Manual adjustments are made where they seem appropriate, but we use that as a rule of thumb. The FanGraphs prospect team presents their 2022 top 100 list . 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. Pittsburgh Pirates Stats | FanGraphs Baseball Jose Tabata / OF. Across his 94.1 innings, he racked up 111 strikeouts against just 31 walks, with a 1.21 WHIP. Because theyre about the same age as high school draft prospects, apples-to-apples projection and tools comparisons are feasible, which then allows you to triangulate where theyd be selected in a draft based on those comparisons and get a sense of how to FV them. Its possible Flowers strike-throwing consistency will make a big league manager feel secure going to him with consistency in the middle innings, but on stuff he projects more as a near-ready up/down reliever. His slider has a sweeping horizontal shape, but his inability to locate it has hampered its utility. The barrel-chested Smith-Njigba has huge strength-driven power and a patient approach that borders on passive. Like his other stuff, his feel for location is better than the movement hes creating on the pitch. Ke'Bryan Hayes, Oneil Cruz, Mitch Keller, Travis Swaggerty, Tahnaj Thomas and. Pre-draft rumors pegged Kennedy as a tough sign given a strong commitment to LSU. 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. Jimenez has a very good sweeping, upper-70s curveball and creates plus action on a changeup that he sells with fantastic arm speed. Ideally, Nicolas can develop an offering that has some arm-side movement, one better than his current changeup that can prevent hitters from sitting on those glove-side locations. 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. Flowers velocity has never really popped in a big way despite some of the late projection because of his conversion. He was ranked 25th on the Pirates list at the end of 2022, but we were blown away after watching him on video and seeing some of his underlying DSL data during the construction of this list. Instead, Triolo looks like hell be a superutility guy. If you split his season exactly in half, the improvement is obvious. ago They do not like solemeto or Gonzalez. 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. 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%. FanGraphs Top 43 Pirates prospects blogs.fangraphs Vote 3 comments Best Add a Comment Robert_roberts82 14 min. His fastball velo is up a tick since 2021, now comfortably sitting in the 95-96 mph range and routinely touching 98. Hunter Stratton, RHP In 2022, it garnered just 8% whiffs and 13% chase during his time at Double-A, where he spent most of the season. Hes an arm strength reclamation project with a shot to pitch in Pittsburghs bullpen. His carrying tool is still his defense, especially his receiving, which is crafty and advanced. It plays nicely with Flowers plus slider, and he has enough changeup feel to parachute one in against lefties once in a while. He also has a promising sweeper slider, but he lacks typical physical projection for a teenage pitcher. 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. Flowers has pitched very well in the mid-minors (he carried a 2.88 ERA with Altoona in 2022) and hes been especially good at avoiding walks for a pure relief prospect. To be fair, he was only about average in terms of OAA. 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. . He moved into a minor league relief role in 2022. It can be found here. Let's Identify Some Hitter Sleeper Candidates | FanGraphs Baseball His mother spent her childhood in London, while his father "a real Brit; he still has an . Its a shorter, less natural looking delivery than what Flowers had as an amateur, but hes been able to throw strikes with it. Mets Prospect Grant Hartwig Has an Unusual Background and an East-West ago I'm surprised how far Nick Gonzalez and Hudson Head dropped in a few years. But as Triolos pro success with the bat continued at a high level, and with KeBryan Hayes manning the hot corner for the Pirates foreseeable future, the Pirates began searching for defensive alternatives in order to plug Triolo into their lineup. . Cristofer Melendez, RHP But at other times, he had difficulty maintaining the velocity as the innings wore on, which was compounded by his ongoing command inconsistency. He seems able to make some mid at-bat adjustments to this type of pitch but then ends up playing a guessing game with breaking balls. Stratton, 26, sat 94-96 mph in 2022 and has a plus-flashing slider that he rarely throws for strikes. 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. 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. John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. Isaias Uribe, LHP Mason Martin, 1B DSL data is noisy, in part because pitchers there dont yet throw enough strikes or with much velocity compared to more advanced levels of the minors. and play-by-play data provided by Sports Info Solutions. He stayed healthy throughout 2022, throwing 70.1 innings, and was more effective out of the bullpen than in his late-season starts. Major League and Minor League Baseball data provided by Major League Baseball. When an opposing pitcher releases the ball, the scoop in Johnsons bat head is pointing at the mound with his back elbow hiked way up above his shoulder in a position that seems to defy the rules of normal human physiology. Nicolas spent most of his college career in the bullpen, but hes held up well as a starter in pro ball, developing two distinct breaking balls that hes using much more than he did at Ball State. Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports. While especially adept at launching pitches on the inner third, Johnson also shows some ability to shorten up and cover the top and outer edge of the strike zone. The Pirates got a deal done for a cool million, nearly twice the slot amount in the fourth round. Scott, Siani, and Campana all have big physical tools and have all struggled badly from a bat-to-ball standpoint. Gonzales hands work in a short, explosive loop. 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. Matt Fraizer, CF 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. Cederlind, 27, spent 2022 recovering from Tommy John, and he had renewed soreness during his rehab, which is part of why he missed the whole year. Still, the teenage pitcher demo is bust-prone and, anecdotally, this seems especially true when the prospect in question already throws really hard at age 17 or 18. Ricky Tiedemann is one of the fastest-rising pitching prospects in the game. Obviously the 2021 draft was the big one, and seven players from that class are currently on the list. Very Young Prospects to Monitor (One weird scouting note: Peguero chokes up with two strikes, but only with his top hand, creating separation between his two hands la Kevin Youkilis.) Even if sliders are a chronic issue for Davis, hell likely still get to enough power to produce better than the average everyday catcher. Webb dealt with a forearm strain that delayed the start of his 2022 season. The ETAs listed generally correspond to the year a player has to be added to the 40-man roster to avoid being made eligible for the Rule 5 draft. Theres an All-Star-caliber hit and power combination here, and while a bigger pro data sample might reveal some approach-related issues, Johnson has been one of the best hitters his age for going on a half decade and feels like a relatively high-probability high school hitting prospect. These rankings include six Pittsburgh Pirates prospects cracking the FanGraph top 100. Its unlikely hell make enough of an offensive impact to be a primary catcher, but hes very likely to spend time on big league 40-man rosters as a second or third catcher. As FanGraphs sourced TrackMan/Hawkeye data from team personnel after the season, De Los Santos hard hit rate and peak exit velocities stood apart from most of his peers, especially when limiting the sample to the DSLs age-appropriate players. Scouting reports were compiled with information provided by industry sources as well as our own observations. That makes it seem all but inevitable that Chandler will eventually ditch the bat to optimize his development on the mound. 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. If you want to read me wax poetic about that you can check out my end of year review. He throws precise, high-quality strikes with the heater, and the pitch has enough tailing action to have stayed off of A-ball barrels. In most cases, corner-only outfielders who play consistent big league roles have better actualized their raw power in games. These rankings are now available on The Board on the 2023 Fantasy Rankings tab, where you can also see the Top 120 Dynasty Rankings!. He clearly wasnt comfortable in center field during his brief time there last season, but he only played there once every couple of weeks and he isnt a firm no at the position, even if he is bad there right now. He commands it consistently enough to his glove side to project as a starter. FanGraphs Prospects. on Twitter: "wNS9+ With @longenhagen Discussing the @fangraphs Solometos fastball sits in the 88-92 mph range. Maggi is, by definition, a Major Leaguer. Given how good he is at third, it seems likely that Triolo will be a good defensive second baseman if given enough time, and hes a fine emergency option at short (Kyle Farmer has played there a ton and Triolo is about that good). 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. FanGraphs Baseball | Baseball Statistics and Analysis He has become meaningfully stronger over the last year and has more of a balanced, low-ball swing now, as opposed to the slash-and-dash style of contact in his pro debut. Barco is a low-slot lefty with advanced command and several underlying pitch traits that give clubs hope of more upside even though he looks like a lower-variance backend starter prospect on the surface. Webbs velocity began to climb in 2019, when he went from sitting 89-92 mph to sitting 90-94 and touching 96. Fantasy Update: 2023 Re-Draft Top 25/Dynasty Top 120 While likely of low impact, Solometos feel to pitch will almost certainly enable him to be a big leaguer of some kind, either a backend starter or long reliever. Pirates Reds: NL West. His quality of contact is very good when he does make it, and is already on par with the typical starting major league second baseman even though hes barely 22. A two-way high school player, Jones was clearly a superior prospect as a pitcher, as he was one of the most electric on-mound athletes to roll through the high school ranks over the last decade. Still, his tendency to roll his wrists over early in his swing, breaking up his attack angle, resulted in a groundball rate above 50%. Ercolani, an 18-year-old righty from San Marino, had a velo spike during the winter and has been up to 97 mph in the bullpen recently. Poised to compete for a rotation spot when 2023 camp breaks, Ortiz is one of a few high-upside Pirates youngsters who look like theyd fit in a contenders rotation. Those games were taking place amid weight-lifting and practice for the coming football season and then during the season itself, so Whites balance of strength and flexibility might change as he trains just for baseball. Meanwhile, Chandlers post-promotion production at the plate plummeted to a sub-.200 batting average and an OPS of just .574, thanks largely to a strikeout rate just barely south of 40%; he launched just a single dinger in his 32 Low-A games compared to three in his 14 games on the complex. His footwork on throws to second is clunky and variable, which often impacts his throw times and accuracy, but the pure arm strength is in there. 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. Pathways toward a more impactful role are most likely to be carved by Harringtons command outperforming this projection. He pitched for Panamas U18 team in September and showed a good changeup and fair slider as well. The reason why he graded out so positively was due to his arm, gunning down runners like crazy, which was fantastic, and his tool grade for his armwas a 40. Top 51 Prospects: Pittsburgh Pirates | FanGraphs Baseball Signed as an undrafted free agent in 2021, the 25-year-old right-hander has a degree in microbiology and premedical studies from Oxford, Ohio's Miami University, and he has worked as a . Jesus Castillo, SS His turn at the 2022 Futures Game gave viewers a glimpse of his heater/curveball combo, showcasing the carry on his mid-90s fastball in contrast to the vertical depth of the high-spin (2,800 rpm) curve. Plaz had a cartoonish line in the DSL (he slugged over .700), but hes very burly and physically mature for a 17-year-old, so wed like to see him do it stateside. Before he was drafted he was considered, at least at FanGraphs, a more likely reliever due to the quality of his stuff. 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. Thats the situation were projecting here. His slot also helps generate two-plane sweep on his breaking ball. He also mixes in the occasional changeup or curveball, which accounted for a combined 11% of his offerings at Low-A. Jones checked all but two scouting boxes as a high school pitcher. Not counting his time at the alt site in 2020, last season was Boltons first time back in competitive action since 2019. Top 100 Prospects For 2023 Fantasy Baseball: Spring Training Snapshot Not exactly on topic, but Id love to get some thoughts on the recently graduated Jack Suwinski. Campana, soon to be 21, is the youngest of this group. Samaniego looks like a typical second lefty out of a bullpen, sitting 92-94 mph with a deceptive, whippy arm action, and locating his fastball with precision on the arm-side part of the plate. His fastball remains in the mid-90s but continues to underperform in terms of its bat-missing ability due to its hittable line. Thats hard enough to do for any batter, let alone one whose schedule also includes the grueling demands of pitching development. He walked more than a batter per inning in 2022. His chase rates were at or below league average across the board, further emphasizing the troubling command. His size creates some stiffness and imbalance during his swing, which can lead to him putting suboptimal contact in play. 2022 Top Prospects | THE BOARD | FanGraphs Hes going to be a star if he ends up with even average raw power, and even if he doesnt, were talking about a switch-hitting catcher who can make an impact on both offense and defense. Out over the plate, he has a tendency to stay inside fastballs and lift them toward the opposite field gap. Bins is athletic for a catcher and has a good arm, but his receiving and contact skills are both 30s. }); Grouped by type and listed in order of preference within each category. Perhaps as an adjustment to deal with this issue, Priester now mixes in plenty of fastballs for which he pronates on release, giving the pitch screwball-like spin. While he was already throwing quite hard, Ortiz came into even more velocity in 2022 and averaged 97 mph on his fastball, up two ticks from 2021. It sounds like Brannigan is going to develop as a two-way player. 76. Reports, tool grades, . His swing is already geared for lift, but he doesnt currently have the raw juice to make the most of it. Could Solometo eventually throw harder? His on-mound athleticism enables plus long-term command projection, though for right now Harrington really only locates his fastball to his arm side. Be warned that he may hit for huge power at Greensboro in 2023, but the key thing to watch is his strikeout rate. Some aspects of that optimistic projection still exist, while others have changed or are currently absent, but the tools package here is still on par with the middle of the everyday second baseman player population, and were hoping that young Peguero will polish up his games current smudges. Sanchez runs pretty well. 2022 Pittsburgh Pirates Summary Stats Schedule Player Usage Depth Chart The depth charts found on the Team Pages are based on projected playing time, NOT the current status of a team's roster. If he continues missing bats at High-A in 2023, though, Pittsburgh may be forced to add him. Johnson was a well-regarded prospect basically as soon as he reached high school, and there were scouts who were so excited when they first watched him hit that they considered him a future top 5-10 pick when he was only a freshman. Theyre finding them. Davis skills and offensive style are tailored like those of Evan Gattis. Barcos long, low arm slot creates a flat approach angle, but hes not really inclined to climb the ladder and pitch at the top of the zone right now, instead living on the arm-side third of the plate with sink and tail. After the season, he again played winter ball, this time in Puerto Rico with Carolina, where Cheng struggled. We added RosterResource's Depth Charts; these reflect a team's current. Both feel like high-floored backend or long relief types who need to walk an atypical path to an impact role. Quants and front office analyst types are more bearish, citing issues with Priesters fastball playability. Rodriguezs arm is comfortably plus. It should be noted that DeVitos development has been plagued by stops and starts caused first by the pandemic and then by an ulnar nerve issue that shortened his 2021 season. His low, short-armed slot is like a righty version of Reiver Sanmartins delivery. His changeup is deceptive against batters in both boxes, but in particular against righties, who have a 40% chase rate on the offering. Sammy Siani, LF. He has a delivery similar to Ubaldo Jimnezs, where his front side flies way open and he tilts out, which helps Kellington get to a vertical arm slot. Sergio Campana, CF 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. 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. in the minor league phase of the 2022 Rule 5 Draft. Reports around his once-stellar defense have dimmed, and were hoping its due more to rust and lost time than to an actual regression in ability. 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. 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). 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. 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. This also may have been part of why the Pirates lost so many players (11!) You can really see his athleticism and remarkable hip/shoulder separation on his throws down to second. His swing may look different in 2023 and prompt a re-evaluation. Nicolas has consistent glove-side command of his entire repertoire, and he tends to live on that half of the plate exclusively. On the showcase circuit, he was less whiff-prone than is typical for a multi-sport guy from the Northeast, though he was a pull-only hitter and struggled to contact fastballs in the upper/outer quadrant of the zone. The Pittsburgh Pirates are hiring. He and Solometo have the same flavor of stuff wrapped in different packages. wNS9+ With @longenhagen Discussing the @fangraphs Pirates Top Prospect List You found it controversial, so we discussed it Subscribe & Listen http://linktr.ee . In some respects, its easy to assess DSL players. Its bat-missing capabilities are limited to the bottom arm-side portion of the zone, where this two-seam-ish fastball tends to finish. Grant Hartwig is one of the most promising under-the-radar prospects in the New York Mets system. Top 42 Prospects: Pittsburgh Pirates by Eric Longenhagen February 28, 2020 Below is an analysis of the prospects in the farm system of the Pittsburgh Pirates. He can already land his breaker in the zone and its angle should help it become a viable back-foot offering to righties. Hes already taken a sizable step in the breaking ball department in just two pros seasons. He is a 6-foot-5 20-year-old, after all. He had all the markers of a major league-ready Top 100 prospect prior to the injury, largely due to the progression of his changeup and its usage. But given his age and the amount of runway still afforded to him, this was seen as a speed bump for his development rather than being of great concern at the time. From a heuristics standpoint, you cant do much better than Rodriguezs profile. Readers should note that taking an aggressive line with players like this has yielded predictably mixed results in the past (so far, so good: Kevin Alcantara, Marco Luciano, Alexander Canario, Jordy Vargas, etc. Finding a great changeup (or maybe a split?) Pittsburgh Pirates 2021 Top 50 Prospects January 1, 2021 Kyle Brown General, MiLB, NL Central, Pirates, Top 50 Lists 2 Graphic design by John Stewart, @jonance on Twitter The Pirates had a woeful time in 2020 once the season got going. So compact and short to the baseball is Rodriguez that he can wait an extra beat to diagnose pitch types, which enables him to make in-flight adjustments to breaking balls, spoil the well-located ones, and crush the hangers. Updated Top 30 Pirates Prospects List from MLB Pipeline Its now fair to expect that the current version of Nicolas will be capable of holding down a spot toward the back of Pittsburghs rotation by the middle of 2024. All Win Expectancy, Leverage Index, Run Expectancy, and Fans Scouting Report data licenced from TangoTiger.com. His Adonis-like physique helps him generate plus pull-side power, and he will show it to you without overswinging he simply lacks bat control and breaking ball recognition. He might end up becoming the player the industry hoped Francisco Meja would become. His low-80s slider, which has late, two-plane bite, has improved considerably and is now an above-average big league pitch. Fast-Rising Blue Jays Prospect Ricky Tiedemann Talks Pitching The bumps and bruises suffered from catching can sometimes level players for whole seasons, and Davis had a lot of them in 2022. as compiled by Ben Clemens and the FanGraphs staff. 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. Lolo Sanchez, CF 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. 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. The Pirates claimed him off waivers and quickly lost him to the Diamondbacks in the minor league phase of the 2022 Rule 5 draft. He has the talent to be an everyday player, but has to improve in one or two key areas (throwing accuracy, slider recognition) for that to be his outcome. 11/ . Hes now 23 but could still be a fifth outfielder. A successful 2022 pro debut (47.2 IP, 9.63 K/9, 3.59 BB/9, 2.64 ERA) driven by very advanced fastball command contrasts with skepticism about how Solometos stuff will play against older and better hitters. He doesnt always look comfortable out there, but his speed makes him viable at all three spots, solidifying his role as a heavily-used role player even without the power production. A fresh start with a new org (he was a waiver claim this offseason) might help him find a swing that produces more power. Here are the Pirates' 2023 Top 30 prospects March 1, 2023 Pirates' Chandler going all in on pitching February 28, 2023 Pirates return No. He missed basically all of September and was shelled in the only start he made coming off the IL. In his time at Bradenton, Chandler struck out 33 batters over 26 innings, and while his walk rate was an unacceptably high 15.8%, thats actually down a notch from what he was allowing over a larger sample on the complex. So the question is, was there actual improvement in his ability or is this just noise in the signal? Short but not small, his lack of length and size is actually an advantage for Johnsons swing, as he can enjoy a bat path geared for power and lift without it being too long. 2011 Top 10 Prospects: Cincinnati Reds and Pittsburgh Pirates Cy Nielson, LHP When healthy, he was a hard-throwing 40 FV reliever. Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports. This impressive performance inspired his offseason 40-man addition. Gonzales had a 68% Z-contact% as a 23-year-old at Double-A. If it does, he should be a 50, and that grade was discussed during the Pirates list-making process. All of the ranked prospects below also appear on The Board, a resource the site offers featuring sortable scouting information for every organization. After spending most of the year at Triple-A, where he hit .289/.362/.430, Bae spent the last couple weeks of the 2022 season as an everyday member of the big league club, where he seems likely to stick throughout the coming season as a lefty-hitting 2B/OF. A 2022 eighth rounder, Nielsens velocity has been up and down depending on when hes been seen, peaking at 94 in 2022 but at 96 in years prior. Fangraphs' Top 42 Pirates Prospects It could stand to have more consistent depth, but the flashes are there, and remember that Kennedy is barely 18. As a wrap-up, the Pirates have. 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. He used his upper-90s fastball for in-zone whiffs, relying on his above-average slider as a chase pitch. For now, hes lithe enough for third, where he has a shot to be an everyday player based largely on his power projection. Overall, the Pirates adding six prospects to their top 50 list is pretty impressive. He barely played in 2022 due to hamstring, elbow, and hip flexor injuries that cost him all but a couple of games. Pirates Prospects Daily: Bryan Reynolds Plays Left Field In His Spring
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