Baseball America continued with their rankings of the best prospects at each position on Friday. We wrote about the lack of a true catching prospect for the Pittsburgh Pirates yesterday, plus mentioned that Mason Martin ranked 18th among all first basemen. The list for second basemen was up next and BA has Kevin Kramer ranked as the 12th best at the position. The strength of the position was rated three stars out of a possible five stars.
That 12th best ranking is two spots below where MLB Pipeline had Kramer on their second base list. It’s likely that Kramer would have ranked higher if he didn’t suffer a broken hand in June, although he wasn’t hitting much right before the injury, after an incredible start to the season.
In the first 34 games of the season, Kramer hit .359/.448/.603 with 21 extra-base hits. Over the next 19 games, including the game in which he got his hand broken and then missed 2 1/2 months, he hit .183/.250/.310 with five extra-base hits.
He went to the Fall Instructional League and then the Arizona Fall League after briefly returning to action at the end of the season. Kramer played shortstop in both the FIL and AFL, looking solid at the position. He may not play there much or at all in 2018, we will find that out during Spring Training, but he at least played the position well enough that he could fill in there if needed. We expect him to open 2018 in Indianapolis, but nothing is set yet.
Tucker VS Newman
Jim Callis at MLB Pipeline was taking questions earlier this week and one came up asking about Kevin Newman and Cole Tucker both being prospects at shortstop for the Pirates. Callis gave the same answer that you have probably read here before. He believes Newman will be in the majors first among the two and take over for Jordy Mercer, but Tucker will eventually push him off of the spot.
Mercer is a free agent at the end of the season, while Newman has already put in a half of a season in Indianapolis. His results were mediocre at best, with a .283/.314/.373 slash line, which was actually a slight improvement on his Altoona numbers from the first half of 2017. He also didn’t run as much as you would like to see from a lead-off hitter with above average speed, attempting just 14 steals all season. Newman improved defensively in the last year, so it wasn’t all negative. If he can pick up the hitting, then we should see him in Pittsburgh sometime in June or July, with September being the worst case scenario.
Tucker will likely push Newman off of shortstop, as long as he can stay healthy. He started hitting well at the end of his time in Altoona last year before a fracture in his hand ended his season and caused him to miss the AFL. It was his fourth significant injury since being drafted, so health will be a concern. Tucker’s defense improved greatly last year and his base running really took off with 47 steals, plus he showed power for the first time. As long as he can pick back up where he was late last season, then he should be the shortstop of the future for the Pirates, which could be sometime around mid-2019.
