Keith Law posted his annual list of the top 25 players under the age of 25(Insider article) on Tuesday afternoon. The criteria for the list is as follows(copied from the article): This list is limited to players whose seasonal ages for 2015 are 24 and under — that is, any player who has yet to turn 25 by July 1, 2015 — and to players who had already exhausted their rookie status before Opening Day.
The Pittsburgh Pirates had two players in the top half of the list, with Gerrit Cole ranked ninth overall and Gregory Polanco is three spots behind him. The Boston Red Sox are the only other team with two players in the top half.
Law has good things to say about Polanco, who he calls a “top-shelf athletic talent” and he believes that Polanco “will be the star that takes over for Andrew McCutchen in a few years when he exits his peak”.
Cole is called “an ace in the making”, although Law points out that he may already have taken over the role this season. He also says that Cole is the pitcher he would take first ahead of anyone else on the list. Cole is the first pitcher on the list, which shouldn’t be surprising after hearing that comment, although it says a lot about how talented the hitters are in this group.
That is pretty high praise from Law for both Polanco and Cole.
