For most top young baseball players, the goal is the same: reaching the majors. But the path can take many shapes. There are United States high school and college stars vying to become top MLB draft picks. There are also international teenagers signing with major league teams at age 16 and older foreign players starring in professional leagues before jumping directly to MLB.
That can make tracking future big leaguers daunting, so here is the second annual version of a new way to present the best young players: grouped by their birth year.
To rank the top players at each age -- from 16 to 25 -- we'll start with the group born in 1999 and rank them based on whom I'd want on my team going forward. Then we'll move ahead until we get to players born in 2008.
