MLB Pipeline and Keith Law have been posting their lists of the top prospects in baseball. We had articles earlier this week for the Pittsburgh Pirates who made the lists, but two players were recently mentioned as just missing lists.
On Thursday morning, Law posted his list of the players who received strong consideration for his top 100 list, but they fell just short. Among the ten players he listed was shortstop Kevin Newman. As many of you know from the past, Law has always been the highest person on Newman, so it was a surprise to many that he fell off the top 100 list.
The article today includes his reasoning for why each player was left out of the top 100. For Newman, he pushes him outside the list due to his body of work, which included a .669 OPS in Altoona in 2017, followed by a .688 OPS in 40 games at Indianapolis during the second half of the season. He also mentions that Newman isn’t as fast as he was in college, which takes away one of his plus tools. Law still sounds high on Newman though, believing that he could end up as an above average regular in the majors and he likes his chance of sticking at shortstop.
We will see our first farm system rankings tomorrow. Law had four Pirates in his top 100 and now Newman just outside of it, so we may see them on his top farm system list, depending on how deep the list goes.
As for the other player just missing a list for the Pirates, Ke’Bryan Hayes was named as a third baseman to watch by MLB Pipeline. They called him an advanced hitter and defender with good athleticism. The reason he didn’t make the top ten is that they want to see him hit for some power first. The position is also deep this year, with tenth place on the list going to Jake Burger, who had a solid debut in Low-A in 2017 after being the 11th overall draft pick.
I’ll note that Keith Law had Hayes as the 61st best prospect (Baseball America didn’t have him top 100). Among third basemen in his top 100, Law has Hayes as the fifth best at the position. Eight third basemen made his top 100 and one made his just missed list today.
