Now that the MLB Pipeline publishes its new list of Top 100 prospects, your questions about the rankings will flow in …
Who can make the best all-round game out of Abrams, Witt and Franco?
– @ DevBluejaysfan
Wander Franco (Rays, No. 1 in the top 100), Bobby Witt Jr. (Royals, No. 7), and CJ Abrams (Padres, No. 8) are three of the best prospects in baseball and the top three shortstop prospects. Witt has the chance of at least one plus in tools across the board, making him possibly the most versatile player of the trio.
Franco has the highest offensive limit, but he can’t quite match Witt’s speed, arm, or shortstop defense. Abrams’ top speed makes him the fastest of the trio, but he doesn’t have Witt’s strength and his arm is a tick less strong.
Do you think the Marlins rotation of Sixto Sánchez, Max Meyer, Edward Cabrera, Sandy Alcantara, Pablo López and Trevor Williams will be the best young rotation in baseball? Or do you think Detroit is still the favorite there?
– @SportsMia
There are four teams that have placed at least three pitchers in the top 100. The Rays are the only club with four (Luis Patiño in 19th place, Brendan McKay in 72nd place, Shane McClanahan in 84th place, Shane Baz in 84th place). 90). The Tigers have the best-placed trio (Casey Mize in 11th, Tarik Skubal in 24th, Matt Manning in 25th), while the Marlins (Sixto Sánchez in 15th, Max Meyer in 28th, Edward Cabrera # 68) and Mariners (Emerson Hancock # 31, Logan Gilbert # 33, George Kirby # 92) also have three.
While I love Detroit’s Big Three, Miami isn’t far behind and I go with the Marlins because of the depth behind them. Sánchez, Meyer and Cabrera could be front starters, Sandy Alcantara and Pablo López are established big leaguers who will only be 25 years old this season, and there aren’t quite a top 100 prospects like Braxton Garrett, Trevor Rogers and Nick Neidert pitched in Miami last year. Additionally, the Marlins grabbed five pitchers that we ranked among the 80 best prospects on the 2020 draft: Meyer (first round), Dax Fulton (second round), Kyle Nicolas (supplementary second), Zach McCambley (third) and Jake Eder (fourth).
If Kumar Rocker, Jack Leiter, Jordan Lawler, Jaden Hill and Matt McLain could already make the Top 100 list of prospects, where would they roughly be?
– @ puk32ellers
Let’s expand this to include our top six draft prospects for 2021: in order Vanderbilt Right-Handed Rocker, Texas High School Shortstop Lawlar, UCLA Shortstop McLain, Miami Catcher Adrian Del Castillo, Louisiana State Righty Hill, and Vandy Righty Ladder.
Rocker is on par with the best pitchers in last year’s draft – Meyer, Asa Lacy (Royals, # 30 in the top 100), Hancock – and would fit close to them in that 28-31 range. Lawlar, who could at least have solid tools down the line, belongs in the same field. They’re a little cut above the rest of the 2021 draft talent.
McLain shares some similarities with White Sox second baseman Nick Madrigal (# 40) and could leave in the 40s for lack of Madrigal’s strong track record in professional ball. Del Castillo is a bat catcher with a higher offensive uptrend but fewer behind the plate skills than Keibert Ruiz (Dodgers, # 57), and he could be a few places ahead of Ruiz depending on what you want in a backstop.
Hill and Leiter have thrown a total of 37 1/3 innings between them in college, so I’d conservatively put them behind Josiah Gray (Dodgers), Nick Lodolo (Reds) and Brailyn Marquez (Cubs), our 58-year-old gun group. If they play as well as I expected this spring, I would be more aggressive at this point.
Between Deivi García and Clarke Schmidt, who is more likely to have an impact on the Yankees in 2021? Long term?
– @ asgriff1418
Schmidt checked in at number 88 in the top 100, while García narrowly missed the list after the end of 2020 at number 87 (four places behind his Yankees right-handed).
As can be seen from the top 100, Schmidt has a longer-term value. They have similar breaking stuff, but he has better fastball and transition and better control than García. He also has a framework that is better suited to keeping his stuff deeper in a game and over the course of a season.
However, García is poised to make a bigger impact in 2021. He made three quality starts in six attempts late last summer and got the call to New York before Schmidt, who was tossed around in three appearances. García has one leg up when it comes to cracking the rotation and getting the Big League club to kick off this season.
