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Austin Meadows and Kevin Newman Among Top 20 Prospects in Eastern League

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Baseball America continued their top 20 rankings with the Eastern League on Thursday morning. They have outfielder Austin Meadows ranked third in the league, trailing only Yoan Moncada and Andrew Benintendi. Both of those players are in the Red Sox system, and they finished this season in the majors.

Kevin Newman ranks 19th in the league, after placing third in the Florida State League on Tuesday. The difference comes from the strength of the Eastern League this year, combined with the poor finish to the season for Newman. He hit .288/.361/.378 in 61 games for Altoona, but that includes a .222 average and a .613 OPS over the last 25 games, so he started off strong in the league.

Like Newman, Meadows will also make two top 20 lists. The International League top 20 will be announced early next week and he should rank well on that list despite average stats at the level. Meadows dominated in the Eastern League, hitting .311/.365/.611 in 45 games before being promoted to Triple-A in mid-June. While with Altoona, he had 30 extra-base hits, nine stolen bases and finished with a 24-game hitting streak. He did all of that as one of the youngest players in the league.

After being shutout on the GCL and Appalachian League lists, the Pirates have had at least one player on the New York-Penn League, South Atlantic League, Florida State League and now the Eastern League lists.

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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