Editor’s Note: All statistics listed below in the tables are peak projections over the course of a full MLB season.
For this week’s RoboScout article, we’ve added a slight tweak to the formula so the rankings have more movement than would normally be expected. The reason for that is that we’ve blended in (25%) minor league Statcast and stuff metrics data to help provide additional data-based insights into prospect performance. As per usual, RoboScout measures performance relative to age and level, and so the pertinent Statcast metrics (generally contact, contact quality, and swing decisions at various weightings for hitters; and stuff grades for pitchers) are adjusted based on their data compared to their same-age and same-level peers.
In the level write-ups below, I’ll try to identify the players near the top of the list who had the biggest adjustments when the “underlying” data was blended in. As is tradition, I’ll start with Low-A and work my way up to Triple-A. All data is full season through Friday’s games.
Low-A
Top Hitters per RoboScout (minimum 40 plate appearances) in Low-A are:
1. Jackson Holliday (BAL No. 3 prospect)
2. Moises Ballesteros (CHC No. 16 prospect
3. Ryan Clifford (HOU No. 20 prospect)
4. Samuel Basallo (BAL No. 15 prospect)
5. Cole Young (SEA No. 2 prospect)
6. Creed Willems (BAL unranked)
7. Nate Furman (CLE unranked)
8. Leonardo Bernal (STL No. 12 prospect)
9. Luis Lara (MIL No. 12 prospect)
10. Graham Pauley (SDP unranked)
11. Onil Perez (SFG unranked)
12. Maick Collado (CLE unranked)
13. Nelson Rada (LAA No. 9 prospect)
14. Daylen Lile (WSN No. 27 prospect)
15. Jared Serna (NYY unranked)
Honorable Mentions: Cam Collier (CIN), Justin Crawford (PHI), Roman Anthony (BOS), J.T. Williams (NYM), Enmanuel Terrero (PIT)
Entering the top ten for the first time is Luis Lara (MIL). As Josh Norris noted in the first week of May, the Brewers aggressively assigned a young international signing in full season ball, reminiscent of an approach they took last year.
The twitchy outfielder – who will be eighteen years old for the entire season – has more walks than strikeouts and, although not showing too much power yet, should gain sneaky pop (from both sides of the plate) as he grows while playing a solid centerfield. Arrow up.
The Padres’ Graham Pauley is bursting his way onto the RoboScout charts. Because he is older for Low-A, he is less loved by the raw RoboScout algorithm (RawboScout?) despite being named the California League’s hitter of…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Baseball America RSS…