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Prospect writers are mostly judged by the 1 activity that takes the least amount of skill and the least amount of effort, prospect lists. (Thread as I wait for my wife to get her hip X-Rayed)
Don’t get me wrong, I put a lot of effort into my process. I understand the importance of the tool. On my end, the ranking is chalk full of biases and is mostly a gut feel.
As part of an interview for an area scout position a few summers (18), I was asked to rank 5 specific position players and 5 specific pitchers. They were all MLB players. I ranked the position guys 1. Kris Bryant 2. Carlos Correa 3. Kevin Pillar 4. Kris Davis 5. Buster Posey.
The interviewer was surprised I had Pillar so high, saying others “had ranked him last.” Why? My gut, without looking at stats, valued Pillar’s contributions on the field more than what Davis brought to the plate & what Posey’s health would allow him to contribute.
It was a long shot interview anyway since this org had never brought in a prospect writer type in to scout but I knew my thought process didn’t align when the interviewer acted shocked. Also, I ranked their own pitcher last. 
The point here is a list is only as good as limiting factors of bias from the list. You may say, some lists are collaborative efforts at websites. You’re right. Mostly though, sites surround themselves with like minded evaluators.
If you want to put a heavy weight on lists, the best way to do so is to take from everyone’s lists. I do a lot of cross checking with other sites, mostly to figure out if my bias is preventing me from seeing something I’ve missed. At the end of the day, I rarely move a guy.
I also invite people to figure out each sites/writers bias. The words are more important always over the ranking. That’s what we all should be judged on. Not on our ability to produce lists quickly and have generic takes.
We have an over-saturation of prospect takes out there, which presents good and bad results. The good, there’s more avenues to take from and more places for writers to learn from. The bad, there are a lot of people throwing darts out there.
I’m no better or worse than anyone else doing this. I’ve just done it longer, acknowledge and learn from my misses and only celebrate my seemingly improbable org guy becoming a role 4 guy takes I got right.
