Hayden Wesneski is a 25-year-old starting pitcher in the Chicago Cubs system. He moved into a minor league relief role in 2022. LSU played . Alessandro Ercolani, RHP He went 2-for-4 with two singles, two runs and an RBI on Friday night against Kansas State. That's nearly 30% of all their picks coming up as noteworthy prospects. Their top ten, in. Cy Nielson, LHP His fastball velo is up a tick since 2021, now comfortably sitting in the 95-96 mph range and routinely touching 98. Top Prospects. 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 . ago They do not like solemeto or Gonzalez. He can play a fine shortstop. Once-Loved Outfielders We added RosterResource's Depth Charts; these reflect a team's current. 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. His chase rates were at or below league average across the board, further emphasizing the troubling command. That creates backspin and carry on his fastball and big depth on his curve. 2018 Brewers batting, pitching, and fielding traditional and advanced stats. His low-80s slider, which has late, two-plane bite, has improved considerably and is now an above-average big league pitch. His fastball velocity is down, in the 92-94 mph range, a far cry from Priesters upper-90s peak. You can really see his athleticism and remarkable hip/shoulder separation on his throws down to second. Manual adjustments are made where they seem appropriate, but we use that as a rule of thumb. He stayed healthy throughout 2022, throwing 70.1 innings, and was more effective out of the bullpen than in his late-season starts. Melendez (sitting 97) and Mateo (sitting 95) are upper-level relievers with poor control. Spotty command and limited fastball utility push Mlodzinski into a multi-inning relief role. How impactful a starter may depend on how his changeup, currently a tertiary offering, develops at the big league level. 76. Whether his ability to go get it in center field bounces back is the X-factor that will determine his ability to play a long-term big league role. In August of 2022, Jun-Seok announced he would skip the September KBO draft in order to sign with an MLB club right away. To that point in the season, his mid-teens walk rate had inspired guarded optimism regarding an improved approach, though Nunez also may have become intentionally passive, as his raw swing% was a minuscule 40%. Jerez has above-average power and a 70 arm. But when a potentially significant DSL prospect plays for a rebuilding team, it can be difficult to find other clubs that have pro scouting reports on them. 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. RotoGraphs. He appears tentative on routine throws and still isnt a sure-handed defender. 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. His changeup is deceptive against batters in both boxes, but in particular against righties, who have a 40% chase rate on the offering. His delivery has a relief-only look to it. Updated: Saturday, March 4, 2023 4:51 PM ET, Park Factors The Royals designated Webb for assignment in mid-November and he elected free agency before signing with the Pirates. Martin has plus-plus raw power and a 30-grade hit tool, not enough for first base but maybe enough for consideration overseas. Pedro Alvarez / 3B 2. This level of athleticism might be an indication that Rodriguez will find a way to mature into more raw power despite not having a traditionally projectable frame. 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. 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. Webbs velocity began to climb in 2019, when he went from sitting 89-92 mph to sitting 90-94 and touching 96. 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. . 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. He spent more of his big league time in the outfield than at his native second base. He barely played in 2022 due to hamstring, elbow, and hip flexor injuries that cost him all but a couple of games. Pittsburgh Pirates 2021 Top 50 Prospects 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. feels like the more realistic path to an eventual 45-grade role, or above. White was seen early and often as an underclassman since he went to a Philadelphia high school with University of Virginia outfielder Chris Newell, and would frequently match up against the Siani brothers during varsity play. The effects of a pro strength and conditioning program might kick-start him down the path toward finding a more consistent release and sustaining the big velocity as a pro starter. 2011 Top 10 Prospects: Cincinnati Reds and Pittsburgh Pirates His mother spent her childhood in London, while his father "a real Brit; he still has an . 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. Hunter Stratton, RHP 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. Finding a great changeup (or maybe a split?) From that point on, however, Triolo walked more and struck out less, such that both rates sat in the mid-teens, while flipping the slugging switch on to the tune of 13 doubles, five triples, and eight home runs over the course of the same number of games. With Endy Rodriguez around, it may not matter a ton. Scouting reports were. His feel for throwing strikes would come and go, and hes only 6-feet-1, a little smaller than the prep pitching prototypes who you often see getting $2 million or more in the draft. 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. Gonzales hands work in a short, explosive loop. Thats a very walkable path. 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. He did not pass. 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. Cristofer Melendez, RHP 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. Fangraphs Reveals Their Updated Top Pirates Prospects List Many scouts are champing at the bit over Priesters prototypical frame and four- or five-pitch mix, depending on whether you consider his fastballs two distinct pitches. Instead, Lopez picked up some reps in the Dominican Winter League, just a few games against the most advanced competition he has yet seen, and is poised to spend 2023 as a 21-year-old at Altoona. 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. 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. Mets Prospect Grant Hartwig Has an Unusual Background and an East-West Aspects of the offensive profile that made him exciting in the first place are still here, led by Pegueros compact but authoritative swing, which is especially good at punishing pitches at the very top of the strike zone. The high-waisted Lopez has a wide range of athletic/mobility outcomes that will impact where he ultimately ends up on defense. The powerfully built Kelly, 19, is a squat but loose righty who sits 93-95 mph and throws quality strikes with his fastball. Youll occasionally see a low-90s changeup from Hernandez as well, but hes a relief prospect all the way and likely to stick in Pittsburghs bullpen despite below-average command. Top 51 Prospects: Pittsburgh Pirates | FanGraphs Baseball Axiel Plaz, C Now 24 and neither protected from nor claimed during the 2022 Rule 5 draft, its imperative for him to start throwing strikes more consistently in order to find his way to a big league bullpen. Joness velocity and breaking ball quality (a power, mid-80s slider with vertical action) give him the floor of a really good reliever, especially if he can somehow throw harder an inning at a time. He absolutely towers over his father, who was twice a Baseball America Top 100 prospect but spent most of his pro career in Japan. DeVito brandishes a five-pitch arsenal headlined by a filthy splitter, but he struggled to locate any of his pitches well enough for them to really complement each other. All major league baseball data including pitch type, velocity, batted ball location, After pitching well at the U-18 World Championships and at a Nike showcase in Asia, he signed for about $1.25 million, which is pretty sizable for a late-market signee. Pirates Draft Prospect Watch: Big Weekend for LSU's Dylan Crews 2023 Updated In-Season Projections document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function () { He practically straddles the plate and was hit by 20 pitches during an injury-shortened regular season, then was somehow beaned seven more times in just 17 Arizona Fall League games. This is the case with De Los Santos. He throws precise, high-quality strikes with the heater, and the pitch has enough tailing action to have stayed off of A-ball barrels. Let's Identify Some Hitter Sleeper Candidates | FanGraphs Baseball Big league sliders might force Davis to make an adjustment, but so far his contact performance has been solidly average. Top 42 Prospects: Pittsburgh Pirates | FanGraphs Baseball From the left side of the plate, Rodriguez has an exceptional ability to rip his hands through pitches on the inner edge of the zone. His player page shows him above average in UZR/150, OAA and RAA (although only 1 in each of the latter two). So the question is, was there actual improvement in his ability or is this just noise in the signal? They have Hunter. He will be an unmistakable fixture on Pittsburghs backfields for the next couple of years and is a power-hitting corner prospect of extreme variance. Davis plate crowding helps enable his pull-heavy approach. 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. He pitched five innings of relief over two games in early May for the Pirates without allowing a run. 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. 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. His acrobatics and creativity at third base make him a plus defender there. He might end up becoming the player the industry hoped Francisco Meja would become. 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. Hes already taken a sizable step in the breaking ball department in just two pros seasons. As you can probably imagine of a Division-I football commit, White is already very physical, buff to the point where he looked a little bit stiff during his pre-draft summer. Pittsburgh Pirates: FanGraphs Add 2021 Draft Picks to Prospect Board He projects as a quick-moving no. He entered the 2022 spring as a high-probability 40 FV prospect who some scouts thought belonged in the 40+ tier because of pitching approach changes Barco could make in pro ball that might enable a breakout, but he ended up blowing out his UCL and having Tommy John in May. Jesus Castillo, SS He also threw a smattering of changeups in 2022, though it amounted to fewer than a dozen across his 50.2 innings of work at Double-A, and the changeup didnt show up at all when the Bahamian took the mound for Great Britains WBC squad. 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. Milwaukee Brewers Batting Postseason Stats 2021. In cases like these, sometimes the things that initially pique your interest, like data and/or available video, are enough to excite on their own even as you acknowledge that the error bars are as wide as can be because of the relative dearth of reinforcing club opinions. The Pirates got a deal done for a cool million, nearly twice the slot amount in the fourth round. Ortiz rocketed through the system in 2022, skipping High-A and spending most of the season with Double-A Altoona before making his big league debut across four starts in September and October. Acquired in a. Across the 2022 calendar, Davis had nearly as many HBPs as he did extra-base hits, to which the wrist fracture likely contributed. For the second straight year, he allowed a high rate of home runs, which inflated his ERA. JP Massey, RHP When healthy, he was a hard-throwing 40 FV reliever. Garcia is only 19 but is already sitting 96. }); Grouped by type and listed in order of preference within each category. 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. Silvera, 18, is a physically mature righty who missed a ton of DSL bats even though he only sits 88-90. The site listed four Dodgers prospects on their list. 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. 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. Oliver Mateo, RHP It could stand to have more consistent depth, but the flashes are there, and remember that Kennedy is barely 18. 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. Atlanta Braves Stats | FanGraphs Baseball 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. He spent much of the season leading off for Altoona, where he slashed .282/.376/.419 and stole 24 stolen bases. in the minor league phase of the 2022 Rule 5 Draft. Currently, Kennedys best attribute is multi-faceted fastball utility. Pegueros lack of throwing accuracy from shortstop is concerning. 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. 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. For instance, hes struggled badly on defense, wracking up 46 errors combined the last two seasons. After bouncing around many websites covering hockey, he . Andres Silvera, RHP. 2023 600 PA / 200 IP Projections Steamer600. as compiled by Ben Clemens and the FanGraphs staff. FanGraphs Baseball | Baseball Statistics and Analysis Before he was drafted he was considered, at least at FanGraphs, a more likely reliever due to the quality of his stuff. Scouting reports were compiled with information provided by industry sources as well as our own observations. His command and changeup are both still works in progress, but his 2022 fastball strike% (68%) is an encouraging sign, and again, Jones has a special level of athleticism that should enable him to hone both over time. Sunday Notes: Born To Brits, Harry Ford Could Be - blogs.fangraphs.com RT @NorthShoreNine: wNS9+ With @longenhagen Discussing the @fangraphs Pirates Top Prospect List You found it controversial, so we discussed it Subscribe & Listen . Mechanically, Burrows adds additional length to his 6-foot-2 stature with an over-the-top delivery. Pittsburgh to add him to their 40-man roster after the season, indicating that hell be a big league relief option in 2023. He threw it 16% of the time (up from 9% the previous season) and induced a 53% whiff rate with this power-action, mid-80s change. It had exploded even further when he was seen following the pandemic shutdown, as he sat 95-97 mph and was touching 101 during the 2021 regular season. 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 top 38 spots on the list are all 55 FV or higher.