We finally got through our top 75 Royals prospect ranking list here at Royals Farm. Now that the aggregate list is out, I wanted to release to you guys how I voted. I want to start by addressing a couple of things:

1.) These lists are supposed to be fun. If I actually worked for the Royals they might matter, because they actually have to manage their talent. But I don’t, so just enjoy the opinion and let it create some good discussion about the system, not animosity.

2.) I saw a few people online that were literally calling out prospect sites for “hiding behind aggregate lists.” I mean…what ever. If it means that much to you, that you become angry at bloggers for their opinion, you really need to find a new hobby.

Without further ado, here is my personal Royals prospect ranking, broken down into tiers that I’ll explain after the list.

One thing that I want to lead off with is that beyond my personal top 45, I consider everyone else on our top 75 a 35 FV wild card. Meaning they’re worth keeping an eye on, but probably nothing substantial in terms of prospect value. There are certainly guys I like that I left off, Trevor Oaks, David Hollie, Kyle Kasser, that simply have too much to prove for me to fall in love with.

My tiers are pretty simple.

• Tier 1: Players are either currently a 55-60 FV (in my opinion) or a 50 FV that I think can grow into a 55 FV.
• Tier 2: Players are either currently a 45 FV or capable of reaching that 45 FV mark.
• Tier 3: 40 FV with the potential to grow into 45 FV with some semi-substantial improvement.
• Tier 4: Probably never grows out of a 40 FV.

In case you’re unfamiliar with the 20-80 scale, here is a great article over at FanGraphs that explains the 20-80 scale. FV simply stands for “Future Value.” The Royals don’t currently have any prospects worthy of a 65 FV grade (for example, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. only received a 70 FV grade at MLB Pipeline), but I did give MJ Melendez the organization’s only 60 FV grade.

There are going to be plenty of folks that say I am overly optimistic about this Royals system, giving 12 players at least a 50 FV grade and Melendez a 60 FV. To that I say, yes I am. I am in love with the improvements that this system has made and I think it’s the single most underrated system in all of baseball.

I expect every single prospect in my first tier to contribute at the big league level in some capacity. The Royals have done an amazing job creating very high, very safe floors amongst their position players by growing elite defenders and excellent base runners. Alex Gordon, Adalberto Mondesi, Mike Moustakas, Eric Hosmer, Salvador Perez, Whit Merrifield, Nicky Lopez, are all excellent examples of this method. I firmly believe that Kyle Isbel, Michael Gigliotti, Nick Pratto, Khalil Lee, and Nicky Lopez are going to be starters for the Royals for years, as they’ll follow the Royals mold of that plus-defense, plus-runner, hit just enough to be extremely valuable in the future.

On the pitching side of things, I think the Royals have finally turned the corner. They loaded up on college arms and totally avoided prep arms that have been disastrous for them in the past. I think Jackson Kowar is going to be a monster, and Lynch and Singer have floors that might be better than back-of-the-rotation. I am so excited about this Royals system, and it’s only a matter of time until the national media is put on notice.

Photo Credits: PLPhoto2015 (@PPhoto2015)