Pittsburgh Pirates: Looking at Three of the System's Best Prospect Tools

The Pittsburgh Pirates have a handful of talented players throughout their minor league system, but these three players have some of the best tools among their prospects.

I'm sure you have heard of five-tool players. A five-tool player is a player who hits for average (hit tool), for power (power tool), can run well (speed/run tool), has displayed a good glove (fielding), and has a strong arm (arm tool). Pitchers are graded in similar ways, but instead of being assessed on their hit, power, run, fielding, and arm, they're graded on the pitches they throw, as well as their ability to throw strikes (control) and ability to hit their spots (command).

These tools are graded on the 20-80 scouting scale. 20 is the lowest possible grade a player can receive, and an example of that would be late-career Chris Davis' hit tool or late-career Dallas Keuchel's fastball. 80 is the highest possible, and this would be like Aaron Judge's raw power or Spencer Strider's fastball. The Pittsburgh Pirates have built up a strong farm system, and we've used these grading scales and tools to evaluate the prospects the Pirates have acquired over the last few years.

But right now, which tools are the best? Which ones stand out the most among the Pirates' top prospects, and which ones could help these players later on down the line?