Minor League Ball Updated Top 120 Prospect Rankings

The season's midway point is always a fun time for prospect watchers. There's the usual first large wave of promotions, of course the Minor League Futures Game, and last but not least, the updated prospect lists. Over at SB Nation's aptly named Minor League baseball blog, Minor League Ball, John Sickels released his Midseason Top 120 Prospect list* on Tuesday. You can see his Preseason Top 120 here.

*For the record, he did not include 2012 draftees in the updated rankings

Now if you guys are anything like me, you're going to curiously scan the list looking for Mets prospects. So for your convenience I'll do a little Mets-centric recap below:

• Not surprisingly Zack Wheeler jumped up the list. Quite a bit. Among pitchers on the earlier list he had the fifth-largest overall jump at 23 spots.

• Matt Harvey up three; Brandon Nimmo and Jeurys Familia down three. Basically that means stagnant on such a dynamic list. Sickels isn't too down about Familia's rough first half though, and he says as much a little later on.

• Very nice to see Wilmer Flores get back onto this list at #76 after barely making Honorable Mention the first time around. Despite the continued loss of positional value, the increased value of his bat now that he's developing real power has him back among the blue chip prospects.

Additionally, Sickels did a Top 120 Prospects All Questions Answered thread. Here was the resulting Mets-related discussion (click images to embiggen):

• After struggling with a 4.08 ERA in April, Fulmer has posted a 3.00 mark in May followed by a 2.22 in June. His BB/9's over that span? 2.04, 4.71, and 3.33, respectively.
  

• I agree with the sentiment to leave Familia in the rotation. No point making a rash decision based on a half-season, especially as he makes his debut against the highest level of the minors — as the tenth-youngest player in the league. Sickels is showing a lot of faith, perhaps because Familia has bounced back from a tough season before (see: 2010 ERA: 5.58; 2011 ERA: 2.90).
  

• Despite the fact that Flores just made his first professional start at first base earlier this week, I'd say third base is his likely landing spot. He's played some second as well, though his lack of lateral quickness will make that a tough sell.
  

• Gotta love the Taijeron-asaurus Rex...not that much though. I'll stick with a ceiling of Scott Hairston.
  

• Not much to add to this one. Really, it's up to Wheeler working on the control issues to determine how good he'll be, with a ceiling as a true ace. Month to month BB/9's in 2012: 4.91, 2.33, 3.43

By the way, in case anyone was wondering, you can expect to see a refreshed 2012 AA Top 50 Mets Prospect list around the time of the All-Star Game.