Baseball America began releasing their lists of the top 20 prospects in each league yesterday with the Pacific Coast League. The International League was today and the lists will continue for the next couple weeks, with one each day. Usually the articles for these leagues start with who is on the list, but this list seems to have their biggest surprise (related to the Pittsburgh Pirates) in awhile.
Austin Meadows was not listed among their top 20 prospects and he had more than enough plate appearances to qualify. Two things make that even stranger. One is that he was ranked #22 overall in the minors in their mid-season updated list, which was posted 2 1/2 weeks after his hamstring injury sidelined him. The other strange part? Tyler Glasnow is ranked #12 on their list. He didn’t even qualify as a prospect this year when he was sent down. Prospects are allowed a maximum of 50 innings pitched in the majors, and before he played for Indianapolis this season, he was already at 77.2 innings.
It’s obvious that Meadows should drop in the rankings. He is to the point where the subjective term “injury-prone” is no longer subjective. The problem is that they had Meadows as the second best prospect in the league on May 11th when they did their updated list and now he has dropped completely out of a top 20? He actually put up a .770 OPS over 36 games after that first list was put out. Not only is that well above league average for the IL, Meadows was also one of the better defenders and base runners in the league, so he was doing everything you like to see from someone who just turned 22 days before the list was posted.
The fact that he did well after May 11th and they already knocked him down for the hamstring injury in their mid-season update, makes it hard to believe that he didn’t make the top 20 at all for the league. It seems like they are deducting him a lot for the late season oblique injury. While it is a repeat injury, the Pirates were more cautious with it and decided to shut him down. It wasn’t a serious injury.
Meadows is still going to be 22 on Opening Day next year, which is younger than half of their top 20 in the IL, and he still has all of the tools to be a top prospect, which he displayed during that 36 game streak in May. I didn’t cherry-pick a 36 game stretch if you’re wondering. It went from the time the list was released until the day he got hurt.
The International League is a loaded list, so ranking outside the top 20 isn’t that bad if you’re a “just missed” player. Tyler Glasnow at #12 is a bit of a head-scratcher in that he’s even on the list to begin with, but he definitely pitched well. I’ve seen guys make the list who lost their prospect status during the season before, but that was after their time in Triple-A, not before being demoted. They call his changeup well below average, which I don’t agree with because the pitch was more effective this time through the minors. They also mention that he had trouble repeating his mechanics, which was more of an issue before he got rid of the windup and went from the set position all of the time.
Steven Brault was named their IL Pitcher of the Year. He was also named as the league’s pitcher of the year and made BA’s Triple-A All-Star team, which also had players from the PCL included.
BA will have a chat this afternoon, where I’m sure Meadows will be addressed. I’ll post an update with their answer.
UPDATE: 3:20 PM: Carlos Collazo ran the chat and here’s his answer on Meadows not making the list:
Meadows was a tough one and a guy who certainly had a chance to make the list. The tools are obvious, but he hit just .250/.311/.359 during the IL this season, and while this list isn’t about just the numbers it does make it harder to crack when there’s a lot of other talented players who performed. His mechanics were bad earlier in the season and he also expanded the zone a bit. There are certainly some managers and evaluators who are convinced he’ll bounce back, but he’s yet to perform at Triple-A. The injury is less concerning than his issues in the box in my opinion.
