants, has been elected to the baseball Hall of Fame by the Contemporary Era Committee. Kent received votes from 14 of the 16 committee members, two more than the amount necessary to be elected.
Carlos Delgado received nine votes, while Don Mattingly and Dale Murphy received six votes apiece. Fernando Valenzuela, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Gary Sheffield all received fewer than five votes, meaning that they are ineligible to be included on the Contemporary Era ballot when it comes back around in three years.
If you opt to exclude Bonds and Clemens because of performance enhancing drug issues, then none of the candidates had a particularly compelling case. I wouldn’t have voted for Kent, but he’s a borderline case, and there are a number of weaker second basemen than him in the Hall.
There are also, though, a number of better second basemen than Kent who haven’t been elected, including Chase Utley, who is currently on the writer’s ballot this year (and looking unlikely to get elected this year), Bobby Grich, Lou Whitaker, and Willie Randolph. Maybe Kent getting in will result in them getting another look.
Leave a Reply