The Winter Meetings and Rule 5 Draft are in the rear view mirror, and the hot stove is simmering. You know what that means, Purple Row community: It's once again time to vote on your top 30 Purple Row Prospects (PuRPs) in the comment section of this thread!
For your reference, here is the mid-season 2016 list.
The rules are pretty simple:
- Your list must be at least 30 players long -- partial ballots will not be counted. If you're having trouble filling out your list, check out great resources like RockiesRoster.com, Minor League Central, and Baseball-Reference to find any stats you might need. Only the top 30 names will be counted on the ballot; if the same player is listed multiple times on the ballot, the player ranked 31st (if applicable) will be moved up to fill the list. Same if one of the players on your ballot is traded or released between your post and polling ending. To reiterate: if there aren't at least 30 distinct players on the list, the ballot won't be counted. For that reason, it is encouraged that you list more than 30 players in case of a duplicate listing or a player move.
- Feel free to give a rationale about the placement of each prospect, but you aren't required to do so by any means.
- Voting will be open from now until the end of New Year’s Day, January 1st. Once I tabulate the results, I will reveal the list one at a time over the next few weeks or so after voting ends.
- Players are eligible for inclusion if they still retain their Rookie of the Year eligibility (fewer than 50 IP, 130 ABs, and/or fewer than 45 days on the active roster -- DL and post-Sept. 1 service time are not included). Two key players from the mid-season list have exhausted their ROY eligibility and therefore are no longer eligible: David Dahl (1), and Tyler Anderson (10). All other PuRPs from the last list, including current Rockies players Jeff Hoffman (2), Raimel Tapia (4), German Marquez (7), Tom Murphy (15), and Jordan Patterson (16), as well as Matt Carasiti (30, released but re-signed as a minor league free agent), are eligible. One other name to not forget is 60-day DL occupant Jairo Diaz, who remains eligible for this edition of the list.
- Scoring will be in done like the AP poll in college football -- that is, a first place vote gets a player 30 points, a second place vote 29, and so forth on down to 1 point for a 30th place vote. It's important to note that until a player is named on at least 1/3 of all ballots cast that their vote totals will only receive partial credit (on a sliding scale which depends on the total number of ballots cast). This is to prevent individuals from manipulating the poll with "vanity" votes for marginal prospects.
- All ballots are weighted equally (as long as the players on them are named on enough ballots to qualify). The PuRPs list is a community ranking of Rockies prospects and we're proud of the fact that again and again it's a really good one. As a result, we ask that you put some quality effort into compiling your list.
- Remember, everyone has their own methodology of ranking their PuRPs. You may disagree with how one community member ranks their PuRPs over your own, but it remains in your hands to maintain civil discourse when discussing said PuRPs. That's what makes this ranking so great.
With that, have fun with this list. I look forward to a lively (but civil, in accordance with Purple Row's rules and regulations) debate over each others' lists.