FanGraphs has provided some great reports on the Pirates from instructs this off-season, and today Marc Hulet from FanGraphs released his top 15 Pirates prospects for the 2013 season.
The list starts off similar to how most lists start. Gerrit Cole and Jameson Taillon are at the top. Alen Hanson, Gregory Polanco, and Luis Heredia are next. That’s where things take a bit of a turn. Hulet puts Wyatt Mathisen sixth, with Josh Bell (who is number six on almost every other list) seventh.
A few of the reports aren’t accurate after Bell. Tyler Glasnow, for example, is listed ninth, but with an 87-91 MPH fastball. We had him eighth because he’s been hitting the mid 90s with his fastball in the last year.
There weren’t many surprises in the 8-15 range. Breakout candidates Dilson Herrera (12) and Jin-De Jhang (15) were both there. Top prep pitchers Glasnow (9), Clay Holmes (11), and Nick Kingham (13) were also there. Hulet mentions that the system has impressive high end talent at the top and depth. He said there were five or six players outside of the top 15 that he wanted to write about.
