Baseball Prospectus has released their top ten Pirates Prospects today, which is available here for subscribers. The names on the top ten list are the same as everywhere else, although the rankings are much different.
Most outlets have Gregory Polanco as the top prospect, but BP went with Jameson Taillon first and Polanco second. Tyler Glasnow rated third, which is a pretty standard rating for him. From there, BP did things a little different.
Their number four prospect was Reese McGuire, and number five was Josh Bell. These two rankings are higher than most. Part of that is because BP is lower on Austin Meadows (7) and Alen Hanson (8), although they are high on McGuire and Bell.
Nick Kingham ranked sixth, which is a normal spot for him, and Luis Heredia and Harold Ramirez took the last two spots in order, which is also normal. The big difference between this list and other lists are that Meadows/Hanson have been basically switched with McGuire/Bell. That’s not a surprise if you saw BP’s top 100 prospects last week. The Pirates had seven players in that list, and as expected, they went in the same order as this ranking.
BP’s writeup includes great information on each player, including an overall future potential, a realistic role, a risk factor, major league ETA, and all of the strengths and weaknesses. For example, they say Jameson Taillon has an OFP of a number two starter, with a realistic role of a number three starter. They also list him as a low risk, with an ETA of 2014.
Gregory Polanco and Nick Kingham also received an ETA of 2014, with Kingham’s ETA listed as “late 2014”. If everything goes by the ETAs that were listed, then the Pirates could see Polanco, Taillon, Glasnow, Bell, Kingham, and Hanson in the majors by the end of the 2015 season.
The parting thought was a good summary of the overall system: “This is the no. 3 farm system in baseball, complete with high-ceiling upside and depth for days, the kind that will keep it in the top tier long after the Taillons and Polancos of the world graduate to the majors.”
