Some prospect news!
Baseball America has released their updated list of the Pirates’ top 30 prospects. It’s in the subscriber area, so it’s probably not kosher for me to publish the list. I think it’s fair to note that, with Mitch Keller no longer eligible, this year’s first-round pick, Nick Gonzales, is the new #1. That no doubt reflects scouts’ conviction that he’ll hit, although there are some differences over how much power he’ll show. The ranking also no doubt reflects continuing uncertainty about Ke’Bryan Hayes’ offensive ceiling.
Maybe the biggest surprise is Carmen Mlodzinski, this year’s supplemental first round pick (#31 overall) ranking above Quinn Priester and Brennan Malone (but behind Cody Bolton and Tahnaj Thomas). Priester and Malone are basically in stasis, so that’s probably a reflection of BA’s view of Mlodzinski, so we should be encouraged.
BA has a very high ranking for Liover Peguero, which is also encouraging. Travis Swaggerty, on the other hand, is not in the top ten, which may reflect BA still being too stat-oriented. In fact, Swaggerty is behind Sammy Siani, which is a head-scratcher to me.
Third baseman Alexander Mojica is in the top 20 and RHP Osvaldo Bido in the top 30. It’s very disappointing we won’t see either of them this year.
