His name is Gregory Polanco, and he’s the X-factor in the National League Central race, the sleeper pickup in your fantasy baseball league and one of the most enthralling prospects in the game; no player in the minors right now — not Archie Bradley, not Oscar Taveras, not Byron Buxton — is more deserving of a ticket to The Show.
Putting aside the issues with drawing conclusions from a 20-game Triple-A sample (I thought you could fairly argue in spring training that Polanco required some Triple-A seasoning given his lack of experience above High-A coming into 2014, and 20 games don’t really change that particular argument much no matter how good those 20 games have been), Polanco’s off to an incredible start that’s making my “He might only help the Pirates on defense this year” stance. The Polanco drumbeat is only going to get louder and louder between now and the day he finally gets promoted, whenever that is.
