Pittsburgh Pirates farm system ranked No. 8 by Baseball America
By Matt Shetler
The Pittsburgh Pirates’ front office is very confident in their farm system and the results are starting to show.
Jim Callis of Baseball America ranked the Pirates as the eighth best farm system in the majors, which represents progress, but how much progress?
July 8, 2012; Kansas City, MO, USA; USA pitcher Jameson Taillon throws a pitch during the 2012 All Star Futures Game at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports
Callis says about the Pirates system: “System isn’t deep but has impressive trios of arms and bats that most can’t match.”
The Pirates ranking comes mostly from being top-heavy. They drafted Gerrit Cole and Jameson Taillon with the No. 1 and No. 2 overall picks in their respective drafts. Throw Luis Heredia in the mix and most of the excitement comes strictly from these three arms.
Offensively, there are guys like: Barrett Barnes, Wyatt Mathison, Josh Bell, Gregory Polanco and Alen Hanson worth getting excited about for the future.
But other than that there may be a few guys here and there with potential of being major league stars, but not that many.
It is hard to judge major league drafts until three or four years after they happen, but at first glance it doesn’t appear that the Bucs have done as well as they have been given credit for the past few years.
But last year we saw guys like Hanson and Polanco emerge as top prospects, so you never know when young guys will break out.
For now though, the top prospects have a chance to do big things and that appears to be progress from a couple of years ago.