Pittsburgh Pirates: Eight Prospects Rank in FanGraphs Top 130

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Jul 18, 2020; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop Oneil Cruz (61) at bat against the Cleveland Indians during the seventh inning at PNC Park. The Indians won 5-3. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports /

105th Ranked Prospect

Now when you actually look at the numbers this ranking isn’t a huge shock for Oneil Cruz. The 6’7″ shortstop has all of the potential in the world and most likely can hit a ball to the moon, but he has to work on his strikeout rate. When you hear this as a fan of the Pittsburgh Pirate you likely think of Pedro Alvarez but calm down; the kid still has a chance to fix this issue. If he can fix this issue, you could see his 30/35 hit tool number go up exponentially.

In 2019, Cruz’s strikeout rarte did drop slightly from his 2018 numbers from 26.2% to 25.7%. I know that’s a slight change, but progress is progress, in my opinion. I would ideally like to see his strikeout rate be around 18-20% and still produce the power that we all know he’s very capable of having.

Here is a little snippet of what Logenhagen had to say:

"“Cruz is among the most gifted players in the sport, and has a penthouse ceiling but a subterranean floor. He could be Aaron Judge or Jairo Beras.”"

112th Ranked Prospect

This prospect, in my opinion, is a very under the radar prospect. Liover Peguero came to the Pittsburgh Pirates as part of the Starling Marte trade, and at the time, fans were upset with the trade like usual, but honestly, I loved the deal. You have a prospect in Peguero who will be a plus defender and will consistently hit for contact. Longenhagen mentioned Peguero’s hand speed by saying, “his barrel enters the hitting zone in the blink of an eye, giving him an extra beat to decide whether or not to swing.”

Peguero’s slash line during rookie-ball was .364/.410/.559, as well as collecting 15 extra base hits. Although it is a very small sample size, Peguero put up very good numbers and even had good reports coming out of the alternate site last year. Even though there is a logjam with shortstops and second basemen, Peguero appears to have the highest ceiling of the group at the shortstop position.

Here is the synopsis of Logenhagen’s report:

"“While his future defensive home is undefined (other than it being on the infield), Peguero has a present, plus bat tool and developing pop.”"

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