Three Pirates among FSL top 20 prospects

Baseball America (sub req'd) has posted its list of the top 20 prospects in the Florida State League.  Three Pirates and one ex-Pirate made the cut.

BA rated Austin Meadows the FSL's third best prospect, following a season in which he posted a 306/357/407 line in the FSL's offense-stifling environment, which for some reason was even more pitcher-friendly this year than usual.  (The whole league hit 248/313/337.)  Despite the modest power, he's still getting Jay Bruce comps, except the scouts consider him a better pure hitter.

Reese McGuire ranked 11th despite a very weak year at the plate.  Most scouts and managers considered him the league's best catcher.  BA says he wore down over the year, which isn't surprising given that he's still very young.  That probably accounts for the fact that the Pirates sat him down a lot late in the year.

Harold Ramirez ranked 12th, which seems a little low considering that he was clearly the league's best hitter once he started play in late May.  Some observers consider him better suited to center field than Meadows.  Ramirez' ranking may have suffered due to questions about his level of focus and effort.  Still, he looks like he could be another win for Rene Gayo, whose signing of Ramirez for $1.05M was questioned by some scouts at the time.

One other Bradenton player made the list:  JaCoby Jones at #20.