Ben Badler from Baseball America posted an article this morning that looks at 13 possible breakout prospects who aren’t among BA’s top 100 prospects yet. Badler has two Pittsburgh Pirates on his list, with right-hander Quinn Priester leading the way, followed by shortstop Liover Peguero.
Badler came up with the list using these parameters:
These are 13 teenage prospects who are outside the Top 100 (and haven’t been on that list before) but have the potential to become Top 100 prospects in the near future when games are able to resume.
For Priester, Badler likes the upside of the young pitcher due to his size, delivery, fastball/curve combo and the overall projection. He also had solid results in his pro debut after signing, which included a final start in Morgantown after pitching in the GCL for two months.
With Peguero, the intrigue comes from his physical upside, athleticism, bat-to-ball skills, and in general, the all-around tools. He came to the Pirates in the Starling Marte trade and is still awaiting his debut in the system.
These are obviously picks based on Baseball America’s own top 100 prospects list. They had three Pirates (Mitch Keller, Ke’Bryan Hayes and Oneil Cruz) in their top 100. We did an article noting that a total of seven Pirates prospects made at least one of the various top 100 prospects lists that we posted here. Peguero was ranked 84th by Kiley McDaniel and 98th by Fangraphs, while Priester was ranked 100th by Keith Law.
Travis Swaggerty and Tahnaj Thomas were both on at least one top 100 list, but they weren’t eligible for this list from Badler due to their age. That doesn’t mean they would have made it, just that they weren’t considered.
