FanGraphs' top prospects list is way, WAY down on Indians

FanGraphs has released its top 200 prospects list, and its findings paint an awfully grim portrait of the Indians' farm system.

Francisco Lindor is involved of course, but while other rankings have generally had him between #4 and #6, FanGraphs (more specifically, Kiley McDaniel) has him at #14. That probably doesn't amount that all that big a difference, but McDaniel (who provides a nice scouting report/summary for all 200 players) rates him as a 60 overall (on the 80-point scale), a full step back from the other shortstops (Addison Russell and Carlos Correa) Lindor has usually been found right next to.

Beyond Lindor, there aren't any other Tribe farmhands anywhere in the top 100, whereas other lists have all had at least one other, and in some cases as many as three others. Instead, Clint Frazier is all the way down at #101, hurt by his very high strikeout rate. Bradley Zimmer is at #118. McDaniel is still pretty optimistic about each of them becoming a good MLB starter, but not as optimistic as we might like to see.

Those three are it. A list that goes 200 prospects deep includes an average of nearly seven prospects per team, but the Indians have only that trio. No Francisco Mejia, no Giovanny Urshela, no Tyler Naquin, and no pitchers.

It should go without saying that this doesn't mean the Indians won't develop a lot of talent in the next couple years. Even the collective wisdom of all the experts turns out to be wrong a fair amount of the time. Lindor might very well be the best shortstop anywhere in MiLB, and half a dozen other guys in the system right now might turn into All-Stars. Still, it's not much fun to see a list with so little in the way of positive reports for the Tribe.