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Scouting the Statline Player Comps for Pirates Prospects

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Lots of prospect analysts think player comps are lazy — Josh Bell will turn into Willie Stargell! Oneil Cruz is similar to Charlie Blackmon! Chad Hermansen is tracking to be God! —  but let’s be honest, they are entertaining. 

The gurus over at Scouting the Statline have published player comps for hundreds of minor league hitting prospects, including a number of Pirates. And they are definitely entertaining. 

For background, the site makes the following claim: “Leveraging research on major league equivalencies and aging curves, we have developed methods to analyze players and prospects across levels on equal footing with statistical data models.  As a result of this novel approach, we can instantly and equally project future statistical output based on current performances and rank thousands of players across levels and at different ages without bias. The weighted Leaderboard takes the last 5 years worth of minor league data into consideration, weighting the results towards more recent performances.”

Obviously, take these comps with a grain of salt — the odds of Oneil Cruz perfectly mirroring the career of Charlie Blackmon are slim to none. But for your entertainment (or your dynasty fantasy league), and without additional commentary, here are the hitter comps and average peak projections for Pirates prospects:

PROSPECT AGE COMP wRC+ wOBA BA OBP SLG
Alexander Mojica 18 Luke Scott 119 .337 .238 .334 .435
Oneil Cruz 22 Charlie Blackmon 119 .337 .281 .327 .444
Endy Rodriguez 21 George Hendrick 112 .327 .236 .322 .424
Rodolfo Nolasco 19 Ji-Man Choi 112 .326 .224 .325 .419
Maikol Escotto 19 Ron Gant 112 .326 .234 .336 .402
Mason Martin 22 Chris Davis 110 .323 .216 .296 .454
Nick Gonzales 22 Rico Brogna 110 .323 .262 .320 .427
Canaan Smith-Njigba 22 Jurickson Profar 107 .319 .245 .337 .380
Juan Jerez 19 Jose Valentin 103 .312 .225 .302 .416
Ji-hwan Bae 21 Bake McBride 103 .312 .267 .331 .367
Blake Sabol 23 Jeff Baker 101 .310 .245 .328 .371
Dariel Lopez 19 Candy Maldonado 99 .307 .248 .306 .390
Liover Peguero 20 Jason Kipnis 92 .296 .245 .299 .373
Cal Mitchell 22 Tim Wallach 91 .294 .249 .292 .378
Tucupita Marcano 21 Tony Bernazard 91 .294 .246 .324 .329
Jack Suwinski 22 Willie Kirkland 90 .293 .222 .301 .364
Jack Herman 21 Randal Grichuk 90 .292 .218 .278 .399
Will Craig 26 Caleb Joseph 89 .290 .235 .292 .371
Hudson Head 20 Enrique Hernandez 88 .289 .190 .296 .359
Matt Fraizer 23 Randy Velarde 88 .289 .239 .299 .356
Hoy Park 25 Alejandro De Aza 87 .288 .227 .325 .313
Diego Castillo 23 Danny Bautista 87 .287 .249 .301 .349
Ka’ai Tom 27 Addison Russell 86 .287 .230 .290 .364
Lolo Sanchez 22 Nate McLouth 86 .286 .232 .296 .350
Rodolfo Castro 22 Gary Gaetti 86 .286 .223 .259 .407
Yoyner Fajardo 22 Pop Smith 86 .286 .251 .316 .316
Eli Wilson 22 Jose Lobaton 85 .284 .215 .314 .321
Travis Swaggerty 23 Gary Matthews Jr. 84 .283 .221 .293 .347
Jared Oliva 25 Anthony Gose 84 .283 .247 .299 .335
Jonah Davis 23 Mark Reynolds 83 .282 .177 .282 .365
Sammy Siani 20 Chris Heisey 83 .282 .184 .296 .340
Hunter Owen 27 Matt Davidson 83 .282 .214 .269 .382
Christian Bethancourt 29 Jose Castillo 80 .277 .247 .275 .359
Jared Triolo 23 Thomas Howard 79 .276 .238 .288 .336
Carter Bins 22 Kurt Abbott 78 .274 .173 .319 .282
Kevin Kramer 27 Tony Wolters 78 .274 .229 .295 .318
Andrew Susac 31 Nick Hundley 75 .269 .191 .280 .329
Fabricio Macias 23 Cory Spangenberg 75 .269 .244 .283 .323
Jasiah Dixon 19 Cameron Maybin 74 .267 .198 .315 .268
Will Matthiessen 23 Rene Rivera 73 .266 .190 .272 .335
Troy Stokes Jr. 25 Abraham Almonte 73 .266 .196 .277 .322
Brendt Citta 24 Jordy Mercer 72 .265 .216 .290 .302
Chris Sharpe 25 Jackie Bradley Jr. 72 .265 .207 .271 .328
Deon Stafford 25 Rene Rivera 71 .264 .203 .255 .354
Bligh Madris 25 Paul Bako 71 .263 .223 .286 .301
Sergio Campana 19 Chris Owings 70 .261 .188 .281 .299
Randy Romero 21 Eric Owens 69 .261 .224 .276 .302
Daniel Amaral 24 Chris Owings 69 .260 .215 .281 .302
Daniel Rivero 20 Kevin Pillar 69 .260 .220 .286 .287
Francisco Acuna 21 Kevin Pillar 68 .259 .180 .288 .291
Jase Bowen 20 Don Zimmer 63 .252 .185 .251 .320
Jesus Valdez 23 Jose Molina 60 .246 .186 .253 .309
Luis Tejeda 18 Christian Vazquez 60 .246 .182 .257 .295
Angel Basabe 20 Orlando Arcia 58 .243 .171 .253 .289
Darwin Baez 20 Greg Dobbs 57 .242 .189 .258 .283
Norkis Marcos 20 Leury Garcia 57 .242 .170 .284 .246
Taylor Davis 31 N/A 56 .241 .227 .288 .239
Deivis Nadal 19 Tyler Saladino 56 .240 .184 .275 .253
Matt Gorski 23 Jayson Nix 54 .237 .186 .241 .301
Andres Alvarez 24 Brandon Barnes 54 .237 .194 .263 .264
Aaron Shackelford 24 Rene Rivera 54 .236 .175 .226 .325
Ethan Paul 24 Chris Owings 51 .232 .187 .284 .219
Ernny Ordonez 22 Austin Romine 50 .230 .190 .240 .279
Fleury Nova 20 Chris Owings 49 .230 .188 .257 .243
Claudio Finol 21 Chris Stewart 47 .227 .183 .247 .254
Joe Hudson 30 Drew Butera 44 .222 .188 .244 .253
Connor Kaiser 24 Jeff Mathis 41 .216 .157 .238 .244
Raul Hernandez 25 N/A 40 .215 .216 .238 .239
Josh Bissonette 24 Brendan Ryan 36 .210 .192 .250 .208
Arden Pabst 26 Drew Butera 35 .207 .186 .206 .271
Jason Delay 26 Drew Butera 32 .203 .179 .221 .236
Dylan Busby 25 Jeff Mathis 30 .200 .144 .195 .266
Gustavo Polanco 24 Drew Butera 22 .188 .181 .209 .209
Grant Koch 24 N/A 19 .183 .138 .193 .221

If you have player comps of your own, share them in the comments and maybe we’ll circle back in a few years to see how they held up. 

Jason Gindele
Jason Gindele
Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Jason Gindele spent the summer of 1993 as an intern in the Pirates PR department, where a gruff Jim Leyland graciously invited him into his office to talk for half an hour. Jason later covered sports for the Akron Beacon Journal, The Gazette Newspapers (a Washingon Post subsidiary) and other media outlets. After moving to the tech startup sector for 20 years, he transitioned to nonprofit work in 2017, helping at-risk children and families in Austin, TX, where he lives with his family. Jason has contributed occasional articles to Pirates Prospects and the Pittsburgh Baseball Network since 2021.

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