Keith Law continued his top 100 prospects list on Thursday morning, ranking the players in the 21-40 range. On Tuesday morning, Ke’Bryan Hayes was the first Pittsburgh Pirate to make the list, ranking as the 74th prospect. No Pirates were in the 41-60 range yesterday, but both Kevin Newman and Tyler Glasnow got mentioned today, albeit lower than their mid-season rankings in July.
Glasnow came in at 25th place and Law still believes that he could end up as a #1 starter if all goes well, or a very good #2 starter. Back in mid-July, Law had him as the eighth best prospect in baseball, so he dropped 17 spots. If you missed it from last week, we had an article on Glasnow, talking about the adjustment he made in his stride towards the plate, and he also added a two-seam fastball to his mix. He’s still going to work on the changeup, but the two-seamer could help him get some quick outs on the ground and allow him to stay in games longer by keeping his pitch count down.
Kevin Newman also saw a similar drop, going from #17 back in July, to #33 on today’s list. One of the reasons for the drop could be that Law said that Newman isn’t as fast now as he was in college, which takes away some of his value. At one time, Law had him as a 60 runner, which seemed a bit high compared to what we saw. He still believes he will be an everyday shortstop in the majors as early as next year, and if he adds some power, he will be more than just an everyday player. Law also noted that one scout said he could end up being a “super utility player” who still plays everyday.
The final 20 spots will be announced tomorrow and could be busy for the Pirates with Mitch Keller, Austin Meadows and Josh Bell yet to be mentioned. The top 100 for MLB Pipeline will be announced on Saturday night, so we will quickly have a second opinion on where the top prospects for the Pirates fall.
