FanGraphs has five Pirates prospects in its top 100

I’m a little bit late with this, but I thought I’d put up a separate thread for it. Generally, I’m not that big on prospect lists because rankings tend to take on an authoritative air that they don’t really deserve when it’s this subjective. I particularly like FanGraphs, though, partly because I’m impressed by Kiley McDaniel and Eric Longenhagen, and partly because I like their approach of focusing on ceiling. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that such an approach helps several Pirates’ prospects a lot, specifically Cole Tucker, Oneil Cruz and Travis Swaggerty. It’s also worth remembering that no matter how good a prospect looks, the team still has to get him through the transition from the minors to the majors. I definitely believe that’s a skill and I don’t think the Pirates are much good at it.

Anyway, here are the five Pirates who made the top 100:

20. Ke’Bryan Hayes
37. Mitch Keller
56. Travis Swaggerty
62. Oneil Cruz
83. Cole Tucker

Of course, the real value of FG’s work isn’t the rankings, it’s the detailed writeups, so it’s more than worth a read.