The emergence of a consistently above-average third offering reignited Burrows projection as a starter (he had been projected as a reliever here in previous seasons, in part due to injuries), and of his 24 outings in 2022, only two came out of the bullpen and just four were shorter than three innings. His delivery is violent and scary, especially given the injury track record, though not all of his injuries in the past have been to his arm. Unlike the other lists released yesterday, Fangraphs has not posted their top 100 prospects list yet, so we didn't already have some idea of the top of their list. There isnt suddenly big power here or anything like that, but its the start of a physical step that was likely necessary for Cheng to take to play major league ball. He was one of the younger players available in the 2022 draft and yet at a listed 205 pounds, Kennedy is more physically mature than most of his peers, even some who are a year or two older than he is. Jose Tabata / OF. 4/5 starter. Hernandez, also 19, sat 93-96 in 2022 and has a good-looking two-planed slider, but a relief-only delivery and a mature build. Sammy Siani, LF. After the season, he again played winter ball, this time in Puerto Rico with Carolina, where Cheng struggled. JP Massey, RHP His overall pitch recognition, especially against breaking balls, has become a more noticeable issue. Some of his early-career success seems to have stemmed from his physical maturity. Gutierrez has soft, quiet hands, he doesnt tip pitch type or location with runners on base, and he will drop to one knee when he receives some pitches as a means of framing them. He pitched five innings of relief over two games in early May for the Pirates without allowing a run. A draft-eligible sophomore in 2022, Harrington is an athletic, pitchability righty with a tailing low-90s fastball and a power-sink changeup in the mid-80s. His range and footwork are great, while his actions and arm are fine. He missed basically all of September and was shelled in the only start he made coming off the IL. The type of contact he makes is unlikely to ever lead to home run power commensurate with a true everyday player, but Bae makes enough stinging, all-fields contact that he projects to hit plenty of doubles and triples. Clubs like the Pirates arent making buyers trades, so they have little to no incentive to move a potentially great young player, which in turn means teams have little incentive to scout said player. His swing is already geared for lift, but he doesnt currently have the raw juice to make the most of it. Unfortunately, he then lost the 2020 season to the pandemic and most of 2021 to a shoulder injury he sustained just 12 games into the season. Reports, tool grades, . The average draft position (ADP) included is from Draft Champions leagues from January 19 to February 19 at the NFBC, which you can find here.These leagues draft 50 players and that's all they get for the year no pickups or drops. FanGraphs Prospects. Last year, Fraizers 2021 performance at Greensboro (which included 20 homers) convinced us that he had a chance to be a big deal, but his plate discipline was a big problem against Double-A pitching. He moved into a minor league relief role in 2022. As a wrap-up, the Pirates have.
Pittsburgh Pirates 2021 Top 50 Prospects He went 2-for-4 with two singles, two runs and an RBI on Friday night against Kansas State. A double-plus hit tool leads the way for Termarr Johnson, a 5'7" 175 lb left-handed hitter who calls Jose Ramirez to mind on a quick visual evaluation. He spent much of the season leading off for Altoona, where he slashed .282/.376/.419 and stole 24 stolen bases. Ke'Bryan Hayes, Oneil Cruz, Mitch Keller, Travis Swaggerty, Tahnaj Thomas and. Escotto, 20, was a 40+ FV prospect after his huge DSL season and later became part of the Jameson Taillon trade, but he struggled very badly in 2022 and needed to be demoted back to Low-A. The recent track record of hitters this size isnt favorable, with only Franmil Reyes really panning out, but its exciting to watch Blanco take BP and see how loose and athletic he is for his size. He finished 2022 at Altoona and has a chance to be in the big leagues at some point this season. Before he was drafted he was considered, at least at FanGraphs, a more likely reliever due to the quality of his stuff. Pre-draft rumors pegged Kennedy as a tough sign given a strong commitment to LSU. Cristofer Melendez, RHP All UZR (ultimate zone rating) calculations are provided courtesy of Mitchel Lichtman. That makes changeup development, or anything that might help him deal with righties, important, and indeed thats already underway Solometo has begun to more heavily incorporate a mid-80s changeup into his pitch mix. Diego Cartaya (37) - Catcher Cartaya is listed a little higher in The. Aside from the persistent Bryan Reynolds trade rumors, the general industry sentiment is that the team is shifting from prospect collection mode and into a phase where those players start to arrive. In some respects, its easy to assess DSL players. But the improvement on his slider means he could solidify a role as a middle reliever, especially if the converted infielder is able to re-establish the fastball velos he flirted with a few years ago.
Sunday Notes: Born To Brits, Harry Ford Could Be - blogs.fangraphs.com It could stand to have more consistent depth, but the flashes are there, and remember that Kennedy is barely 18. Chandler started the 2022 season on the complex, where he showed two-way promise, slashing .231/.444/.654 over 36 plate appearances while annihilating opposing batters, issuing 27 strikeouts and giving up just three hits without allowing a run over 15.1 innings. Given their respective shapes, its easy to see how those pitches play off of one another, and they were the reason Burrows presented a traditional relief look prior to his changeups development. His size creates some stiffness and imbalance during his swing, which can lead to him putting suboptimal contact in play. Hes still on a path toward a glove-reliant bench role but is closer to having meaningful pop than he was last year. The FanGraphs prospect team presents their 2022 top 100 list . His defensive versatility will allow the Pirates to play in-game matchups that take advantage of Baes speed and ability to put balls in play.
Fangraphs Reveals Their Updated Top Pirates Prospects List document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function () { A second base-only defensive fit puts the onus on Pegueros bat to perform at an everyday level. They had a ton of depth and a need to fill their Triple-A roster with external veterans in case of injury, and its likely that they mis-evaluated some of their own players who they should have protected, players like Trey McGough, Cristian Charle, Joelvis Del Rosario, Austin Roberts, Wilkin Ramos, Jared Oliva, and Peter Solomon, all of whom have either been on past prospect lists or were flagged for interesting performance or characteristics during this list cycle. Theyve tripled since his claim-staking 2019 DSL season and Nolsaco Kd at a whopping 34% rate in the 2022 Florida State League. In August of 2022, Jun-Seok announced he would skip the September KBO draft in order to sign with an MLB club right away. If he moves to first base, this will become especially scary. Hudson Head, CF
Pittsburgh Pirates: FanGraphs Add 2021 Draft Picks to Prospect Board Pegueros pull-heavy style of contact leaves him vulnerable to breaking balls on the outer half, even ones that catch a lot of the plate. A proactive bullpen move could put him in position to debut in 2024. He and Solometo have the same flavor of stuff wrapped in different packages. Even with that in mind, any team would be happy to sign a teenager with this kind of stuff for just $750,000 of their bonus pool. Its not a great look to lose half a minor league rosters worth of players in the Rule 5, but that whole group might produce one or two big league role players, which is a small price to pay if theyre byprospects of a bigger group from which the Pirates can pick and choose before exposing the rest to that arcane process. Scott, Siani, and Campana all have big physical tools and have all struggled badly from a bat-to-ball standpoint. In April and May, he posted a strikeout rate of 15.9% and a walk rate of 14.5%; from June to September, he improved those marks to 28.5% and 6.9%, respectively. The 2021 edition of this list featured some carping about Eric Longenhagen ranking Gabriel Moreno in the 100, because he was the exact kind of player who might not have been highly regarded in earlier eras of public prospect evaluation but who had all the markers of future success. Cheng entered 2022 coming off an incredible season in which he slashed .311/.449/.492 with twice as many walks as he had strikeouts. His pop times are routinely in the 1.85-1.95 range in part because Endy has a strong arm, but also because hes almost always leaving his crouch before he even receives the pitch on steal attempts, which hastens his exchange. That puts pressure on his plate discipline to improve, since right now Lopez is a little too proactive at the plate and might be exposed at the upper levels. M.J. Melendezs 2019 and Bo Naylors 2020 are recent examples of otherwise good-hitting catchers who had a terrible offensive season in the mid-minors that was followed by an immediate and significant rebound the following year. Quants and front office analyst types are more bearish, citing issues with Priesters fastball playability. He spent two years at a JUCO before heading to South Alabama in 2020, and he only pitched 21 total innings for the Jaguars due to the timing of his transfer. An extreme groundball pitcher in a small sample, he allowed just two home runs in 35.2 innings of work in 2022. The Pittsburgh Pirates are hiring.
LSU played . He has basically been the same guy since he entered pro ball, sitting 94-95 with ineffectual shape and a pretty good slider. He has a career .387 OBP but hasnt been able to actualize his plus raw power in games, driving the ball into the ground at a whopping 66% clip in 2021 and a 54% rate in 2022. While hes played a bunch of shortstop, he is much more likely to wind up on the edge of 3B/1B than he is to see middle infield time at maturity.
on Twitter: "wNS9+ With @longenhagen Discussing the @fangraphs Malone, a former first round high schooler who was part of the Starling Marte trade with Arizona, has barely pitched since he was acquired, and dealt with shoulder injuries in 2022. For now, hes lithe enough for third, where he has a shot to be an everyday player based largely on his power projection. His fastball velocity is down, in the 92-94 mph range, a far cry from Priesters upper-90s peak. If this were a high school draft prospect, you would already know his name based purely on how explosive De Los Santos is in the batters box. Even though hes so young, youre not really projecting on his frame in a positive way so much as it feels possible Kennedy could have impact command at maturity, because his delivery is so effortless and the quality of his fastball strikes so advanced. Throw in the visual twitch and athleticism, and this is the player Spotifys algorithm would recommend to FanGraphs if prospects were musical artists. as compiled by Ben Clemens and the FanGraphs staff. Despite all of that, Priester took a hit in a lot of the national prospect outlets, dropping off quite a few Top 100 lists. Bolton was able to stay healthy for the entirety of 2022, which was an accomplishment in itself given that his professional career has been plagued by injury since it began. FanGraphs released their top 100 prospect rankings on Wednesday. Priesters four-seamer is divisive. That creates backspin and carry on his fastball and big depth on his curve. Triolo has long been viewed as a glove-first third baseman whod likely have some big league utility, similar to D-backs third baseman Emmanuel Rivera. Gonzales hands work in a short, explosive loop. The power might be enough to make him a 1-WAR player if given regular at-bats in the big leagues, but as a second base-only defender, its hard to find an on-roster role for a player like this if they arent hitting enough to play there all the time. Solometo certainly has superficial frame-based projection, but his athleticism and explosiveness are comfortably below whats typical of someone who finds more and more velocity deep into their 20s. After bouncing around many websites covering hockey, he . Chandlers pitching performance wasnt as lights-out as it had been pre-promotion, but it was still a display of the rightys potential. Sergio Campana, CF He has the strength to do damage the other way, but save for the occasional pitch on the outer edge, hes geared to pull. Drafted as a shortstop, he fell down the defensive spectrum pretty quickly but without finding a way to lift the ball and hit for power in games. Castillo is a loose rotator without a lot of bat speed, but he seems to find a way to put the bat on the ball and the power might come if he gets stronger. Lopez swings exceptionally hard and makes some mechanical compromises to do so, but not in a way that has impacted his performance yet. Its bat-missing capabilities are limited to the bottom arm-side portion of the zone, where this two-seam-ish fastball tends to finish. For instance, hes struggled badly on defense, wracking up 46 errors combined the last two seasons. He has an interesting long-term body projection and breaking ball combination. He pairs it with two above-average secondaries: a high-80s slider with sharp, downward movement that garnered a 48% chase rate against righties, and an 11-5 curveball with a shape that mimics the slider, only slower and looser, which helps keep batters off balance and enables him to pitch backwards. Thomas 2022 was a tale of two seasons. His slider lacks nasty, biting movement, but his arm slot makes it tough on lefty hitters, and his command of it gives it back-foot utility against righties. This is the third year were delineating between two anticipated relief roles, the abbreviations for which youll see in the position column below: MIRP for multi-inning relief pitchers, and SIRP for single-inning relief pitchers. Hes already taken a sizable step in the breaking ball department in just two pros seasons. That pitch plays up against lefties for reasons that are probably obvious, but it isnt a nasty pitch in a vacuum. But at other times, he had difficulty maintaining the velocity as the innings wore on, which was compounded by his ongoing command inconsistency. He ultimately went fourth overall to Pittsburgh, and because hes a relatively advanced hitter with a mature build, theres a good chance the Pirates move Johnson through the minors pretty quickly if he hits the ground running offensively. Chen began his career with 26 consecutive walk-free innings in the 2021 Florida Complex League, then spent all of 2022 at Bradenton, where he had a solid second pro season, carrying a 3.76 FIP across 98 innings. Blake Cederlind, RHP Theyre finding them. Jones spent 2022, his second full pro season, at High-A Greensboro, where he sat 94-98 mph across 122.2 innings and posted a 26.7% K% and 9.6% BB%. 2 prospect to Minors camp after injury February 24, 2023 Bucs invite top prospects Davis, Johnson, Priester to camp February 2, 2023 Shim realizes first part of dream as prospect signs with Bucs January 26, 2023 Solometo was a very high-profile amateur pitcher, drafted in the second round but given a bonus commensurate with the 24th overall pick ($2.8 million) as one of several exciting high schoolers who Pittsburgh landed with the pool space freed up by Henry Davis under slot agreement. Prospects 2022 Top 100 Prospects.
Mets Prospect Grant Hartwig Has an Unusual Background and an East-West Thats the situation were projecting here. Scouting reports were. Hes 19 and struggled over the winter in Australia. Massey, going on 23, is a very loose, projectable college prospect from Minnesota. Hell also show you a 92-96 mph fastball that plays down a bit due to its shape and Jimenezs lack of command, which caused him to walk 5.8 per 9 IP in 2022. Endy had an incredible 2022 statline .323/.407/.590 most of which was generated at hitter-friendly Greensboro. He would slot among Priester and Ortiz on this list had he completed a totally healthy 2022. Even though he was sitting 96-98 in Arizona, Webbs fastball doesnt play like an upper-90s pitch right now, and his mid-80s breaking ball quality is highly variable (lots of 30s, some 50s). Jones checked all but two scouting boxes as a high school pitcher. Opinions around Shim vary because he offers less physical projection than is typical in the international talent space, even for an older pitcher. Davis was on the IL multiple times in 2022 with issues stemming from a small nondisplaced fracture of his left wrist that he suffered when he was hit by a pitch in May. Mlodzinski started for most of his 2022 season at Double-A but was called upon for middle-inning relief on a few occasions, and though it was only a handful of appearances, he was more effective as a reliever than as a starter. Play-by-play data prior to 2002 was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted
After coasting through the low and mid-minors, he finally hit a speed bump in 2022, posting his first below-average statline as a 21-year-old at Double-A Altoona. From a heuristics standpoint, you cant do much better than Rodriguezs profile. The husky Nunez swings really hard and generates big peak exit velocities. Andrew McCutchen / OF 3. His slider has a sweeping horizontal shape, but his inability to locate it has hampered its utility. Jackson Glenn, 2B. The Pirates claimed him off waivers and quickly lost him to the Diamondbacks in the minor league phase of the 2022 Rule 5 draft. Smith-Njigbas on-base skills drive an above-replacement forecast here, but its tough to project a real big league role, and he may be an interesting candidate for teams in Asia. Spotty command and limited fastball utility push Mlodzinski into a multi-inning relief role. Below is an analysis of the prospects in the farm system of the Pittsburgh Pirates. He commands it consistently enough to his glove side to project as a starter. Axiel Plaz, C Top 35 Prospects: Pittsburgh Pirates by Eric Longenhagen and Kiley McDaniel November 26, 2018 Below is an analysis of the prospects in the farm system of the Pittsburgh Pirates. That fact isn't apparent on his Baseball-Reference or FanGraphs pages, but for about 48 hours, Maggi, who homered to break up the Yankees' shutout bid in the ninth inning of the Pirates' 9-1 split-squad loss on Thursday, enjoyed life in the Majors. Its going to be fascinating to watch him develop, and if it doesnt work, hell probably still be a viable reliever. But Jones athleticism and physical strength drove confidence that he could maintain plus fastball velocity across a starters workload in pro ball (which so far has been true), and his natural breaking ball bite gave him at least one likely plus pitch to go with it.