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Updated Top 30 Pirates Prospects From MLB

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MLB.com has released their updated list of the top 30 prospects in the Pittsburgh Pirates’ farm system. No surprise that Tyler Glasnow heads the list, as he is a consensus pick for the top spot. He is followed in the top ten by Austin Meadows, Josh Bell, Jameson Taillon, Alen Hanson, Reese McGuire, Harold Ramirez, Kevin Newman, Ke’Bryan Hayes and Cole Tucker.

Among new draft picks, after Newman and Hayes, they have Jacob Taylor #20, Casey Hughston #22 and Brandon Waddell at #27, with no sign of second round pick Kevin Kramer.

Some interesting placements of note include Stephen Tarpley all the way down at #25, although their write-up of him makes him sound like they should have rated him much higher. We have him #15 for many of the reasons they describe in their write-up. He’s a lefty that can get it up to 97 and throws four pitches for strikes, plus he is having a strong season.

They still have Luis Heredia in their top 30, coming in at #28. Can’t argue with their write-up just like Tarpley, they just want to seem to hold on to him longer. That’s likely due to his age, though he has a lot of pro experience for someone just short of his 21st birthday and the results are going down instead of up, or even maintaining would be nice at this point.

They also seem to be down on Elias Diaz and Adrian Sampson. Diaz ranked #8 on our list due to his terrific defense and the fact he’s holding his own at the plate this year. Sampson looked great early, but has hit some bumps in the road recently. He is fourth in the International League in strikeouts, third in innings and he’s showing excellent command, plus he is 23 years old.

Their scouting report on Diaz sounds a tick low from what we have seen, but just like Tarpley and Heredia, they are fairly on with Sampson, so it’s just a matter of opinion on where a player of that caliber should be in the top 30.

One last note and that is Nick Kingham has been knocked out of the top 10, falling to 11th place. He’s obviously out for most of next year, but his upside likely hasn’t changed and most people had him in the #6-8 range, so that is where we left him.

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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