Yankees Hal Steinbrenner owns a slide ruler. As much as I am sure that Aaron Judge hit that Seattle home run a lot farther than 440 feet, I am sure about Hal and his slide ruler. And Hal uses that tool to graph prospects’ actual performance versus their talent, potential and attendant rankings.
Take Gary Sanchez. In the spring of 2016, Sanchez was listed as the Yankees fifth best prospect, right behind Rob Refsnyder, and only the eighth best catching prospect. Gary was not good enough to be ranked in the top 100.