It’s one thing to move up the rankings of various prospect outlets or even my hobby rankings, but some players make drastic improvements to their game without getting the recognition that they deserve. That’s why I’m trying something new called an “improvement score” to help us discover them. What I’ve done is taken all of the data on prospects who had 100+ PA last year and for our purposes removed all of the ones who don’t have a Bowman autograph. I’ve then done the same for 2026 statistics and pulled out only players who were on both lists, that number came out to 547 hitting prospects. I really wanted to know which players have most improved their contact abilities, their approach, their overall offensive production, and most importantly for us in the hobby their power. Using a player’s SwStr%, BB%, K%, OPS, and ISO from both seasons I calculated which ones have gone up and down the most.

Now some matter more to me than others so there are weights applied to which ones help drive up your score more but I can tell you that age and level were also factored in. If you’ve not only improved but done it at a brand new level you receive a bonus but on the flipside if you’ve played all of 2025 and 2026 at the same level you lose points. Same thing applies to age too, if you’re young for the level you get a bump, if you’re old for the level you slide down. I then sorted the changes in all five of those statistical categories and found not only who improved the most but by how much. If you were in the top 25 or so for most improved in a category I considered that to be in the 95th percentile for “improvement”. Using these percentiles for improvement I calculated which prospects are trending up the most compared to their peers in those specific categories. Since our angle is always finding Bowman value, I added in their average base autograph price at the start of the season versus today. That way we can find not only which prospects are making tangible improvements but who the people buying cards haven’t caught onto yet.

Dark Green - 95th percentile or better

Light Green - 90th-94th percentile

Light Blue - 85th-89th percentile

Orange - Too old for the level / stats have have gone the wrong way