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I like this White Sox club *dodges tomato*. Geez, that one wasn’t even ripe! Harsh. Seriously though. Hear me out. You’ve got the anchor at first with Abreu. That’s a solid middle infield of Moncada and Anderson. And you’ve got three decent arms to build around in Rodon, Lopez, and Giolito. If Kopech weren’t recovering from Tommy John, he’d have been a good bet to join them (spoiler: he”ll still rank somewhere on this list). But Mike, that’s only like six players. That’s true my over-the-internet-friend-holding-an-unripened-kumquat. But this is where our prospect list comes into play. The reinforcements are on the move, and right now this system has arguably the best outfield prospect in baseball scheduled to arrive in early 2019. Am I predicting they win the Central? Nah, I still think that’ll go to the Tribe. But I’ll bet Chicago leapfrogs the Twins and Tigers and puts together a winning record.

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This is for all the people that have come up to me over the last few weeks and asked “Yo, Ralph when’s that Top 100 droppin’ son?” And I said, “When it’s finished”. This is for y’all, one love! Oh but wait, there’s more to come too. This is simply a sweet, sweet 20% of the overall ranks. The full 500 will drop on Sunday. I want to thank all of my readers over the years for supporting me in all that I do here. These rankings posts are a lot of questioning your evaluations, and even more sleepless nights. So, I hope you enjoy.  As for the Top 100, I’ve gone a little heavier in discounting pitching than in previous years, instead favoring upside bats. Why? Because pitching prospects are like reflections in side view mirrors, all much closer than they appear. Think about Shane Bieber vs. Tyler Glasnow, one guy was hyped to the max, the other was a boring strike-thrower that likely would never crack a top 250 for fantasy. Who would you rather own now? Speaking of upside, you’ll see the second half of this list is a little more upside heavy with some breakouts mixed in for good measure. What can I say? I like the young upside hitters. This exercise was a process,I began by listing nearly 700 players, then went player by player ranking each on a “would I trade this guy for this guy” trip, then I stared at the list changing ranks over and over again while I smoked like a German. That’s not a joke, this actually happened. All to whittle it down to the list below, the Top 100.

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If you google Ryan Mckenna without specifying Orioles, baseball, or something to that effect, you get some kid that took a selfie with Justin Timberlake at the Super Bowl. The kid was from Massachusetts so OF COURSE it’s a way bigger deal than it should be. Then again, here I am writing more about the selfie kid than the actual prospect at hand. That of course would be the baseball playing Ryan McKenna. The former fourth round pick from the New Hampshire prep ranks Ryan McKenna. The very same Ryan McKenna that was largely ignored by the industry, my self included, coming into the season. So much so, that he was left off the Baseball America system Top 30 entirely. That’s the Orioles list too, which coming into the season looked as barren as too be expected, outside the top 5 particularly. McKenna’s made a huge leap at the plate this year, in large part to improving pitch recognition skills. It’s not completely out of nowhere either, if you were paying attention to Delmarva late last season. He finished the season on a hot steak over his final 9 games hitting .324, before getting pegged in the back in the penultimate game of the season.

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Seems like I can’t write one of these posts any longer without tripping over a Junior. Hell, Ronald Acuña added one for good measure. I’m about to change my eldest son’s name to Ralph Lifshitz Jr. just to get the most of the current environment. While it would be entirely in my power, and justifiable, to dedicate this space to Vladimir Guerrero Jr., I will refrain, and instead turn your attention to another highly rated Junior, Fernando Tatis Jr. It was a rough beginning to the season for Tatis, and while you could still point to a pretty putrid slashline, over his last 11 games he has 5 homers, including 3 in the last 5 games. He was a nearly universal Top 10 prospect entering the season, and was aggressively assigned to AA San Antonio. Looks like the time to panic is over and Tatis is back on track. No adjustment in Tatis’ ranking from me.

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It’s the all blizzard podcast, as Lance and I dig out from a foot plus of snow. We took a quick break from shoveling to geek out over the very exciting Chicago White Sox Top Prospects. We jump right in with Eloy Jimenez, and a deeper discussion of just how good he can be. Next up is Michael Kopech, and a discussion of the improvements to his mechanics, and secondaries since the middle part of 2017. We then dive into Luis Robert, Dylan Cease, Zack Collins, Dane Dunning, and Jake Burger, before getting into a bigger discussion of some of these DH-Type hitters in the system. We hit the high points, the low points, and stop for a couple of Chi-Town dogs and an Italian beef before it’s all said and done. Finally, please make sure to support our sponsor by heading over to RotoWear.com and entering promo code “SAGNOF” for 20% off the highest quality t-shirts in the fantasy sports game. It’s the latest edition of the Razzball Fantasy Baseball Prospect Podcast:

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Well look at us, we have the Braves, and now the White Sox systems done and it’s only December 3rd. I guess it’s all down hill from here, no? We’ve covered the top two systems, and the World Series ended just about a month ago. Damn, I’m going to have to hustle to make the rest of this series entertaining. Perhaps I should write in all caps all the time. Then again that might be difficult to read after awhile. Instead I’ll go about my business of bringing you my thoughts on as many minor league players as I can stomach. As for the White Sox they are the only team with three players in my top 20 prospects (Eloy Jimenez, Michael Kopech, and Luis Robert). However, the really interesting slant to that narrative is, none of them were in the system this time last year. No team, not the Braves nor the Padres, has done so much to restock their system. Not only do they have some close to the majors talent on both sides of the ball, they also have good depth, with no shortage of power-hitting. I went 17 deep today, but probably could have gone 25-30 if I wasn’t so lazy. The White Sox graduated Yoan Moncada and Lucas Giolito last year, with some players like Carson Fulmer just slipping under their limits. It’s an understatement to say the youth movement is on in the South Side. A looming Jose Abreu trade may fetch even more talent to a system already bursting at the seams. But for that news we wait and see. It’s the 2018 Chicago White Sox Top Prospects.

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Ralph, on the Red Sox? This is sure to be the most homer post ever, or most homah post eva round my way. Now that I’ve gotten my obligatory Boston accent joke out of the way, and played into all your stereotypes. Which aren’t really stereotypes, as much as they’re totally spot on truth bombs….(but don’t tell the others I said that). Moving on, if I may. Let’s get into the gloating glowing review of the Top Boston Red Sox Prospects for Fantasy Baseball. (SEO hi-5) This is a system that’s churned out a host of fantasy stars in recent years. Just in the last three seasons alone, players like Mookie Betts, Xander Bogaerts, and Jackie Bradley Jr. have matriculated. With another crop of players on the come up, names like Moncada, Benintendi, and Devers have become synonymous with top prospect status. The exciting part about covering the Boston system, is the prospects are deep and diverse in terms of skills sets. It helps that outside a few high end arms in Kopech and Groome, it’s mostly hitting prospects. Personal bias aside, it’s a good system and one with several players worth your attention.

**Updated December 6th 2016 Post-Sale Trade**

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I’m not sure why, but I love the South Atlantic League. It could be it’s well known moniker of the Sally League that I like so much. Maybe it’s the new and improved packaging? Or, quite frankly it could just be the plethora of talent. Though more than likely, it’s the Sally part. I mean just picture a whole league full of Sallys. Which would either be made up entirely of men your grandfather dismissed as feminine, or it’s a league full of men and women named Sally. Only the best Sally’s need apply. On a personal bias note, I’d like to think that Sally Jesse Raphael is a 20/20 threat with intangibles. I mean her glasses were swagtastic. While we’re on the topic, let’s be honest, the game has really been deficient on swaggie glasses since Chris Sabo stopped trappin’. Wow, I get off topic quicker than a “Town-Hall Style” debate. Don’t worry no locker room talk here, we save that for the comment section. So without further ado, the 2016 Sally League Review (#spitfire).

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The minor league season is over, so allow your favorite Prospectors to light the hot stove. It’s like an outside fire pit on an autumn night type of stove. You know, hoodies and shorts. We’ll save the pellet stove for the December doldrums, whatever those are. Enough about heating units! This week yours truly, and Michael Halpern of imaginarybrickwall.com kick things off with some Padres talk, as they called up the quartet of Manuel Margot, Hunter Renfroe, Carlos Asuaje, and Austin Hedges. We then touch on top playoff performances from Billy McKinney, Jason Martin, “King of the North” Tyler O’Neill, and Braves pitching prospect Max Fried. We then get into our top 5 sleeper/breakout hitters, and top 5 sleeper/breakout pitchers for 2017. Never mind the bollocks, it’s the latest episode of the Razzball Prospect Podcast.

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