Colorado Rockies prospects: Purple Row Prospects polling thread, pre-season 2022

In a normal off-season, the pre-season Purple Row Prospects (PuRPs) list would have already been completed. Of course, the lockout that began on December 2nd — and has continued past the pitchers and catchers reporting date — has interfered with most major league business (most notably the Rule 5 Draft for PuRPs purposes).

We can only wait so long: it’s nearly March and it’s time for the pre-season 2022 PuRPs polling thread — Purple Row’s community farm system Top 30 ranking. Since the last time we did this (here’s the mid-season 2021 list), some prospects lost their eligibility, whether from exceeding their rookie status or leaving the organization. There are new prospects as well to consider from the international signing period that occurred in January (delayed from the usual July) or in minor league free agency. In addition, though the Rule 5 draft is delayed, teams have already protected some players by adding them to the 40-man roster.

With the later-than-usual MLB draft this past season, 2021 draftees haven’t had much time to shine. Moreover, most players in 2021 were coming off a year without organized baseball activities and have been thrown into a different (consolidated) minor league structure than was present before.

Colorado’s farm system is still generally ranked in the bottom 10 in MLB by the national prospect watchers. That written, there are plenty of future Rockies in the system and this is still one of my favorite Purple Row threads each year. Let’s get to it!

The polling 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 FanGraphs 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 the end of polling. 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.
• Voting will be open from now until the end of next week, March 4th. Once I tabulate the results, I will reveal the list one at a time over the next several weeks 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, IL and post-Sept. 1 service time are not included).
• From the mid-season 2021 PuRPs list, prospects who received votes that are no longer eligible are José Mujica, David Hill, and Antonio Santos.
• Any player who is eligible at the start of the polling period will be eligible for the list even if they lose eligibility before the final list is posted (e.g. if the Rule 5 Draft happens and one of the unprotected players is picked). Though the lockout continues, minor league transactions are still occurring — truly, roster churn is a year-round phenomenon. Any necessary changes will be made to the final version of the list to ensure it contains the top 30 players still in the org at that time.
• Scoring will be in done like the AP poll in college football. A first place vote gets a player 30 points, a second place vote 29, and so forth on down to one 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).
• 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 it’s a really good one. As a result, we ask that you put some quality time into compiling your list.
• Everyone has their own PuRPs ranking methodology. Please maintain civil (in accordance with Purple Row’s Community Guidelines) discourse when discussing the posted lists.

Happy voting!