Baseball America loves to rank things; it’s what we do. So why not rank the Top 10 most-BA moments from 2015?
No. 10: Four men who were stalwarts of the pages of Baseball America in their playing days—Randy Johnson, John Smoltz, Craig Biggio and Pedro Martinez—were elected to the Hall of Fame.No. 9: For the second time in four years, Parkview High (Lilburn, Ga.) is Baseball America’s 2015 High School Team of the Year.The Panthers finished with a 34-2 record, including a season-ending
26-game winning streak that culminated with a two-game sweep of Walton
High to secure Parkview’s third Georgia 6-A state championship in the
last five years.No. 8: A tournament run that defied expectations at almost every turn
culminated in Virginia’s first-ever national title, with the
Cavaliers taking the decisive third game of the finals 4-2 to dethrone reigning champion Vanderbilt.No. 7: In the midst of their NCAA tournament run, Vanderbilt’s star shortstop Dansby Swanson is the first overall pick by the Diamondbacks in June. No. 6: Of this year’s preseason Top 100 Prospects, Thirty-seven graduated by season’s end. Byron Buxton, the No. 2 prospect in the game, missed doing the same by one at-bat.No. 5: The Fresno Grizzlies, behind Chris Devenski’s Triple-A debut, win the Triple-A National Championship.No. 4: A.J. Reed, left, and Blake Snell each post fantastic numbers and duel for the Minor League Player of the Year award until the last week. Ultimately, Snell (15-2, 1.41) took the award with one of the best performances ever for a pitcher.No. 3: The Royals cap a rise from having nine players in the BA Top 100 in 2011 to a World Series championship.No. 2: Kris Bryant was named Baseball
America’s Rookie of the Year Award—becoming the first player to earn
BA’s College Player of the Year, Minor League Player of the Year and
rookie awards in successive years.No. 1: Just six months after he’s drafted No. 1 overall, Dansby Swanson became the first No. 1 overall pick traded as a minor leaguer since 2000 No. 1 pick Adrian Gonzalez was traded in 2003. The ‘Trea Turner” rule got a workout in its first year as four players drafted in 2015 were traded by December.
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