Baseball America announced their picks for the top 20 rookies in 2014, with a write-up of what you can expect from each player this season. Two Pittsburgh Pirates players made their list. Gregory Polanco came in at #9, while Jameson Taillon was 16th. This is different from their prospect rankings in that it only considers rookies they expect to play significant roles in the majors this year.
For Polanco, they have the same prediction most people do. He will force his way into the right field job at mid-season. BA praises his command of the strike zone and how it will help his power output in the future. Reports on Polanco from Spring Training had his weight up to 230 pounds, which is 60 more than when he signed back in 2009, so he is filling out that large frame.
Taillon gets the Gerrit Cole comparison for his path to the majors and that seems most likely. BA mentions his plus stuff and the fact it hasn’t translated to the stats they expected, though they point out that Cole also had underwhelming results and he transitioned well to the majors. Taillon should see the majors around the same time as Polanco and both should be key parts to the Pirates second half this year.
