Keith Law posted his new top 50 prospects list and it has four Pittsburgh Pirates players on it, though not the four many people would have guessed.
He has Tyler Glasnow as the #7 prospect, followed by Austin Meadows at #18, Kevin Newman at #27 and Harold Ramirez at #50. He also mentions that Josh Bell just missed the list.
Glasnow, Meadows and Newman shouldn’t be a surprise if you followed Keith Law during the draft and in his previous prospect rankings. He loves Newman and had him as the second best player in this year’s draft, so you would expect him to rank him high in his top 50 as well. Newman has struggled so far in pro ball, but three week’s worth of games shouldn’t impact anyone’s prospect status, especially not the first three weeks of someone’s career.
Harold Ramirez is a surprising one because that means he has him as the fourth best prospect in the organization ahead of some pretty big names. Ramirez has hit well and has good defense, but there are issues with his game. He had some conditioning issues this year, plus a skin issue that affected his ability to get into shape, so that isn’t something you like to see from someone that has had multiple injuries in the past. The conditioning looks to be the concern, as Ramirez has good speed, but he is 11-for-21 in stolen bases. Plus after a torrid start, he has seen a drop in his stats the last two weeks prior to leaving for the Pan Am games.
There seems to be a huge split on Ramirez now, as Baseball America recently rated him as a prospect in the Pirates’ system who is seeing his stock drop. In reality, Ramirez seems to be doing what he has been capable of, getting on base and playing strong defense. His stock shouldn’t have skyrocketed or plummeted because except for the stolen base percentage, he is pretty much the same player he was last year and before that.
