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Another national prospect list is in, and the Dodgers' top three is well represented yet again, this time on Kiley McDaniel's exhaustive top-200 list at FanGraphs. Left-handed pitcher Julio Urias tops this list, ranked as the fourth-best prospect in baseball.
Dodgers shortstop of the future Corey Seager is close behind, ranked sixth, with outfielder Joc Pederson ranked 11th, his best prospect ranking to date.
The 18-year-old Urias has ranked among the top 10 prospects in baseball of four different national lists to date, with Baseball America's list yet to be revealed. He ripped through Class-A, putting up a 2.36 ERA with 109 strikeouts in 87⅔ innings in the offense-friendly California League, with all but four starts coming at age 17.
"He’ll start 2015 in Double-A and when he’s called up is simply a function of when the Dodgers want to start his arbitration clock," McDaniel opined of Urias, "because we haven’t seen him fail yet, so we don’t even fully know his ceiling."
Both Urias and Seager are in a tier of six players with a future value of 65 on the 20-80 scouting scale by McDaniel, signifying a future All-Star. Like most, McDaniel projects the 6'4 Seager to eventually move from shortstop to third base, writing he should do so "at some point in the next year or two."
Pederson is given a future grade of 60 by McDaniel, considered a plus regular (higher than above-average).
"His offensive projection will come down to what kind of hitter he wants to be–the 55 future hit/power tools is a little conservative and converts to .270s and 20 homers–but his controlled aggressive approach should lead to high OBPs either way."
Rounding out the list is 2014 top draft pick Grant Holmes, the consensus No. 4 Dodgers prospect on every list. McDaniel ranks Holmes as 89th in baseball, with a future grade of 50, a No. 4 starter or setup man and possible closer.
McDaniel goes deeper than most on his list, with a top 200, through none of the players after 142 are ranked. The final 58 players are a tier of 45-grade players, signifying either a platoon or utility player for a position player, or a No. 5 starter as a pitcher. Two Dodgers make this group - pitcher Chris Anderson, first round pick in 2013, and outfielder Alex Verdugo, the second round pick in 2014.
While still waiting on the Baseball America top 100 rankings, we have a very clear picture of the top prospects in the Dodgers' system.
2015 Dodgers top prospects | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Player | Pos | Baseball America | Baseball Prospectus | ESPN | FanGraphs | MLB.com |
Corey Seager | SS | 1 | 1 (7th) |
1 (5th) | 2 (6th) | 1 (7th) |
Julio Urias | LHP | 3 | 2 (10th) |
2 (9th) | 1 (4th) | 2 (8th) |
Joc Pederson | OF | 2 | 3 (18th) |
3 (28th) | 3 (11th) | 3 (13th) |
Grant Holmes | RHP | 4 | 4 (79th) |
4 (79th) | 4 (89th) | 4 (95th) |
Alex Verdugo | OF | 5 | 9 | 5 | 5/6 | |
Chris Anderson | RHP | 7 | 6 | 8 | 5/6 | |
Jose De Leon | RHP | 6 | 7 | 9 | ||
Zach Lee | RHP | 5 | 6 | |||
Darnell Sweeney | IF/OF | 8 | 7 | |||
Scott Schebler | OF | 8 | 10 | |||
Chris Reed | LHP | 9 | ||||
Julian Leon | C | 10 | ||||
Zach Bird | RHP | 10 |