More Top Prospects

The Fan Graphs web site has released its Top 10 Prospects for the Pirates. Not surprisingly it shows much the same as mine. Alvarez is no doubt number one and reversing the order of Lincoln and Tabata is no big deal. They are clearly the top trio in the organization. They have Alderson at 4, which is believable (I had him at 6).

They have Chase D’Anaud at 6 and Owens at 7 with Sterling Marte at 8. I had Ruby Owens at 4, D’Anaud at 5 and Marte at 7. Gorkys Hernandez sits at 9 for them, and is not on my list. They also had Quinton Miller at 10 and Jeff Locke at 5. Miller sits at 20 and Locke at 19 on my list. I did not even rank Gorky because he had such a bad season for the Pirates. I may have over reacted on that one, but I will stand by it for now.

Now, I think the Fan Graphs site is a little off on how low they put Ruby. His lack of velocity does not bother me all that much when you can still throw shut outs. But, over all I think the Fan Graphs list shows the same thing mine does: namely a real lack of hitting talent. Alvarez, Tabata, and D’Anaud are good, and I guess we can disagree on Gorkys. Marte looks hopeful, but in the end the top talent is pitching. Lincoln, Owens, Miller, Alderson, and Locke are just a small sampling of the talent. Remember that Fan Graphs did not rank any of this year’s draft choices, who were mostly pitchers. They also did not rank those who ended the year with the Pirate club, which scratches Daniel McCutchen (who I had ranked 9). Fan Graphs does mention at the beginning that you can expect to see Victor Black and Zack Van Rosenberg on the list next year. Both are top quality pitchers who were drafted this year.

More importantly the Fan Graphs list shows the utter failure of the Littlefield era. Of the top 10 prospects only Brad Lincoln and Ruby Owens are from the Littlefield era. And Owens did not really start pitching until Littlefield was long gone. Alvarez, Miller, and D’Anaud are draft choices by the new management. Marte is proof the new owner is serious about Latin American talent, and the rest are trades done by the Pirates this year or last in the case of Tabata. The Pirate system was broken before 2008. It is broken no more.