MLB Pipeline unveiled their top 100 prospects tonight on their website, with the top 50 being announced on MLB Network live. Full results can be found at the bottom of this article. For a refresher, here are their top tens by position from the last two weeks:
Catchers- Elias Diaz and Reese McGuire
Right-Handed Pitchers: Tyler Glasnow
Here is last year’s top 100 list from MLB Pipeline when they had seven representatives from the Pirates.
If you want to follow along with Austin Meadows, he will be live tweeting during the show.
I'll be live tweeting @MLBNetwork Top 50 Prospects show Friday at 9pm ET for @mlbpipeline! Join me by using #Top100Prospects
— Austin Meadows (@austin_meadows) January 28, 2016
Baseball Prospectus released their top 101 today. For comparison with the upcoming MLB Pipeline list, here’s the BP list:
11. Tyler Glasnow
22. Austin Meadows
49. Josh Bell
51. Jameson Taillon
76. Reese McGuire
80. Harold Ramirez
This article will be updated as the Pirates on the list are announced.
9:05 PM: Reese McGuire ranked #98, the only Pirate in the 76-100 range. Jameson Taillon ranked 54th, giving the Pirates two in the 51-100 range.
Josh Bell came in 49th, same spot as the BP list. That means that the Pirates will have five players on the list as it’s highly unlikely anyone else except Austin Meadows and Tyler Glasnow will be in the top 40.
9:25 PM: Austin Meadows is #20, so this list has a lot of similarities with BP earlier. Between Meadows, Taillon and Bell, they are a total of five spots apart. Glasnow will probably be very close to #11 as well.
9:35 PM: The final tally is in and the Pirates have five players:
#10 Glasnow
#20 Meadows
#49 Bell
#54 Taillon
#98 McGuire
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 really like Meadows and hope they do not eventually trade him. I realize the outfield is set for a while but does Meadows have a higher ceiling than Palonco? Although I don’t want to trade Palonco either, would this be a better choice? How about trying to move Meadows to the infield? He is talented enough. thoughts?
MLB Pipeline has a different list on mlb.com that has five Pirates prospects also. Glasnow is #7 overall and Hanson is the 5th at #66 , ahead of McGuire who isn’t ranked on their list.
Off topic but I just read an article about projected mlb team salaries and the cardinals being number 10 rank at $136 million minimum. How are small market teams evaluated? And I’m thinking about the competitive balance draft pick the cards keep getting. Cubs at around $150 million for a lot of young talent.
I believe eligibility for the Competitive Balance Picks is determined by market size and revenue. So, the Cardinals are a small market team. Their market is small enough that it makes St. Louis eligible for these picks. St. Louis is a small market, high revenue organization. It is successful on and off the field. It’s an anomaly given the intentions of the Competitive Balance Draft
The eligible teams receive their slots based on their most recent won/loss records and the output, I would imagine, of a random number generator.
Isn’t Seattle one of the “small” market teams. I just remember when that list came out there were a couple of ridiculous teams.
The Mariners, Dbacks and Cardinals are teams that have money to spend on FAs, and are not like the penny pinchers who populate the list.
TV market size maybe? Metro population? It’s a good question.
Awhile back, I remember the Angels or one of the NY teams grumbling about those picks. I think it’s going to change again.
No surprises here…those 5 you expect in a top 100 list, although their actual placement may be up for debate. I’m not shocked that Ramirez, Diaz and Hanson were left off, as none were high draft picks. But, I do believe that all three are generally underrated and undervalued on these lists.
John, do you see Bell having more upside than Brandon Belt?
I could see the power being similar with 30+ doubles and 15-20 homers each year, but Belt struck out 147 times this year and Bell won’t do that. I could see Belt plus 20 points on the average, 30 points on the OBP. Belt is below average defensively, but at least at first, Bell will be worse, so their value could be similar.
Belt in 2013(-0.5 dWAR) is probably the best comp for Bell’s upside, just get rid of some strikeouts.
If Bell was still an OF, does he get ranked higher? And similarly, how would you guys grade his defense as an OFer?
If he remained an outfielder, he may be ranked higher. His defense in August 2014 was average at best. His range was okay, and his arm was not good. I saw some weak throws that weren’t as accurate as you would like. He wasn’t a liability, but he didn’t add any defensive value.
He has not played outfield since then and has filled out more, so I can’t imagine he’s as good as he was before. His range can’t be as good and the arm is probably worse, plus he’s out of practice by not playing it at all for the last 17 months.
Thanks. I appreciate all of the interaction tonight. It feels like there’s a game on
which team has the most on this list? Have to think Pirates are pretty high up on that list.
Braves I think.
Cubs have more also. They have 6, although many of them are not close to coming up yet for awhile.
Braves are deep, but don’t I think they are as top heavy as Pittsburgh.
It seems like they’re cutting to commercial break every 5 minutes
Anyone else surprised to see the Cards with little to show on this list? Seems weird.
How many good SSs do the freaking Cubs have?
John, do you know anything about Ian Happ?
We covered him a lot during the draft because he was mentioned as a possibility for the Pirates a few times. I watched him play three times on tv and I was very unimpressed. Posted scouting reports on here from at least 1-2 of those games that you should be able to find here. He wasn’t good on defense in those games, he was supposed to have speed, but he looked below average(or didn’t hustle). Had a nice approach, but looked bad a few times against good pitching.
Think I saw him rated in the 70s here? I wonder how open to interpretation 75-100 are, compared to guys just on the cusp? Probably becomes more of a Stat line beauty contest.
John…do you know if Dilson Herrera lost his prospect status or is he not considered one of MLB’s Top 10 prospects at 2b?
Thx
Lost it this year
Who do you feel will be better in the show?
Dilson or Hanson?
They are very similar players so I could see it going either way. Both have a little pop, similar approach at the plate and solid defense at second base. Hanson has the speed advantage, but Herrera is a better base runner, which makes them about the same in that area.
I’d give Hanson a slight edge in all around tools, but Herrera has room to grow as a player due to his age. His problem might be the stocky build, which could take away some range/speed as he continues to fill out. Hanson is more athletic. Herrera is the smarter player
Thanks for the response, John….Excellent insight. No doubt Hanson has the tools to be a very good pro, but the focus and maturity seem to plague him. He could be on the opening day roster and if he could conceivably be the opening day starter at 2nd…His speed is a game changer, if he applies it correctly
Are the immaturity issues still a hot topic. He fielded his position very well last year, remaining focused even though his hitting dropped and he awaited a potential call up. I also don’t think he was disciplined for anything either
I would say he improved his maturity, as we didn’t really see the mental lapses defensively and the hustle was there. It’s more of a young kid getting down at times when things aren’t going right. Learning to accept failure in a sport where you can succeed three out of ten times at the plate and be considered good, sometimes isn’t the easiest thing to do. I think part of his upside is just him getting older
Maturity will do wonders for him, and the realization that he has it within his grasp to be financially set for life. I did think that the Mets were going to give Dilson a shot this year, but he may now become trade bait.
I think Alen Hanson is an intense kid who let the errors on defense at SS get to him because he was not mature enough to accept failure – and that is not a bad thing.
See John’s response.
I think Hanson plays out of control at times. Gets down easy, which is something that should get better with maturity. Too many people write him off at age 22, when he was younger than some players drafted this year.
When he is focused and in the zone, he really goes on streaks. I’ve know instances where he was told things and went out and did it, with one example being him needing to draw more walks and use his speed. He walked twice later that day and stole two bases.
Hurdle seems like the exact type of manager that can get the most out of him, as well as the core in PGH…Cutch, Cervelli, Harrison would be all over him.
Yeah I agree, that positive environment will hopefully do wonders for him.
He has a much better chance for success playing for PGH, than a team like Cincy….PGH will make him accountable.