Prospect season opens

One sign that spring training is getting closer (besides the fact that the Twins Caravan and Twins Fest are already in the rear-view mirror): Prospect gurus are starting to issue their Top 100 lists.

Keith Law of ESPN published his Top 100 yesterday. It's for "Insiders," ESPN's online subscription service, and I continue for what I'll call political reasons to decline to subscribe, so I don't know a whole lot about his list.

I do know, from others, that:

• Byron Buxton, last year's No.1, is No. 2 this year. (Kris Bryant of the Cubs system is No. 1)
• The Twins have six players in Law's Top 100: Buxton; Miguel Sano (No. 15); Alex Meyer (30), Nick Gordon (43); Kohl Stewart (53) and J.O. Berrios (97).

That Buxton and Sano have slipped after injury-wrecked 2014s bothers me not a whit. Nor am I surprised that Law ranks Berrios behind Meyer and Stewart; Law is wary of Berrios' short stature for a right-handed pitcher. I'm a bit surprised he has Berrios in the Top 100 at all, in fact.

My unwillingness to sign up for ESPN's Insider service has nothing to to do with the quality of Law's work. Indeed, access to Law's work is really the only reason I ever consider signing up. And it's not because I philosophically oppose paying for content; I work for a newspaper that wants very much to find a way to monetize content.

No, my issue is that I already pay ESPN a goodly sum through my cable bill, and I don't see a need to further subsidize the Leviathan when there are other places to put my money for prospect information, specifically Baseball America and John Sickels.