FanPost

Bullpen Banter's Top 15 Pirate Prospects



A week or two old, but Bullpen Banter has posted their Top 15 Pirate Prospects and I always find their perspective interesting. The list:

  1. Gerrit Cole
  2. Jameson Taillon
  3. Alen Hanson
  4. Gregory Polanco
  5. Luis Heredia
  6. Barrett Barnes
  7. Josh Bell
  8. Tyler Glasnow
  9. Wyatt Mathisen
  10. Nick Kingham
  11. Dilson Herrera
  12. Kyle McPherson
  13. Clay Holmes
  14. Adrian Sampson
  15. Gift Ngoepe

Interesting to see Gift and Sampson so high. Some more notes:

Two out of the three commentators say that Luis Heredia may not have ace ceiling, because he doesn't have a lot of projectability or room to add speed. Translating from scout-speak, I think this means he's as physically big as he's going to get. His strength is that he's advanced for his age. (Personally, I'd be more optimistic about an 18-year-old who's getting used to his body but knows how to pitch than another guy who we're counting on to add size, or a flamethrower who doesn't know how to pitch; with luck Heredia won't be another ZVR or Allie. But I don't know much about scouting.)

Jeff Reese thought a move to second might be necessary for Alen Hanson, while Chris Blessing said he flashed the ability to stay at short but was pretty green, which may amount to the same thing -- if he's going to stay at short he needs more consistency, at least.

Chris Blessing says "I can only think of three or four guys in my seven years attending Sally games that had Polanco’s ability to drive the ball."

Reese says "Victor Black[] has one of the worst [deliveries] that I’ve seen. He has lethal stuff but little ability to command it; the dream is that he shows enough control to be a dominant late inning reliever."

In comments, Blessing says Jose Osuna "is a very underrated prospect hurt by being a 1st base prospect" and promises a piece on him later.

Jeff Reese says "The Pirates suddenly have a deep farm system with very good prospects near the top. Now... [H]urdle is developing them into quality major league pieces...." Good to see Clint successfully getting involved with development throughout the system. [Warning: That is totally not what Reese is saying.]

There are individual reports on the top five prospects linked at the bottom of the post, which you might want to check out.

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