Keith Law updated his top 25 prospects list (subscription required) on Tuesday morning and he has three players from the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Back in March, he also had three Pirates in his top 25, though there is a change on the new list. The previous rankings had Tyler Glasnow sixth, Austin Meadows 16th and Kevin Newman 23rd.
On the current list, he now has Glasnow moving up to fourth place, followed by Kevin Newman at #19 and Jameson Taillon one spot back. Glasnow technically stayed in the same spot, just moved up two places because two players ahead of him are no longer prospect-eligible. That same reason also helped Newman move up, but Taillon didn’t make his top 100 list back in February, so he really made a move.
I believe it’s a little too early to do updated prospect rankings because a player like Austin Meadows apparently drop more than ten spots (counting players no longer eligible from March) due to getting hit in the face with a baseball, then getting off to a slow start once he got back. The scouting reports on Meadows haven’t changed during that time. Meadows is 8-for-22 with five walks in his last eight games, so his season stats could look a lot different in a couple weeks, not to mention the speed and defense at a premium position he brings to the game. One other thing to point out, and that is Law was the highest on Meadows of any major prospect list this off-season, so it is a bit odd that he’s quick to drop him.
A little skepticism over Taillon’s return was warranted back in the off-season, but that meant ranking him in the 50’s for some people and leaving him totally off their list for others (Law and Baseball America were the big ones). I have said that Taillon is making Clay Holmes look bad, because the latter is experiencing some of the command issues that are to be expected with a minor leaguer returning from Tommy John surgery. Taillon hasn’t experienced them at all, so his current ranking on Law’s list seems more than fair. You should still have questions about his stamina this season because it’s early and he has looked gassed at the end of some of his starts, but he has clearly proven that he deserves to be one of the top 25 prospects in the game.
Law has always been high on Newman, so don’t be shocked by that ranking.
