MLB Pipeline released their rankings of the top farm systems in baseball on Wednesday. They have the Pittsburgh Pirates ranked as the eighth best farm system.
This is the fourth farm system ranking we are posting here. The Pirates are in the same general area for everyone. Baseball America ranked them the lowest at 11th. The Athletic had them the highest in sixth place. ESPN was right in the middle in ninth place.
Pipeline had the Pirates ranked seventh at both the start of 2022, and in the middle of 2022. Going back to 2021, they had them ranked eighth to start the year, then they moved up to fourth mid-season.
The current rankings have them ranked fourth in the National League behind the Los Angeles Dodgers (2nd), Arizona Diamondbacks (3rd) and Cincinnati Reds (5th). The rest of the NL Central ranks ninth with the St Louis Cardinals, 12th with the Chicago Cubs and 15th for the Milwaukee Brewers.
The Pirates have four top 100 prospects for Pipeline.
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball.
When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.
The Pirates are a 2nd rate franchise, so why expect anything to be first rate. Eighth out of 30 is great for this team that can’t get out of their own way.
Team who only has a chance at talent from their farm system builds mediocre farm system. Failure.
Three great innings from Oviedo so far.
Throwing strikes . . . Priceless.
The gopher ball, notwithstanding Oviedo, looking way better than anything we could expect from Velasquez.
The Pirates are a little farther behind at this point than I was hoping for. The good news is I think the Pirates have 10 to 15 players in their system that wouldn’t surprise me if more than a few of them jumped in the top 100 next year.
Yeah, and for example I still have hope for Davis and Gonzales. But when a 1-7 pick like Gonzales isn’t top 100 and a 1-1 pick like Davis isn’t top 25, your system isn’t going to be recognized among the very best.
The thing with the rankings people often forget, is just because we lost a lot in the past this also has to do with having a lot of recent prospects no longer prospects. Drop Cruz and Hayes down who may be blocked longer on a good team down and the rankings are much higher
The rankings seem fair but still somewhat disappointing after tanking three years in part to get higher picks. Everyone talks about hating tanking because of what it does to the fanbase but I hate it because it doesn’t really work for baseball very much. The attrition rate of prospects is simply too high. No sensible MLB team, in my opinion, should tank for the draft. Maybe the lottery system will make a tiny difference.
You’re not accounting for our super-advanced development system that’s going to start making silk purses from sow’s ears . . . sometime.
Ratings are subjective. NGonz fell based on injury. Yes, I know he has some kay issues. Davis fell due to injury. Those can’t be avoided. JOhnson is well respected. 2020 had only 5 rounds in the draft. The rest of the classes of 21 and 22 havent had time to move up the charts.
Don’t confuse things with good sense.
Jared jones could be this year’s luis ortiz, bubba and solo could each have an ERA under 3 and be top 100s themselves, harrington could reach toona by the end of summer. Big year ahead and im happy to be along for the ride
Friend of mine saw Harrington maybe ten days ago. Said he was throwing 94-95 and looked good. So, so far so good.
dude, Jimenez is better than Buba and Solo so include him now!
😝
Jimenez is on the list!
Honestly, if any of the Greensboro pitcher have a good year I’ll be floored! I’m almost done following players in A+ because of that park!
Maybe I’m guilty of Shiny New Toy Syndrome but I’m super eager to see what’s up with Harrington and Kennedy. The suspense!
Kennedy’s supposedly very advanced so maybe he follows Solometo’s path.
He was one of my top ‘gets’ when we snagged him.
Harrington is a perfect fit of the guardians mold for picking a command pitcher and making him throw harder with better stuff, very excited for him
Yes! I swear I thought the same when he was drafted. Wishcasting, maybe, but the profiles align.
Shiny New Toy Syndrome is all Pirate fans have to go on. I am still waiting for a wave to develop IN THE MAJORS!
All I have to say is better strap yourself in brother! Things about to get lit in here!
In P2? Why? I am missing your point.
A Tsunami of prospects bringing excitement to PNC is coming!
Hmmm….and here I always was under the impression that you were a sane person. 😂😜😸
God only knows why?!!!
I am just happy that they are in the upper half of the league. Several guys who are interesting and will have to see how they develop and or continue to develop depending on their age and spot it the system. Matters not where they are in the rankings. Matters how they perform if and when they get to the show. I just have fun following them 🙂
Guy who swear Pirates will be FanGraphs’ Top system:
😉 love ya buddy
Love the pictures from Pipeline
https://twitter.com/mlbpipeline/status/1639047798187335757?s=46&t=Tw7lr07zbamlQTZenwSrFg
Eighth is the new first!
Anyone who reads these P2 message boards knows I put zero stock in these type lists, so I put this out there purely for informational reasons, ESPN has both Bryan Reynolds and Ke’Bryan Hayes in their current top 100 MLB players, #62 & 95 respectively. And one of their experts has chosen Cruz as a player who was snubbed.
Friendly reminder, my bold prediction for 2023 is Reynolds finishes season with 5+ WAR, yet still finishes year with less WAR than both Hayes and Cruz.
Let it be written, let it be done!
Wow, I predicted that the Hayes and Cruz will total 8-10 WAR and was call crazy, I like your craziness!
Kind of crazy this is the Cardinals first time in the top 10 of Pipeline’s list.
Does that tell you more about the Cardinals or the value of these lists?
I think it’s a little more nuanced than that, but probably a little of both. You look at a Donovan who wasn’t on anyone’s radar, and ends up top 3 in NL ROY voting. I feel like those under the radar guys has been more of the Cardinals niche.
Cardinals Devil Magic!
Rule of thumb — take the Cards’ ranking and move them up ten. Even if they started at five.
So if Jordan Walker is ranked 4th, does that make him negative 6th?
That makes him 60% better than Harper.
It tells me that pipeline has only been doing this since 2015 ya dummy.
Silly me
(I had to look too 😉 )