Let’s Scout the Lake County Captains – List Time

Today, we finish up our scouting of the Guardians’ High-A affiliate, the Lake County Captains!

In case you missed it, you can check out my scouting reports on Captains’ pitchers here and Captains’ hitters here.

Welcome back to the final installment, where I take off my blindfold and compare my own rankings to other outlets. This portion is mostly a sanity check: I am aware of all these publications, and I am a semi-regular reader of many. However, I intentionally have not reviewed prospect rankings in anticipation of making something like this.

As a reminder, many of these players are not going to be assessed by the baseball media. Amateur/minor league scouting can be incredibly resource-intensive, and most outlets are covering 30 teams over their staff. They have good grips on the systems they cover, but there still needs to be some selectivity in who gets the write-ups.

The List as of the 5/19/2026 Roster: Ratings by FV

Future value is used by prospect writers to try to project what a player can be. This list is still an effort to rank each player in descending order based on my evaluation of that player. To be blunt: This roster is one of the most talented Lake County squads I have seen in some time with respect to depth. It’s not quite as good as the playoff roster from 2024 that featured Travis Bazzana, Ralphy Velazquez, and Angel Genao, but a larger group of these players seem to have a legitimate chance to be big-league players.

Also, feel free to roast this! The list was not in mind when I set out to do this, and there will be some big breaks in consensus. We will not complain about the traffic. After I share my list, you will also see the rankings for each prospect from Baseball America, Fangraphs, and MLB Pipeline. Baseball America provides grades adjusted for risk- I have given the adjusted grade because I am also trying to assess risk with my own grades.

1. Braylon Doughty, RHP: 50
2. Dean Curley, SS: 45+
3. Aaron Walton, OF: 45+
4. Jace LaViolette, OF: 40++
5. Franklin Gomez, LHP: 40+
6. Luke Hill, SS: 40+
7. Bennett Thompson, C: 40+
8. Rafe Schlesinger, LHP: 35+
9. Nolan Schubart, 1B: 35++
10. Ryan Cesarini, OF: 35+
11. Kendeglys Virguez, RHP: 35+
12. Cam Schuelke, RHP: 35+
13. Melkis Hernandez, LHP: 35
14. Jogly Garcia, RHP: 35
15. Donovan Zsak, LHP: 30+
16. Jackson Humphries, LHP: 30+
17. Logan McGuire, RHP: 30+
18. Tommy Hawke, OF/2B: 30+
19. Logun Clark, C: 30+
20. Izaak Martinez, LHP: 30
21. Garrett Howe, 2B: 30
22. Maick Collado, 3B: 30
23. Esteban Gonzalez, OF: 30
24. Cam Walty, RHP: 30
25. Xavier Martinez, RHP: 30
26. Michael Kennedy, LHP: 25+
27. Luis Flores, LHP: 25+
28. Kevin Rivas, C: 25
29. Jeffrey Mercedes, 2B: 25

Some takeaways:

I am very low on Jackson Humphries relative to consensus. This is primarily because command and control are fickle. Even with that in mind, it would be correct to say he does not surrender many hits, and he works out of his own jams consistently. I still worry about ranking him higher because I do not trust that he will limit his hits the same way when he figures out how to keep the ball in the zone.

Fangraphs loves Jogly Garcia. At a time last season, Garcia was also a top 30 on Pipeline, but their preseason revision dropped him out in favor of Luke Hill, which is looking like a good move.

Franklin Gomez is another Fangraphs darling, but the early returns will likely have him considered for re-rankings, even for post-draft assignments. His results are coming in a Midwest League that is extremely offense-oriented.

Dean Curley is polarizing, and each of these outlets have concerns over whether he can stay at shortstop. I believe he can play shortstop, at least in the short-term as a young player, and that is why he is ranked ahead of Aaron Walton.

Aaron Walton helium, if it ever comes, will probably be reflected in organization re-ranks. With that said, BA has already done theirs, and Walton did not move much, reflecting the idea that college hitters should be performing well at High-A.

A final note: my opinion of these players and their potential is not meant to disparage them in any way. Baseball is incredibly hard. Writing about what you see, in contrast, is much easier. Any one of these guys can prove me wrong, and it would be a delight- we all want to see people figure it out and succeed. See: This 2011 article describing Corey Kluber (accurately) as a failing, old starting pitcher prospect.

Now, I take off my blindfold and compare my own rankings to other outlets. This portion is mostly a sanity check: I am aware of all these publications, and I am a semi-regular reader of many. However, I intentionally have not reviewed prospect rankings in anticipation of making something like this.