In the previous two days, Keith Law has released his list of the top 100 prospects in baseball and he ranked each organization according to the strength of their farm system. On Friday, he posted the individual top tens for each organization.
The Pittsburgh Pirates had five players on his top 100 list and those players remained in the same order in his top ten. Tyler Glasnow was ranked first, followed by Austin Meadows, Jameson Taillon, Josh Bell and Alen Hanson. The rest of the top ten starts with Nick Kingham in sixth, followed by Reese McGuire, Harold Ramirez, Trey Supak and Cole Tucker.
Law was on the radio with David Todd yesterday and mentioned that he really liked Supak, so it’s no surprise to see him make the top ten. He compared him to Mitch Keller, who signed for the same $1,000,000 bonus amount after being drafted nine spots apart back in June. We had Keller ranked #8 here on Wednesday and that was because he looked like the more polished pitcher, with slightly better stuff and he has filled out a little more already than Supak at the same age. Supak looked raw compared to Keller, so he ended up being ranked #15 in our prospect guide. You can watch video of the two pitchers from their pro debut back on July 5th, when Keller started the game and Supak followed him.
Law notes in his write-up of the system that Keller was #11 prospect, followed by Clay Holmes, JaCoby Jones, Elias Diaz, Willy Garcia, Taylor Gushue, Gage Hinsz and Luis Heredia. He also mentions Dovydas Neverauskas as a sleeper to watch, saying he likes his fastball and thinks it would play well in a bullpen role.
You can compare Law’s list with John Sickels’ top 20 and Baseball America’s top ten.
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.
I wonder about Moncada. Rumors have been that he was going to get $80 million, but this is SO far outside the bounds of the IFA marketplace rules that MLB will collectively have a heart attack. Could someone actually giving him that much cause the whole silly set of IFA rules to be repealed?
Word is that the Pirates have the inside track to sign Yoan Moncada. Admittedly, that word is just from the voice inside my own head. But still… it is enough to get a rumour started.
Anyone know if Kyle McPherson is going to any ST camp this year with any club? I know he’s an FA, but can’t find a thing online about his progress/status. With all the recent signings of guys with arm problems, including minor leaguers, finding it hard to believe nobody would be willing to give Kyle another shot. The last quote I saw from him was early last year in which he stated he expected to be in ST this year, somewhere.
as of today, he is still a FA.
I hope he’ll be up in the Nick of time
This comment surprised me: Right-hander Clayton Holmes (12) should be back from Tommy John around midyear, like Taillon; he’s a potential No. 4 starter due to his size and durability, without premium stuff.
JT only a potential #4 starter? I’m not that high on Taillon, but he at least has the potential to be a #2 .
I’m guessing where the semi-colon is, he meant like Taillon, Holmes should be back from TJ around midyear. Also, there’s a pretty big difference in rankings between the two, even in his own list.
Yeah rather nice that the Pirates have potential #4 starters ranked 12th on the team prospect list. It sure beats the days under DL when #4 starters were taken in the first round of the draft and ranked in the top 5 of the prospect list LOL.
that’s a semicolon next to Taillon’s name, not a comma. Taillon’s still good haha
i missed that…thx!