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Austin Meadows Ranks Fourth Among the Top Outfield Prospects

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MLB Pipeline wrapped up their rankings of the top ten prospects at each position, finishing with outfielders on Thursday afternoon. Last year, Austin Meadows was named the eighth best outfield prospect by MLB Pipeline. This year, he ranks fourth overall. The video in the link has high praise for Meadows, giving him strong marks for his approach at the plate, center field defense and speed. They also believe he will add power to his game as he fills out and gets more experience.

Meadows hit .310/.360/.420 this season, playing 121 games with Bradenton and six with Altoona. He was among the youngest players in the league at both levels. In the playoffs, he hit .400 in four games, with two walks and a homer. Meadows continued on after the season, going to the AFL, where scouts loved the tools. He didn’t do well at the plate in the Arizona Fall League, but that didn’t stop Jim Callis from naming him the second best prospect in the league. Meadows will start the season with Altoona this year and could see Indianapolis by the end of the season. With the outfield the Pirates currently have in place in the majors, there is no need to rush him through the system.

The Pirates were well-represented on Pipeline’s top ten list, putting a player on six of the eight lists, including two catchers. You can find links to the previous articles here. They will release their top 100 on Friday night on MLB Network starting at 9pm. We will have something up following the show.

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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