Keith Law released his top 100 prospect list today(subscription required) and the Pittsburgh Pirates have five players on the list. Led by Tyler Glasnow in the 13th spot, he also has Austin Meadows at #32, Jameson Taillon at #36, Josh Bell ranked 60th overall and Alen Hanson takes the 89th spot. Insiders can see the profiles for the top 50 prospects here, and prospects 51-100 here.
The Pirates have more representatives than any other team in the NL Central. The Cubs have four, and so do the Cardinals, although their top prospect came in at #62. The Reds have two players on the list and the Brewers have just one.
This is the second time recently that Austin Meadows has been listed second for Pirates players. John Sickels posted his top 20 last Friday and also had Meadows ahead of Taillon. Law says that Meadows has a chance to be a star, as long as his power develops like it should.
Law posted his rankings of each farm system in baseball yesterday and had the Pirates ranked seventh overall.
You can see Law’s list from 2014 here, where he had Gregory Polanco ranked 13th, same place as Glasnow this year. Law has not ranked Reese McGuire on either list and Nick Kingham fell off his latest list and wasn’t on the 2013 list either.
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.
Pitching depth is just as if not more important than the front line guys. The pirates are loaded with mlb or soon to to be mlb pitching. For the first time in years the cards are pretty thin, the cubs? Let’s just say not yet, the brewers? Don’t make me laugh and finally the reds, can anyone remember last years phils? I still say this is the year of the pirate, I guess we will start finding out in about three weeks.
A lot depends on how long a starter needs to be replaced and who’s doing well at the time, but for the Brewers its probably Jungmann, Thornburg, Wagner and Cravy. Hellweg was great in AAA and looked terrified in MLB, but he’ll be at AAA. Will Smith has started. I don’t expect much from Pena. There are probably some I’m forgetting.
Cubs actually have the best pitching depth in the division heading into the season, but I don’t think any other team in the division has more quality depth projected to arrive during the season than the Pirates.
Really? Hendricks, Wood, Wada, are their 4, 5 and 6 plus Turner and Doubront are ok. I’d rather have Worley Morton Locke as my 4, 5 and 6 add in Taillon, Kingham, Sampson, Cumpton, Pimentel, Sadler all can be options as well. The Pirates have more upside guys and more proven guys as well.
I specified “heading into the season” because Morton and Taillon won’t be available and Kingham won’t be ready.
Sampson, Cumpton, Pimentel, and Sadler aren’t even all starters, and the ones that are aren’t very good at all.
How can you lump Sampson in as not being very good at all? Doubront and Turner have never put it together at the major league level they have more pedigree but at this point are no better than a guy like Cumpton.
If opposing teams had their pick of Doubront, Turner, Cumpton, and Sampson do you really think the latter names would be chosen before the former?
As long as we’re talking projections, was watching MLB.tv Hot Stove and they were showing Pecota projections for 2015 standings. Pirates 3rd in NLC at 81-81, 8 games behind Cards, 1 game behind Cubs.
I know some of y’all believe in Pecota. Sorry to break this news to you. Hope you have a better day. There’s always next year.
Cubs bandwagon…ALLLLLLL ABOARRRRDDDDD!!!!
Will found out soon enough – Chicago’s first four games are at home against St. Louis. They play St. Louis 10 more times (14 games total) before the All Star Break.
Yeah, until proven otherwise 1908 is still a long time ago in a galaxy far,far away! I’ve wittnessed a lot of cubs teams that were supposed to win it all only to falter.
LOLPECOTA
IMO, Pirate players are very hard to rank because the Pirate system is not designed to rush players through it with gaudy stats, it is designed to prepare a player for all eventualities. They could have rushed some pitchers to the bigs with just 2 pitches much like St.Louis does, but they don’t, the St.Louis pitchers look better on paper because they are moving faster, too be a starter for the Pirates 3 or more pitches is what they want. IMO, If I had to rank Pirate minor league prospects it would be on talent more than anything else, their stats would be further down on my list.
Keith law likes to put big market team prospects in his listings always have. It amazes me when the Yankees always have 4-5 prospects in top 100
Why does Law hate the Pirates? Keeps rating their top prospects unlucky #13
Only superstitious folks are scared of the number 13. I have no problem with it. 🙂
I’m almost as excited to see what Glasnow and Meadows do this year as I am for Cole and Polanco. Optimistic all four will outperform expectations.
I’m with you. I’m also excited to see who’s going to break out. It’s hard to say that it might be Meadows given how highly he’s rated, but a huge year from him could vault him into the top 10 overall. And, having potential stars is hugely important to maintaining the success we’re having. I would say that it’s going to be hard for Glasnow to live up to expectations with how good his last 2 years were.
No Kingham this year? Wonder if Law thinks he took a step back or if a new infusion of prospects pushed him back.
His K rate took a big step back.
I think by midseason, Reese Maguire will crack that list. I’m also surprised Glasnow is only 13
I don’t get why guys like Law and Sickels are down on Taillon after he had TJ yet they are perfectly okay with Dylan Bundy after he has TJ.
not sure where bundy is listed since i don’t have Insider, but in Law’s defense, Bundy is already recovered and actually got 40 innings last year.
I completely agree. Tallion has pitched over 200 more innings than Bundy and they were only drafted one year apart. They have both suffered torn UCL’s, but IMO Tallion has proven himself more durable.
He had him 27th last year, so he is close to the same place after a lost season. I think that is a fair placement. I don’t know for sure, but it could be due in part to a strong group this year