Francisco Lindor is in the top five on Baseball Prospectus' midseason top 50 list

It's midseason prospect ranking season. Yesterday I mentioned that Francisco Lindor has climbed to #6 on Baseball America's list, a nice jump up from #13, where they had him before the season began. Today, a look at Baseball Prospectus' top 50 list, on which Lindor is ranked even higher, all the way up at #4.

Says talent evaluator Nick Faleris:

"(Lindor is a) plus to plus-plus defender at the six spot with a top-of-the-order on-base and hit profile, positive value on the bases, and makeup for miles."

Yeah, that sounds good. I could go for that.

The BP rankings also include a link to a more in-depth scouting report on Lindor, which glows.

Lindor (who is only 20 years old) has been with Double-A Akron this season. He's batting .274/.351/.394, with 6 home runs (after hitting only 2 all of last year) and 21 stolen bases. He was just named to the Eastern League All-Star team (the game is next Wednesday) and has also been named to the MLB Futures Game for the third year in a row too.

Further down the list, Clint Frazier is among ten prospects mentioned as "in the top 50 mix." Given that BP ranked him #36 on their preseason list, it's disappointing to see him miss the top 50, but given his low batting average and massive strikeout numbers, it's not especially surprising. Frazier has hit a lot better over the last six weeks or so, and if he keeps that up, he'll bounce back up into the top 50 this offseason.

The only players above Lindor on the list are Byron Buxton (an outfielder in the Twins system), Carlos Correa (a shortstop in the Astros system), and Kris Bryant (a third baseman in the Cubs system). Those first two are both injured, and will play less than half of this season. Bryant meanwhile, is having the best season of any prospect, and has jumped up to #3 all the way from #17.

BP speculates that Lindor will be the Tribe's starting shortstop come Opening Day 2015. I still expect the team to keep him down for a few weeks in order to not have next year count as a full season of service time, this keeping him under team control for an extra year. Either way, by Memorial Day next spring, we should be watching Lindor at Progressive Field.