Eric Longenhagen from Fangraphs posted his top 100 prospects list on Wednesday morning and he has six players from the Pittsburgh Pirates. That’s twice as many as we have seen from previous lists released by MLB Pipeline, Baseball America and Baseball Prospectus.
Here’s the list of Pirates and their placement on today’s list:
30. Ke’Bryan Hayes
32. Oneil Cruz
34. Mitch Keller
61. Travis Swaggerty
78. Tahnaj Thomas
98. Liover Peguero
The bottom three players on that list are new to the top 100 (for any source) this off-season. Peguero, who was acquired in the Starling Marte trade, got mentioned as a player just outside the top 100 and Baseball America had him listed on their top 30 shortstops list. Swaggerty hasn’t received any attention this year, though he’s been on top 100 lists in the past.
It’s good to see Thomas get noticed for his progress from someone besides us. He was a starter throwing 101 MPH (with control and success) in July, yet no one has really caught on to him yet until today’s list. Even in the write-up today it is a little light on his velocity and mentions his curveball improving. Thomas throws a slider. So he’s still a little under the radar, even to the one person who recognized his success and improvements.
The top 100 link is worth checking out. It has reports on all of the players, as well as Future Value rankings and an explanation of the small/large differences on the list as far as assigning players spots on the list. There will also be a chat on Fangraphs later.
