Morning Rundown: Hall of Fame inductees, top third base prospects, another Pirates prospect list
The latest Hall of Fame class is announced, Pipeline releases their best third base prospects and another site releases their top prospects for the Pirates
The latest Hall of Fame class was announced on Tuesday, as Joe Mauer, Adrian Beltre, and Todd Helton will all be heading to Cooperstown.
Beltre received 366 votes (95.1%) in his first year of eligibility. In 21 seasons in the majors, Beltre hit 477 home runs while posting a wRC+ of 115.
His best season in terms of WAR was 2004, where he posted 9.7 wins above replacement, along with a 161 wRC+, fueled by his 48 home runs and 121 RBI with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Helton was voted in by 79.7% of the writers voting for him. He finished with a career .316 average and a wRC+ of 132. He had an 8.3 WAR season in 2000 after batting .372 and drawing 103 walks compared to 61 strikeouts.
Mauer grew up just outside the Metrodome in Minnesota and was eventually drafted first overall by the Minnesota Twins. He would win multiple batting titles and gold gloves while with the organization.
In 2009, he hit 28 home runs and hit .365 while posting an 8.4 WAR. Throughout his career he struck out just 95 more times than walks drawn.
A few notable names falling short are Billy Wagner (73.8%), Andruw Jones (61.6%), and Garry Sheffield (63.9%).
MLB Pipeline continues to work closer to their top 100 prospect release on Friday by going position by position and giving their 10 best there.
Tuesday, it was third base, a position that could see many changes by the end of the season due to graduation.
Here’s how the list broke down,
Junior Caminero, TB
Noelvi Marte, CIN
Colt Keith, DET
Coby Mayo, BAL
Tyler Black, MIL
Brady House, WSH
Michael Busch, CHC
Curtis Mead, TB
Aidan Miller, PHI
Yohandy Morales, WSH
Another prospect site released its rankings for the Pirates organization on Tuesday, with Prospects1500 doing their top 50.
There are a lot of familiar faces at the top, with Paul Skenes landing at one and Termarr Johnson following up.
They do tier rankings with theirs based on the expected impact at the major league level.
It was interesting seeing some names like Maikol Escotto and Alexander Mojica stick around despite their young age.
Khristian Curtis is a player I’m high on going into the season and was in Tier 5, ranked 45th overall - one spot ahead of Alessandro Ercolani.
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I don't put a lot of stock in the national rankings but if they're anywhere near accurate, we're not giving Jebb nearly enough credit (or the FO for drafting him). During the draft there seemed to be general disappointment with his selection, and I can't recall a post where someone is that high on him. However, national outlets are ranking him right there with guys that we as a community are high on as well as ranking him consistently as our #2 position player prospect (the former is more impressive to me than the latter, i.e., that he's being ranked in the same tier as Solo and Bubba).
Maybe it's a bit of shiny-new-toy bias, but most seem focused on his very impressive K rate. It will be interesting to follow him this season to see if he does, in fact, move quickly through the system.
Very happy for Todd Helton and his family, and somebody I had the privilege to watch play HS ball at Knoxville Central HS, and then at UT where he played both Football and Baseball. Best natural hitter I had ever seen, and he and my son became friendly enemies because we had to play them in our HS District. How good was Knox Central HS in those days? Todd's in the HOF, Bubba Trammell was drafted and played 6 years in MLB where he finished with a 260 BA, 82 HR, and Chris Freeman was drafted and played 4 years in the Bluejays org finishing at the AA level.