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Reese McGuire Ranks Among Top Catching Prospects

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On MLB.com, they continued on today with their top ten prospects at each position, going with catchers today. The Pittsburgh Pirates Reese McGuire was named their seventh best catching prospect, giving the Pirates three straight positions with one representative. On Tuesday, Alen Hanson was named the eighth best shortstop prospect, while yesterday it was Jameson Taillon coming in fifth for right-handed pitchers and Tyler Glasnow just missing out on the list.

The Pirates had a great draft, and it wasn't just because of first round picks like Reese McGuire.
Reese McGuire ranks seventh among all catching prospects

Reese McGuire was the Pirates second first round pick in 2013, going 14th overall. He signed right away and went to the Gulf Coast League, where he had a .330/.388/.392 slash line in 46 games. McGuire received a late promotion to Jamestown and ended up catching two playoff games. He threw out 44% of base runners between both stops, gunning down runners on 18 of 41 attempted steals.

He is known for his advanced defense and it shows in their ratings. On the 20-80 scouting scale, McGuire was given a 65 for his arm and 60 for his fielding, putting him as the second best defensive catcher on the list. His bat ranks behind his glove, but it still received solid average ratings of 55 for hitting and 50 for power. McGuire also rates as one of the better running catchers on the list.

The Pirates have some depth at the catching position, with Tony Sanchez likely to take over full-time duties in Pittsburgh in 2015 and three low-level catchers, McGuire, Wyatt Mathisen and Jin-De-Jhang all highly rated. They also have some solid defensive catchers in Elias Diaz, Carlos Paulino and Jacob Stallings that work well with the young pitchers in the system. McGuire is the highest rated of them all and while Tony Sanchez right now has the best chance to be a solid regular in the majors, McGuire has the highest ceiling. Most project him to be a Gold Glove caliber defender, that can hit for a decent average and add 10-15 homers a season.

The top ten prospects continue tomorrow with first baseman, which is a weak spot in the Pirates farm system. It then starts back up on Monday with second baseman, Tuesday with third baseman and wraps up Wednesday with the outfielders.

John Dreker
John Dreker
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball. When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.

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