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Keith Law Places Three Pirates in His Mid-Season Top 50 Prospects List

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Keith Law came out with his mid-season top 50 prospects list (subscription required) on Thursday morning and he has three players from the Pittsburgh Pirates. I’ll point out that the list would have had four, as he specifically pointed out that Josh Bell wasn’t eligible for the list because he is in the majors right now.

Law has Tyler Glasnow ranked eighth overall and he mentions that he doesn’t believe Glasnow will be much help to the Pirates this year due to his control and his changeup needing work. He’s rated that high due to the upside, not his current progress.

Kevin Newman comes in next at #17 and no surprise there since Law is his biggest fan. He thinks Newman will be a solid big league regular with average or better defense at shortstop. That will take some work on the defensive end to reach that goal, but that’s why Newman was down in Bradenton longer than most people thought he should have been. He was working on his defense at an easier level.

Newman is followed closely by Austin Meadows in the 19th spot. Law was down on him early in the year, but has returned him to about the same level he had him at during his preseason rankings. The early season drop was based on Meadows struggling after an injury. That makes it a bit odd then that he returned high up on the list, as he went through an 0-for-21 stretch just days before coming up with a hamstring injury that has him out the last two weeks and currently on the disabled list for Indianapolis. Whatever his reasons, Meadows fits well in this area of the prospect list, though I wouldn’t rank Newman ahead of 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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