Baseball America continued their rankings of the top 20 prospects in every league throughout the minors on Friday afternoon. Today is the Gulf Coast League and the Pittsburgh Pirates have two of the top four prospects in the league.
First round pick Quinn Priester ranks second for BA on today’s list. The 18-year-old (turned 19 after the season) had a 3.03 ERA and a 1.19 WHIP, with 37 strikeouts in 32.2 innings with the GCL Pirates. He finished his season making one final start for Morgantown, where he allowed two runs in four innings.
Priester was taken with the 18th overall pick, 19 spots ahead of outfielder Sammy Siani, who ranks as the fourth best prospect in the GCL. He hit .241/.372/.308 in 39 games, with three doubles, three triples, 26 walks and he went 5-for-5 in steals. BA likes his approach at the plate, plus speed and abilities in center field.
We had these two ranked as our top two prospects for the GCL Pirates.
BA has now covered every league involving affiliates of the Pirates. There’s no DSL list, but it’s not on their schedule, so it appears that they won’t be posting one for the league. If they do release one, we will have an article, assuming it includes someone from the Pirates. As for the other lists released, the Pirates had three players on the International League list and Oneil Cruz made the Florida State League list. Ji-Hwan Bae made the South Atlantic League list, while neither Altoona nor Morgantown had a player in the top 20 of their leagues. Earlier this week, the Appalachian League list had Tahnaj Thomas. That gives the Pirates a total of eight players on the seven lists.
