Shocking and terrible news regarding Oscar Taveras. Already several threads regarding that subject so need to further discuss here except to say that I will report his result from last round and then drop him from the ballot next round. Rest in Peace.

Interesting result last round. George Springer got more first place votes than Gregory Polanco, but Polanco got far more second place votes than Springer. When you add it up by the 3 points for first, one point for second scoring system, Polanco has an inconclusive 1 point lead 18-17. I think that calls for a run off, especially since more first place votes went to neither of them than went to either of them.

The rest of the voting went 8 points for Oscar Taveras, five points for Jake deGrom, 4 points for Stroman, 3 for Ventura and Baez. One for Odor. None for Castellanos.

One other interesting bit of information is that after putting this round up, I discovered that I had missed the fact that Taijuan Walker used up his rookie eligibility this past season. In identifying pitchers to add to the ballot I had sorted on rookies and looked for starters with more than 50 innings or relievers with lots of games pitched to check if they had gone over 45 days on the roster. Although Walker had just 38 innings last year, I had forgotten that he threw 15 the year before, giving him 53 and pushing him (barely) over the line.

Although the runoff is between Springer and Polanco I am going to allow write in votes for Taijuan Walker. After his bumpy year last sesaon, my guess is that he is still a few rounds, off, but given how highly rated he is/was as a prospect I wanted to get him into the mix as soon as possible.

So, who is your #5 prospect among last year's rookie class? George Springer, Gregory Polanco or Taijuan Walker?.