Beyond Forty

[mace]

Every year at this time, discussion crops up about whether we should extend the prospect poll beyond 40. There's always some sentiment in that direction, but not enough traction to get it done. I think most of us agree that, this year, the pool is the deepest we've dealt with. In that light, might I suggest an expedient way to take the list to 50?

Rather than have 10 more separate polls, which could become laborious (we're already losing voters), what if we did it in one fell swoop? We list a slate of candidates and have everybody vote for them on a 1-10 basis, 10 votes per person. Then we tally them (10 points for 1st, 9 for 2nd, etc.) and in one poll we complete #41-50. (It might yield a truer reading if we had everybody vote 1-15, but still stopped at #50. That way, it credits candidates that we still favor more than others.)

I don't know how to construct the poll, although it wouldn't be terribly difficult to simply have everybody post their list and then hand-tally them. A more techy type could probably come up with a better method.

I figure that the pool of candidates should include around 25-30 players. As a point of reference, it might look something like this (presuming that the final three of the top 40, as indicated by last poll, will be Humberto Valor, Matt Fairel and Jordan Hotchkiss):

Pitchers:
Matt Klinker
Scott Carroll
Josh Ravin
Tanner Robles
Daniel Tuttle
Wes Mugarian
Luis Gonzalez
J.C. Sulbaran
Mark Serrano
Evan Hildenbrandt
Chase Ware
Justin Freeman
Mace Thurman
Blaine Howell
El'Hajj Muhammad
Nathan Driessen
Jerry Gil
Jose Amezcua
Tyler Cline

Catchers:
Kevin Coddington

Infielders:
David Vidal
Miguel Rojas
Samuel Diaz
Devin Lohman
Carlos Sanchez
Chris Richburg

Outfielders:
Robert Maddox
Jaren Matthews
Juan Silva
Sean Henry
Theo Bowe
Kurtis Muller
Josh Fellhauer

Are there 10 guys on that list you'd like to vote for? That's what it comes down to.

[cinreds21]

I like that idea.

[RED VAN HOT]

Yes for me, too. The pitchers are especially deep.

[camisadelgolf]

One thing I can say is that if you'd prefer to do each selection one-by-one, I still have the energy to keep putting up the polls. I'm cool with one final voting process, too, though. Either one sounds good to me, so let it be known if there's a collective preference.

[mth123]

One thing I can say is that if you'd prefer to do each selection one-by-one, I still have the energy to keep putting up the polls. I'm cool with one final voting process, too, though. Either one sounds good to me, so let it be known if there's a collective preference.

I still like the one by one style myself. Allows more discussion.

[mace]

One thing I can say is that if you'd prefer to do each selection one-by-one, I still have the energy to keep putting up the polls. I'm cool with one final voting process, too, though. Either one sounds good to me, so let it be known if there's a collective preference.

Actually, the one-by-one is totally fine with me. I just thought this would give us a better chance of getting it done. But if you're willing to take ownership of doing it up to 50, that's great. Either way works for me.

And thanks for doing this, by the way.

[camisadelgolf]

Actually, the one-by-one is totally fine with me. I just thought this would give us a better chance of getting it done. But if you're willing to take ownership of doing it up to 50, that's great. Either way works for me.

And thanks for doing this, by the way.

It's my pleasure. OBM deserves most of the credit, though. And thank you for your list in the OP--that's going to help me a lot in the future polls.

[mace]

It's my pleasure. OBM deserves most of the credit, though. And thank you for your list in the OP--that's going to help me a lot in the future polls.

Right off the bat, I see one guy I omitted, whom some like: Brian Pearl.

Luis Gonzalez and Carlos Sanchez haven't been discussed at all within the polls. They're both young foreign-league guys who produced at a very high level last year. I know nothing about them but their outstanding numbers. There are several more who fit those parameters--mostly pitchers--but these two especially stood out to me.

[camisadelgolf]

Right off the bat, I see one guy I omitted, whom some like: Brian Pearl.

Luis Gonzalez and Carlos Sanchez haven't been discussed at all within the polls. They're both young foreign-league guys who produced at a very high level last year. I know nothing about them but their outstanding numbers. There are several more who fit those parameters--mostly pitchers--but these two especially stood out to me.

Yeah, I think Pearl was on a poll recently, but I could be wrong. I almost put him on the most recent one, but he's definitely going on the next one.

I completely forgot about Gonzalez, and I'm glad you mentioned him because there are some Dominican pitchers I'd like to see talked about, too (Carlos Ramos, Abel De Los Santos, and Eliezer Beard). I never considered Sanchez because small first basemen don't have much history of Major League success in the expansion era, but there's no denying that he was one of the best hitters in the DSL. He might not be on the next poll, but I'm sure we'll see him before the end of the top-50.