Whenever a team is struggling like the Texas Rangers are, you tend to dig for anything positive.
And quite often, that turns into a glance at the minor-league system and seeing how each team fares in the prospect ranking game.
One of the top prospect sites, Baseball Prospectus, released its midseason Top 50 list with a few extra ones, and there were a handful of Rangers prospects on the list despite the fact the farm system isn't the juggernaut it was a few years ago.
Topping the list, to no one's surprise, is Double-A Frisco third baseman Joey Gallo, who mashed his 31st home run of the season on Monday night to move back into the lead for home runs in all of professional baseball. Gallo checked in at No. 13 on the list. He was followed by High-A catcher Jorge Alfaro, who has been basically pinned as the next Pudge Rodriguez. Alfaro checked in at No. 25, as both he and Gallo will play in Sunday's MLB Futures Game in Minneapolis as part of MLB All-Star week.
High-A outfielder Nick Williams, a Texas high school product from Galveston, checked in at No. 46 as a .313 hitter this season with eight homers and 50 RBIs. Double-A starting pitcher Chi-Chi Gonzalez is No. 49 on the list.
Low-A center fielder Lewis Brinson checked in just outside the top 50, as he's hit .335 with 10 homers for Hickory.
A change from previous years, it's obvious the Rangers' top prospects are mostly positional players instead of the load of pitchers that we've grown accustomed to seeing, although all of those positional players are at least a year away from being ready to contribute to the big club.
