We're in Top 100 prospects week, and today's the day for Keith Law's list. He's got seven Pirate prospects on the list: Gregory Polanco (13), Tyler Glasnow (20), Jameson Taillon (27), Austin Meadows (35), Nick Kingham (73), Alen Hanson (74), and Josh Bell (98). You can read more about it at Pirates Prospects, since Tim has an ESPN insider account and I do not.
I'll link back to Monday's post on this topic because a lot of the sentiment is the same, but it's interesting to see Glasnow so high and Taillon so low on Law's list. Taillon is a really interesting study in prospect development and statst; my own opinion of both him and Gerrit Cole had dropped a bit in the first part of last season because their minor league results are/were mostly uninspiring, but seeing Cole's debut and his progress at the big league level after the Pirates unleashed him in September made me pretty seriously re-think the way I look at the results of the Pirates' most talented minor leaguers. It's certainly true that Taillon's minor league stats have been a touch on the disappointing side (relative to his status as the #2 overall pick, I mean; obviously by any other standard his results relative to age and level have been quite good), but I also see a kid who always displays good control and a low home run rate that made it to Triple-A as a 21-year old. It's hard not to be excited about that, even if it seems like he slides a little bit lower on these lists every year.
It's also worth noting how high Meadows is and how McGuire isn't ranked at all. This is the discrepancy I was talking about with him and McGuire on Monday. Obviously, there's a lot of variaibility in the opinions of two guys that were just drafted and have just played so little; I think we can take comfort in knowing that there are people that like both of the Pirates' first round picks from last year quite a bit.
