This week, we are working on wrapping up our mid-season top 30 prospect list. The process of making a top prospect list is always drawn out and difficult. For us, that process involves combining the player rankings of everyone on the site, coming up with an average for each player, arguing players up and down, and then proceeding to the actual ranking process.
Once we reach the ranking process, things get even more difficult. We build an initial list and tiers based on the player rankings and the risks involved. From there, we adjust the rankings over and over before the deadline comes and we absolutely must finalize the rankings. During this process, we also will adjust player ratings, taking an even closer look at them when seeing where they fit in the system.
In short, we’re taking a deep look at the system this week.
But the mid-season rankings provide an even bigger challenge. The season is still going on. There are new players to add to the mix from the draft. There are players who are having breakout seasons, with the disclaimer that the season is only about half a season. There’s new information we discover on players each day, which definitely has an impact on this process.
The off-season rankings are great because the dust settles, and we get to review everything from every player, giving a nice snapshot in time. The mid-season rankings are also a snapshot, but you’re taking a bunch of other shots almost instantly.
In the past, we’ve done this immediately after the draft. Then, the new draft system led to players being signed almost immediately, which led to us pushing back the rankings for a few weeks. This year, the Nick Lodolo/Austin Shields situation pushed it back even further. But during that time, we also wanted to get more info on all of the top players.
A few weeks ago, the report on Yeudy Garcia might have been much different without the updated information on his fastball velocity, command, and improved changeup. I’ve had a chance to talk with all of the prep pitchers now, and have seen all of them throw in some capacity (except for Shields), getting more than just the pre-draft reports. We’ve still got a few more reports on potential top 30 guys to roll out this week, which will also impact the rankings.
All of this is good — it’s the goal of this site to constantly find new information in the farm system, and we’ve been finding a lot of that. But now is the time to hit pause, and take that snapshot of the system. I anticipate the rankings coming out on Thursday or Friday at the very latest. Until then, we’ve got a lot of great features lined up this week, covering Josh Bell, Trevor Williams, Max Moroff, Stephen Tarpley, Cole Tucker, and a few guys who probably won’t be in the top 30 saved for the weekend.
If you’re not a subscriber, this would be a great time to sign up. It’s only $2.99 per month, or $29.99 per year, giving you the most detailed coverage of the Pirates you can find, with tons of information that you can’t find anywhere else.
And now, back to working on those rankings.
**Prospect Watch: Tyler Glasnow Returns to the Indianapolis Rotation. Dean Treanor had some strong words about his outing tonight.
**Top Performers: Craig, Diaz, Brault, Keller, MacGregor, Williams. Our weekly feature, looking at the top guys from the farm system, along with reports from our live coverage.
**Do the Pirates Have a Prospect in Their First Base Platoon at West Virginia? Abigail Miskowiec writes about Daniel Arribas and Carlos Munoz, who have both shown some good numbers at times in West Virginia this year.
**Morning Report: Indianapolis Leads the Farm System in Pitching. You don’t often have a situation where your number one need in the majors is also your number one strength in Triple-A.
