PECOTA takes on Shorstop Prospects (as it concerns the Rangers)

I was checking Baseball Prospectus's latest report in a series that looks at what PECOTA currently thinks of the best prospects at every position in baseball.

Yesterday it was shortstops. Now, I'm not posting everthing right now, just getting to what pertains to the Rangers because it was interesting. The score next to them is their "upside score." If you actually want more to it than that I can get to it later, but you're probably the kind of person who would do well to have a BP subscription anyway if you care.

I digress. The second tier of shortstops discussed is the tier of "Very Good Prospects," (behind Excellent), and this stood out to me:

>>>Marcus Lemon, Rangers (20)          97.0<<<
Alberto Gonzalez, Yankees (25)      92.3
Justin Snyder, Yankees (22)         88.6
>>>Elvis Andrus, Rangers (19)          81.2<<<
Hainley Statia, Angels (22)         80.0
Carlos Triunfel, Mariners (18)      79.0
Trevor Plouffe, Twins (22)          65.1
Todd Frazier, Reds (22)             54.4
Carlos Rivero, Indians (20)         54.4
Jason Donald, Phillies (23)         51.2

Now, I haven't heard much about Marcus Lemon, and I certainly haven't heard him placed ahead of Andrus, like. . . ever. So I found that pretty intreguing. Here's what Nate Silver had to say:

Things start to get weird from this point on. I’m not quite sure what PECOTA saw in Marcus Lemon, since there was superficially very little to be impressed with in his .261/.353/.364 batting line last year, but the combination of a strong walk rate and relatively good speed speaks to an interesting mix of skills and tools, a little bit like Jimmy Rollins demonstrated in the low minors. So far, PECOTA appears to be on to something, as Lemon is hitting .290/.405/.430 at Bakersfield thus far this year. Those are California League numbers, and so need to be discounted rather heavily, but if Lemon’s defense comes through—and he’s been rangy enough but error-prone in his career so far—he’s a guy who could be on a lot of radar screens a year from now.

It has nothing else to say about Andrus, though they've spent a lot of time on him already.

A score of 50-100 they say means, "Very Good Prospect. Strong chance of a meaningful major league career, with some legitimate chance at stardom. Best-case outcomes may involve some Hall of Fame potential."

A score of 100+ means, "Excellent Prospect. One of the better prospects in baseball. Strong chance of long major league career, perhaps with several All-Star appearances. May have Hall of Fame potential, especially if prospect is young or has a rating of 150 or higher."

Maybe I'm alone, but that personally got me to arch my eyebrows.