Top Dodger prospect lists from experts

In the last week, three of the foremost authorities on prospects (in my eyes) have released their top prospect lists.

• John Sickels of Minor League Ball released his Top 20 list on Friday (Dec. 31).
• Jared Massey of L.A. Dodger Talk released his Top 55 list on Sunday.
• Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus released his Top 20 list on Tuesday.

I'm going to compare each Top 20 in preparation of my Top 30 list, which will release Monday. Baseball America releases its Top 10 on Jan. 21 prior to the annual publication of the Prospect Handbook.

Rank	Sickels	Massey	Goldstein
1	Gordon	Sands	Lee
2	Sands	Robinson	Jansen
3	Robinson	De La Rosa	Gordon
4	Jansen	Lee	Robinson
5	De La Rosa	Gordon	Sands
6	Lee	Webster	De La Rosa
7	Withrow	Miller	Webster
8	Miller	Jansen	Miller
9	Webster	Withrow	Landry
10	Martin	Martin	Martin
11	Elbert	Landry	Pederson
12	Landry	Lemmerman	Withrow
13	Russell	Russell	Cash
14	Gould	Pederson	Gould
15	Cavazos-Galvez	Garcia	Elbert
16	Baldwin	Songco	Lemmerman
17	Lemmerman	Cavazos-Galvez	Smith
18	Solano	Smith	Cavazos-Galvez
19	Magill	Silverio	Russell
20	Garcia	DeJesus	Silverio

There aren't many surprises on these lists. Here are some stats from the three:

• Players who appear only once: Javier Solano/James Baldwin/Matt Magill (Sickels), Angelo Songco/Ivan DeJesus (Massey), Ralston Cash (Goldstein)
• Number of same players on all three lists: 14
• Highest average ranking: Dee Gordon, Trayvon Robinson and Jerry Sands (3)
• Players ranked the same on all three lists: Ethan Martin (10)

As you can see, there are differing opinions on the Dodgers' top prospect, but there are a lot of similar names on each list -- and each list has a surprise name on it (Solano, Songco, Cash).

I like seeing Landry ranked so high on these lists. I'm really high on him and he could end up being quite the steal. I was also kind of surprised to see Lemmerman ranked so high. He had a great debut, but he's a little old for rookie ball. He'll have to prove himself against advanced competition.

It was interesting to see each of these three had different No. 1s. The consensus seems to be Gordon and Sands, but Goldstein snuck Lee in there at the top spot.

The most puzzling is the ranking of Martin, who had a disastrous season. He still lands in the top 10 on each list (in fact, at No. 10 on each) and even above Withrow on Goldstein's list, which doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

The bottom line is, 2011 will determine whether or not the Dodger farm system returns to the elite level of the early 2000s, middles or remains in the bottom third of baseball. I have a feeling it won't be the latter.

It's fun to see the thoughts of others when it comes to ranking prospects.