It’s that time to revisit our Top 100 Prospects for The Hobby with plenty of graduations, fresh video and data, and all of the additional context that helps inform our prospecting opinions. Our Hobby gurus Joe and Max rank their top Hobby prospects and then average out their ranks to create an aggregate list for your Hobby pleasure.

There are many ways to go about creating a Hobby list such as this. How did we handle it? Well, this is not a list with any direct connection to any present or future card values - it is NOT a ranking of the most expensive prospect cards from top to bottom. It’s a list that looks to find the best prospects, present and future, through the collecting lens. The hobby especially has that eye on the more distant future, even though the vision doesn’t always come into focus. Other differences from non-Hobby lists are factors such as being a pitcher or catcher, team context (more on that below), and a strong focus on power potential for hitters and strikeout potential for pitchers.

New for the Mid-Season Update - we are introducing Hobby Archetypes. There are three Hobby Archetypes that are universal:

Prospect Pedigree - High draft pick (domestic), highly rated/high bonus signing from their International Signing period, or highly ranked in current/past prospect lists.
Team Context - At least two out of three of the following - team collectability (Yankees, Cubs, Dodgers, etc.), an org's ability to develop that talent (pitcher talent with the Marlins, Dodgers, etc. or hitter talent with the Reds, Orioles, etc.), and proximity/team need for that player/position.
Hobby Hype - Prospects that have bubbled to the top of the Hobby consciousness. Current examples include prospects like Jasson Dominguez with his Team Context (Yankees), Prospect Pedigree (top International Ranking/Signing in his class), and being a having a hugely sought after 1st Bowman card with wild prices or Druw Jones with his MLB Draft status (2nd overall in 2022) and family ties (son of a really good former player - Andruw Jones).

There are two Hobby Archetypes specific to hitters:

Five Tool Player - Hit, Power, Speed, Defense, and Arm tools all in a single package - while in certain instances none of the tools may be truly “plus”, there are no weaknesses to their game. More standard scouting terminology and less Hobby-specific, but the prospects with all of the five tools in the arsenal are going to be highly sought after in the Hobby as much as they are in real life and fantasy baseball.
Plus Offensive Tool(s) - The offensive tools - Hit, Power, and Speed - are what the Hobby cares about. At least one of these tools currently or has the potential to be plus on the scouting scale. Defense helps on the fringes of the Hobby profile, but there will be very little money changing hands for those without at least one plus primary offensive tools.

There are two Hobby Archetypes specific to pitchers:

K Upside - Strikeout pitchers are the ones that get the headlines and the resulting Hobby interest.
Plus Pitch(es) - The Pitching Ninja effect. At least one of their pitches currently or has the potential to be plus on the scouting scale. Pitchers that have one or more plus pitches in their arsenal will have a higher likelihood of baseball success not to mention getting the gif love from baseball accounts like Pitching Ninja helping to increase Hobby awareness.

You can find all of the more fantasy-focused player archetypes in the Top 500 Dynasty Prospects on our Patreon.

We’ve also added up, down, and new (+) icons. Any player with an up arrow has moved up significantly from where they were on the Pre-Season Top 100, or potentially just outside of the top 100 if they were on the fringe but not part of the published list. The new players were prospects completely off of the Pre-Season list and, even more so, off of the 125+ ranked prospects that were on one or both of Joe and Max’s independent lists.

Note: we purposely left off all of the most recent MLB Draft picks like Dylan Crews, Paul Skenes, etc as well as any player that has not reached the Complex level (DSL players). We want a prospect to have had an opportunity to participate in professional baseball stateside before considering them for this list. The Hobby is often a high-risk gamble, and lacking professional stateside video and stats exponentially increases that gamble.