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Cervelli and Polanco Rated Among the Best at Their Positions

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Buster Olney continued his top ten rankings over the weekend, covering right fielders on Saturday and catchers on Sunday. He has Gregory Polanco rated as the tenth best right fielder in baseball, while Francisco Cervelli gets high praise with his fourth place ranking.

Olney completed the outfield trifecta for the Pirates, previously ranking Starling Marte as the best left fielder and Andrew McCutchen as the second best center fielder. Gerrit Cole also got ninth place among starting pitchers.

Olney gave Polanco some excellent praise, saying he will be in the top ten for years to come. Polanco’s rebound from early season struggles got him on this list, with Olney saying that believes he may have turned a corner in July. In 45 games from July 6th until August 28th, Polanco put up an .894 OPS. That was well above the .630 OPS he had through 77 games to start the season. He finished with 50 extra-base hits, 55 walks and 27 stolen bases.

Cervelli only trailed Buster Posey, Yadier Molina and Russell Martin in the catcher rankings, and Olney wrote that Cervelli is one of the most underrated players right now. He gets credit for the strong offensive numbers, specifically his ability to get on base, plus his defensive work is highly respected. Cervelli had the best pitch framing numbers and gets a lot of credit for his work with the pitching staff. He hit .295/.370/.401 in 130 games this season.

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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