Why Baseball America was dead wrong about Emerson Hancock

I’ve been thinking about this for a while. Trying to imagine all the different scenarios as to why a respected organization like Baseball America could leave Emerson Hancock off of their top 100 list of prospects for their 2022 rankings. Do you know what I came up with?

Baseball American is dead wrong about Emerson Hancock

He was 57th in their rankings last year. In 2021, he would throw 44.2 innings split between A+ and AA, with a very respectable 2.62 ERA, a 1.03 WHIP, and 8.7 K/9. The team limited him to make sure that he was staying healthy, and eventually shut him down due to shoulder fatigue.

So here’s my question. When you have players every year in the top 100 that end up having Tommy John, they seem to get locked into those positions and don’t move. They might not even pitch for a year or two, and they still stick on there. Yet, we have Hancock, who actually threw last year. He looked good while he was doing it, too. They’re saying that the #6 pick, after just one season in the minors and a minor shoulder issue, is now not a top 100 prospect.

It’s ridiculous.

I understand there are worries. Part of the trouble with releasing your prospect list so early is you may miss out on some of the information that comes in about players as Spring Training gets close. Or, as teams are holding developmental stuff, like the Mariners with their Dominate the Zone program. Which, Emerson Hancock has reportedly looked really good at.

There’s another aspect to it, and it’s one that you see every once in a while. When a team has an excessive amount of something, some of them will get penalized. I think it happened to both Hancock and Harry Ford. The Mariners have five others in the top 100. It was probably odd for them to look at it and say “Yeah, the Mariners should have seven players in the top 100.”

To drop someone 50+ spots is crazy to me. I’m interested in seeing where some of the other big-time rankings put him, as I usually go with the MLB pipeline rankings as the one I trust most. Or Churchill, cause that guy is awesome. I’m sure they will assuage my fears and anger by putting him where he belongs, back in the top 100.

In the end, I know that it doesn’t truly matter. The Mariners know what they have, and they aren’t going to care if sites rank Emerson Hancock as the 10th prospect in all of baseball or the 1000th. They know what’s going on with him better than anyone else does. Don’t be surprised to see Hancock come out and dominate this year, and jump back into the conversation as one of the better pitching prospects in all of baseball.