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Tony Watson and Mark Melancon Rank Among Best Relievers in Baseball

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On Thursday night, MLB Network continued their lists of the top ten players at each position in the Majors. The Pittsburgh Pirates had two representatives on the relief pitchers list, with Tony Watson coming in tenth place and Mark Melancon finished seventh.

The show also has personal lists from Brian Kenny and Dan Plesac, plus recaps from a panel of experts that includes Bill James. Surprisingly, only the shows main source(The “Shredder”) ranked the two Pirates players in the top ten. Both Plesac and Kenny gave their complete lists and neither had Watson or Melancon.

During the panel of experts portion, which included James, Mike Petriello from Fangraphs and Vince Gennaro from SABR, neither Pirates players came up in the conversation. The experts didn’t give their lists, but they talked about numerous relievers(15-20), so it doesn’t sound like Melancon or Watson made any top tens.

In earlier episodes, the Pirates had Andrew McCutchen first among center fielders, Starling Marte fourth among left fielders and Jordy Mercer sixth for shortstops.

John Dreker
John Dreker
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball. When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.

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