A homemade strike zone and his own field of dreams: How Grayson Rodriguez became a prodigy and the Orioles’ top pitching prospect

Gilbert…had identified the ideal plot of land — a gentle slope on the family’s 13-acre property — and now needed to meld that land into something usable. The brush went first, clearing the dirt of brambles and thickets.

And then in that tractor, Gilbert began leveling the ground, cutting into the slope to flatten the grade. He threw grass seed down, crafted some baselines, placed bags and molded a mound…

It would become much in the next few years, when Gilbert added a fence about 200 feet to center field. As Grayson grew older and better, the field on the family’s property about 2 miles from their house improved, too. The baselines were stretched to 90 feet, the mound pushed back to 60 feet, 6 inches, a backstop appeared and benches were made.

Fangraphs: 2022 Top 100 Prospects

#1 Adley Rutschman

Rutschman is a complete, franchise-altering prospect, and one of the most exciting young players in the entire sport. He’s a switch-hitter with a hit/power combination that would probably make him an All-Star anywhere on the diamond, while also being a plus defender at the most demanding position in baseball, and an intense, vocal, charismatic leader. His track record of superlative statistical performance and unanimous scout adoration has continued uninterrupted for nearly half a decade now, and in our eyes, he is in a tier of his own as the best prospect in baseball….

Rutschman is a nearly-perfect prospect and inspired internal discussion about whether he deserved to be our second-ever 80 FV player. We decided against it largely due to the nature of the catcher position, which tends to reduce the number of games played and often comes with (sometimes long) fallow offensive stretches due to the physical toll catching takes. There’s also a little gap between Rutschman’s measured raw power and his visual report, and his barrel rates in 2021 were a little below the big league average. Adley makes a ton of contact but not always on the sweet spot of the ball, leading to what we anticipate will be all-fields doubles spray rather than elite home run totals. Still, he projects as a perennial All-Star and consistent MVP threat, the next decade’s best catcher in baseball.

Breaking Down The MLB Top 100 Prospect Incentive Proposal

But because of that, including a Top 100 Prospects designation in the incentive seems unnecessary. To get a sense of how many players would be affected, we looked back at the rookie of the year balloting from 2010 to present. Of the 72 players to rank in the top three of Rookie of the Year balloting since 2010, 54 (75%) were Top 100 Prospects coming into that season. There were a few players (like Jose Iglesias and Jaime Garcia) who had ranked previously as Top 100 Prospects but not in the year before they landed ROY votes. For these purposes they are considered as not making the Top 100.

Of the 18 players who weren’t in the Top 100, five (Luis Garcia, Cristian Javier, John Means, Devin Williams and Jake Cronenworth) are still quite early in their MLB careers. Of the other 13, six (Danny Valencia, Vance Worley, Matt Shoemaker, Matt Duffy, Jung-Ho Kang and Tyler Naquin) were either non-tendered, released or had their contracts sold to other teams during the first five years of their MLB careers. It’s fair to say that service time considerations didn’t play a role in the roster decisions on any of those six players.

The other seven either reached free agency without being released/non-tendered or had their contracts sold or are on pace to do so. Trey Mancini and Paul DeJong so far seem destined to play through the entirety of their arbitration years and into free agency without being non-tendered. Jacob deGrom turned into one of the best pitchers in the game. Iglesias, Wade Miley, Garcia and Mark Trumbo all reached MLB free agency.