Baseball America released their top ten prospects list for the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday and not surprisingly, Tyler Glasnow has been ranked the top prospect in the system. Earlier this off-season, they named him the top prospect in the Florida State League and also he also made their minor league All-Star team. The complete list can be found below, along with links to the Pirates players that made the top 20 prospects list for each league.
1. Tyler Glasnow
2. Jameson Taillon
3. Austin Meadows
4. Josh Bell
5. Reese McGuire
6. Nick Kingham
7. Alen Hanson
8. Cole Tucker
9. Mitch Keller
10. Harold Ramirez
International League: #1 Gregory Polanco(wasn’t eligible for top ten list), #11 Casey Sadler, #20 Nick Kingham
Eastern League: #10 Elias Diaz, #17 Willy Garcia, #20 Nick Kingham
Florida State League: #1 Tyler Glasnow, #8 Josh Bell
South Atlantic League: #5 Reese McGuire, #6 Austin Meadows
Gulf Coast League: #11 Cole Tucker, #13 Mitch Keller
You can see last year’s top 10 prospects list here.
Their top ten doesn’t have any surprises on it, unless you go by their own rankings for the leagues. Nick Kingham is ranked #6, which is about where he ranks for most people. In BA’s own league rankings, Kingham came in #20 in both the Eastern League and International League, putting him behind Casey Sadler, Elias Diaz and Willy Garcia, yet none of them made the top ten. You can make a case for Diaz as a top ten prospect, but not the other two players.
BA will tell you that different people do different rankings, for the leagues and for the team. In this case, the team ranking is more in line with what everyone else thinks about Kingham. After the league rankings came out, I did an article on the differing opinions on Kingham, posting scouting reports from multiple scouts we talked to during the 2014 season. You can check out that article here.
Glasnow has passed Taillon on almost every prospect list and that should be expected with one player missing the entire year and the other putting up another huge season while moving up a level. The real test for Glasnow will be AA, where he will encounter the occasional player with Major League experience, while seeing an overall better group of players with better plate patience. For someone that has trouble throwing strikes, the better quality hitters will be more patient and have a better shot at hitting his fastball if they don’t have to worry about the breaking ball due to control. I wouldn’t be surprised if Glasnow struggles early and Taillon takes back the top spot temporarily, but Glasnow definitely has the higher upside at this point.
I personally have the same ten players in my own top ten list, which differs slightly from the Pirates Prospects top ten, which you can find in our 2015 Prospect Guide. I just have a slight difference in order after the top four spot, with McGuire and Kingham flipped and the bottom three players in reverse order of BA’s list(Ramirez, Keller, Tucker). So there isn’t much for me to say about the list other than I agree with it for the most part. I ranked Ramirez higher because he can flat out hit and did it at a young age in Low-A ball, where he finished with a 23-game hit streak. He also has other strong tools to his game, namely speed and the ability to stick in center field.
As for some of the best tools in the system, Josh Bell was voted the best hitter for average, while Stetson Allie was named best power hitter. Alen Hanson got fastest baserunner and best athlete. Nick Kingham got best control and change-up, while Glasnow has the best fastball. The rankings were obviously done awhile ago, as Buddy Borden got the best curve. Borden was dealt to the Tampa Bay Rays for Sean Rodriguez on December 1st.
Baseball America had a chat about their prospect list, hosted by John Perrotto, which can be found here.
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.
“Buddy Borden got the best curve. Borden was dealt to the Tampa Bay Rays for Sean Rodriguez on December 1st”
So we don’t have a Best Curve in the system? Fire Searage! LOL
The problem is they put all these lists together at the same time, but spread the teams out over two months when they release them online with the chat, so when you get to the end, some of the teams have gone through numerous changes
Question: Is Cole Tucker one of the most under the radar 1st rounders or is it just me? Seems like there was so much buzz about the first rounders over the past few years and frankly I barely remembered his name till I saw it in print above. Just seems odd I guess.
Pirates usually have an early pick and he was really the first time in a very long time they picked late in the round. Then most scouts/draft experts agree that he was a reach for a first round pick, so he doesn’t have the same shine as Meadows, McGuire, Cole, Appel, Taillon did. I was doing the draft coverage from Feb-June last year and we didn’t mention him here once until the day before the draft and that was just in a large group of names for the 2nd-3rd round possibilities. The reason I never mentioned him? He was never mentioned once in the Pirates range. I covered at least 60 players that got first round mention at some point, so Tucker was really off the radar.
All because he was 17 years old. If he was 18 he wouldn’t have been drafted that high. Right?
They said that was one of the things they liked about him. Being young for the class, they saw a chance for him to have more time to grow as a player. They also said that about Taylor Gushue
John …..I lost your email address….can you email me at leefoo@verizon.net just in case I make it to ST this year?
Yes, but I can guarantee my email wouldn’t make it any top ten email prospect lists. I’ve had the same one since 1999, so it’s very old for the level, sometimes has trouble chasing junk emails.
That’s okay…I’m very old, also. And some people think I am junk, too.