MLB Pipeline released their list of the top 100 prospects in baseball, updated for the mid-season and it includes draft picks. The Pittsburgh Pirates have three players on the list. Five Pirates made the top 100 during the preseason, but both Tyler Glasnow and Josh Bell lost their prospect status since then.
Austin Meadows holds on to the top spot for the Pirates, ranking 20th overall among all prospects. Mitch Keller is right behind him, rated as the 22nd best prospect in the game. Making his debut on the list is Shane Baz, who ranks 88th overall. Drafted 12th overall in June, he is one of 11 draft picks to debut on the updated list. Baz is tenth among all draft picks. Kevin Newman was 59th during the preseason, but he has dropped off of the mid-season list.
Pipeline also updated their top 30 for the Pirates. They have the same order as the three in the top 100, then they go with Ke’Bryan Hayes, Cole Tucker, Kevin Newman, Steven Brault, Will Craig, Nick Kingham and Kevin Kramer rounding out the top ten.
As for draft picks, Steven Jennings rated 11th, Calvin Mitchell is 14th and Conner Uselton is 15th overall.
The updates don’t stop there for MLB Pipeline, giving you a lot to check out, so I’m keeping this short. They also updated their top ten by position. Here is what the Pirates have going for them:
Mitch Keller ranks as the sixth best right-handed pitcher.
Kevin Kramer is the ninth best second baseman.
Austin Meadows is the sixth best outfielder.
Somewhat surprisingly, Ke’Bryan Hayes didn’t make the top ten for third basemen despite being fourth on the Pirates top 30. Only six third basemen made the top 100, so it appears that Hayes was well off from making the top 100 if four third baseman who are outside the top 100 are rated higher than him.
They are going to release their top ten farm systems soon. I don’t expect Pirates to be on there because they talked about some of the loaded systems now around baseball, especially after some recent trades. The Pirates weren’t one of the teams mentioned in their brief preview of the farm systems.