Baseball America started their rankings of the top twenty prospects in each league last week. The Pittsburgh Pirates came up empty in the Gulf Coast League and the Appalachian League. On Wednesday morning, the New York-Penn League top twenty was announced and third baseman Will Craig is ranked seventh overall.
Craig started off slow after being drafted and signed as the 22nd overall pick in the 2016 draft. By the middle of the season, he turned things around and put together a 36-game on base streak that ended on the last day of the season. He ended the year with a 41:37 BB/SO ratio. That helped him finish with a .412 OBP, which ranked second in the league. He also finished ninth in the league with a .775 OPS.
Craig had issues on defense and that’s one of the things that holds back his rankings. Most scouts believe he won’t be able to stick at third base, despite an above average arm for the position. He will likely end up at first base in the future and he already started playing the position in the Fall Instructional League this month. Part of the reason for the move so early was a sore shoulder that hampered him near the end of the season. The Pirates said that they want him getting time in at first base and they also want him getting at-bats during instructs, but it is not a permanent move yet and might not be for awhile. The move to first base allows him to play daily without adding extra strain to his shoulder with the long throws third base requires.
As for the other leagues, going by the GCL list, you could probably make a case for Braeden Ogle and Max Kranick to be included on the back-end of the list. I’d rate those two slightly ahead of second round pick Travis MacGregor at this point. Ogle has better stuff, while Kranick has better command, but all three look like interesting prospects.
The Appalachian League was deep according to Baseball America, and Bristol’s best prospect was Adrian Valerio, who is still growing into his game. We have him ranked #21 in the system, but that’s mostly because four players ahead of him were traded away since our last update, and three players (Taillon, Frazier and Kuhl) have lost their prospect status since that update. So while #21 sounds like a high ranking, the farm system is obviously weaker at the top end, making him sound better than he did just a couple months ago.
A surprise for the NYPL might be the fact they left Luis Escobar off the back-end of the list. He also started slow and had some control issues, but he looked much better by the end of the season. He has a high ceiling as a 20-year-old, due to a fastball that can hit 97 MPH, and a curve that looks plus at times. Escobar also improved his changeup this year, giving him three average or better pitches. He finished ninth in the league in strikeouts, eighth in WHIP, and 12th in ERA, though if he recorded just one more out, he would have been in the top ten in the latter category as well.
If you read the game recaps in the Prospect Watch articles, we had a lot of looks at Escobar this season and the reports were better as the season went along. His control at this point still keeps him from being ranked higher, but he is clearly a very interesting prospect.
