It's that time of year again - time to voice your opinion on ranking the top prospects in the Red Sox system. You know the drill - rank your top 40. Please keep the discussion to a minimum in this particular thread - this thread is specifically for taking and tallying rankings. Discussion of the rankings can go in the Meta Sub-Forum, where we hope to get some good back-and-forth going this year. Criteria for rankings should be your opinion of each prospect's "expected value" at the big league level, not particularly for the Red Sox, and not solely based on ceiling. If you want some generic guidance on the Site's rankings philosophies, check out the FAQ entry on prospect rankings. We're not going to set any additional guidelines as to how you should rank prospects, except that we do ask that you follow one rule - please only vote for eligible prospects and do not exclude players from eligibility based on your own criteria. This is because we want to keep the pool of players the same across the board, so some members aren't over-excluding or over-including certain players. In order to keep it consistent, if you vote for an ineligible player, your vote will not be tallied. We'll typically try to fix up any such entries before the voting deadline.
If you choose to take part, please rank the top 40. Feel free to go beyond 40, just note that players listed beyond 40 will not be tallied. Also, if you fail to get to 40, that throws off the math, so unfortunately your entry would not be tallied. Voting will go through Tuesday, September 6 at noon ET. You can edit your rankings until then.
Eligibility
Prospect eligibility for this vote is based loosely on MLB "rookie" status, meaning all players in the system will be eligible unless they have exhausted their rookie status as of today, August 30, 2011. Additionally, Ryan Kalish will remain eligible for this vote, as he has just barely passed the rookie threshold and may not see more major lague time this year.
Here is a list of the Red Sox prospects who are eligible for this vote:
William Abreu, Ynoel Aguero, Raul Alcantara, Mario Alcantara, Michael Almanzar, Anthony Amaya, Lars Anderson, Jonathan Aro, Chris Balcom-Miller, Matt Barnes, Luis Bastardo, Anatanaer Batista, Jeremiah Bayer, Ronald Bermudez, Ricardo Betancourt, Mookie Betts, Beau Bishop, Carson Blair, Xander Bogaerts, Jair Bogaerts, Sully Bonnelly, Michael Bowden, Jackie Bradley, Kevin Brahney, Bryce Brentz, Drake Britton, Dan Butler, Cesar Cabral, Ariel Cabral, Yeiper Castillo, Garin Cecchini, Miguel Celestino, Hunter Cervenka, David Chester, Caleb Clay, Jose Colorado, Carlos Coste, Keith Couch, Sean Coyle, Enrique Cuevas, Jacob Dahlstrand, Keury De La Cruz, Robert Del Rosario, Mitch Dening, Ryan Dent, Luis Diaz, Brent Dlugach, Drew Dominguez, Felix Doubront, Roberto Duncan, Tom Ebert, Justin Erasmus, Leonel Escobar, Rafael Espinoza, Jose Espitia, Luis Exposito, Kyle Fernandes, Jeffry Fernandez, Josh Fields, Jordan Flasher, Matthew Fox, Vladimir Frias, Joantoni Garcia, Jose Garcia, Jason Garcia, Edwar Garcia, Andres Garcia, Seth Garrison, Matt Gedman, Zach Gentile, Derrik Gibson, Mike Gleason, Sergio Gomez, Miguel Gonzalez, Aly Gonzalez, Zach Good, Dreily Guerrero, Alex Hassan, Jeremy Hazelbaker, Miles Head, Drew Hedman, Jon Hee, Jayson Hernandez, Chris Hernandez, Mitch Herold, Pete Hissey, Joe Holtmeyer, TJ Hose, Tommy Hottovy, Jeff Howell, Jennel Hudson, Swen Huijer, Brock Huntzinger, Adalberto Ibarra, Jose Iglesias, Brandon Jacobs, Iago Januario, Williams Jerez, Elis Jimenez, Bryan Johns, Matty Johnson, Andrew Jones, Ryan Kalish, James Kang, Zach Kapstein, Braden Kapteyn, Jeremy Kehrt, Ryan Khoury, John Killen, Cody Koback, Matt Kramer, Cody Kukuk, Will Latimer, Ryan Lavarnway, Lucas LeBlanc, Mike Lee, Che-Hsuan Lin, JC Linares, Tyler Lockwood, Denier Lopez, Jesus Loya, David Mailman, Leandro Marin, Matt Marquis, Chris Martin, Alex Mateo, Blake Maxwell, Mike McCarthy, Oscar Melendez, Heiker Meneses, Will Middlebrooks, Moko Moanaroa, Boss Moanaroa, Frank Montas, Nick Moore, Nick Natoli, Dennis Neuman, Nefi Ogando, Michael Olmsted, Yunior Ortega, Edwin Osorio, Matty Ott, Henry Owens, Jorge Padron, Renny Parthemore, Josue Peley, Miguel Pena, Aneudis Peralta, Oscar Perez, Kendrick Perkins, Wilfred Pichardo, Stolmy Pimentel, Carlos Pinales, Jeremias Pineda, Eammon Portice, Ryan Pressly, Mathew Price, Noe Ramirez, Roberto Ramos, Henry Ramos, Anthony Ranaudo, David Renfroe, Roberto Reyes, Pedro Reyes, Jason Rice, Manny Rivera, Tim Roberson, Nick Robinson, Reynaldo Rodriguez, Cleuluis Rondon, Charle Rosario, Pete Ruiz, Matt Rusch, Felix Sanchez, Jadd Schmeltzer, Seth Schwindenhammer, Robby Scott, Travis Shaw, Matt Sheely, Brenden Shepard, Miguel Shepard, David Sopilka, Alfredo Soto, Matt Spalding, Nate Spears, Matt Spring, Kyle Stroup, Alixon Suarez, Blake Swihart, Scott Swinson, Aneury Tavarez, Francisco Taveras, German Taveras, Junichi Tazawa, Oscar Tejeda, Tony Thomas, Jason Thompson, Drew Turocy, Juan Ugas, Luis Urena, Alex Valdez, Leonel Vasquez, Christian Vazquez, Raynel Velette, Jose Vinicio, Kolbrin Vitek, Corey Vogt, Mark Wagner, Jordan Weems, Kyle Weiland, Ryan Westmoreland, Shannon Wilkerson, Alex Wilson, Tyler Wilson, Brandon Workman, Madison Younginer
Notable players who are NOT ELIGIBLE: Andrew Miller, Josh Reddick, Drew Sutton, Scott Atchison, Randy Williams, Daniel Nava, Hideki Okajima, Hector Luna, Brett Carroll, Brandon Duckworth, Dennys Reyes, Tony Pena, Royce Ring, Greg Smith, Charlie Haeger, and any player acquired by Boston from the time of this post forward.
Thanks and have fun!
-Mike