John Sickels from Minor League Ball posted his top 20 prospect list for the Pirates on Saturday. He had a couple interesting rankings that are different from anyone else, going low on both of the top two catchers in the system. The list goes to 20, but he also ranks players by letter grades and he has an addition four players graded the same as the 16-20 prospects on the list.
Sickels has Elias Diaz rated #15, followed by Reese McGuire one spot and one grade lower. For both of them, he has questions about the bat. That’s no different from most people, but both catchers are strong enough defensively that they should at least stick around in the majors for awhile as a glove-first backup. Since their floor is so high, plus McGuire is still very young, both of these rankings seem too harsh.
There are no big surprises in the top ten, although he has Yeudy Garcia in that tenth spot, which is higher than anyone else. Everyone has Garcia in their top 20 though, so it’s not a huge jump compared to others. If he wasn’t so low on both Diaz and McGuire, then Garcia would be a little lower and closer to where everyone else has him.
Sickels then went with Kevin Kramer for his 11th best prospect, which is off from a lot of people. In our own prospect guide, Kramer just barely made the top 30. MLB Pipeline has him 22nd, while Baseball America has him 28th. Sickels likes the bat and believes Kramer’s glove is under-rated.
No other surprises in the top 20, as the players included match up rather well with most lists. He has 17 of the players we have in our own top 20, with the three differences being our 18-20 picks, and the three players he included instead are all in our top 30.
When you check the link at the top, be sure to check out the comments section, where he adds some extra write-ups for a few players, including Carlos Munoz, Jordan Luplow and Barrett Barnes.
