What is With the Different Baseball Prospect Ranking Services?

Back in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, when I was going to Dodgertown in Vero Beach, Florida, I made friends with an old, white-haired baseball writer for Baseball America, named Bill. He was in his mid-70’s, retired, and was there with his wife. Before the games, we would talk about Dodger Prospects. Suddenly, I stopped seeing him, and I assumed that he had moved on to be with the Big Dodger in the Sky. Baseball America was founded in 1981 by Allan Simpson and Gary Gillette. I discovered it sometime in the late 80’s.

The origin story is wonderfully scrappy. It began as a small, black-and-white newspaper produced in North Carolina, aimed at something the mainstream sports press barely…