Baseball Prospectus released their organization rankings of 25-and-Under Talent and the Pittsburgh Pirates were ranked fourth overall. This list differs from their top prospects list, because it includes players already in the majors, which adds Gerrit Cole, Starling Marte and Jose Tabata to the list. The Pirates are ranked behind three other National League teams, the Atlanta Braves, Washington Nationals and the top-ranked St Louis Cardinals.
According to their list, the Pirates top ten 25-and-Under players are:
1. Gerrit Cole
2. Starling Marte
3. Jameson Taillon
4. Gregory Polanco
5. Tyler Glasnow
6. Reese McGuire
7. Josh Bell
8. Nick Kingham
9. Austin Meadows
10. Jose Tabata
The three-through-nine rankings on their list are the same order as their prospect rankings, which has Reese McGuire much higher than most and Austin Meadows lower than everyone else. They were also higher on Taillon than Polanco, which strays from most lists.
The good part about this list is obviously that young talent will likely be around for awhile, although with seven of them having no major league experience, there are also no guarantees. The Pirates have a deep farm system though, so someone like Alen Hanson not being ranked on this list, just shows that there is more than just these ten players. The part you could say is bad, is the fact the top five teams(Marlins ranked fifth) are all National League teams and the best one is in the Pirates division.
The rest of the NL Central finished fairly spread out. The Chicago Cubs were tenth overall, while the Cincinnati Reds came in at #23 and the Milwaukee Brewers finished last.
