On MLB Network tonight at 8 PM EST, MLB Pipeline will announced their top 100 prospects. We are starting an article a little early to give you a chance to watch the show and discuss the rankings in the comments. Jonathan Mayo and Jim Callis will announce the picks and talk about each player in the top 50. Austin Meadows is one of numerous prospects who will be live tweeting during the show. You can follow him here if you don’t already.
For comparison sake, here are the top 100 rankings from Keith Law, which were announced earlier this week:
9. Austin Meadows
14. Josh Bell
16. Mitch Keller
25. Tyler Glasnow
33. Kevin Newman
74. Ke’Bryan Hayes
MLB Pipeline is sure to have a different order than Law. They ranked Glasnow as the second best right-handed pitcher and Mitch Keller was 11th for them, so we should see a decent gap between them on the top 100. Josh Bell ranked second for first basemen, and Austin Meadows ranked third for outfielders, so they should rank fairly high for Pipeline tonight. Newman was 11th for shortstops, which is a very deep position, so it’s possible that he could make the list and Ke’Bryan Hayes, who placed ninth among third basemen, might miss out.
It’s unlikely anyone else from the Pirates will make the top 100, but 5-6 is always a strong showing, especially when many of them end up in the top 50. Early this morning, Law posted nine players who just missed his top 100 and no Pirates were on that list.
We will update this article as the rankings are announced. MLB Network will also do the same thing for the Baseball America top 100 list on February 10th, so mark your calendars for that show.
UPDATE 8:06 PM: Kevin Newman is the only Pirate in the 51-100 range, ranking 59th, so the Pirates will have five players on the list. Mitch Keller is ranked 48th. Others will be announced soon.
*Josh Bell is next up at #27. Both Glasnow and Meadows will be in the top 21.
UPDATE 8:40 PM: The final tally for the Pirates:
9. Tyler Glasnow
10. Austin Meadows
27. Josh Bell
48. Mitch Keller
59. Kevin Newman
While you can’t complain about five prospects in the top 60, MLB Pipeline clearly doesn’t like the prospects for the Pirates as much as Keith Law. Meadows, Bell, Keller and Newman were all rated lower by MLB Pipeline. Meadows was just one spot lower, but the others were more significant. Ke’Bryan Hayes will also be much lower, dropping at least 27 spots. We could see his name when Pipeline posts their “just missed” article. Glasnow is the only one higher for MLB Pipeline. Once we have a few more top 100 lists, we will average them out and post an overall ranking.
MLB Pipeline will have their list posted on their website shortly. It will have scouting reports and scouting grades for each player. Here is the link. If it’s not up yet when you check, it should be soon.
