Dodgers News: Four Prospects Among MLB.com Top 100 Prospects List
With the 2014 season right around the corner, rankings for prospects have already come out. Baseball America (BA) and Baseball Prospectus (BP) have both come out with various lists of top Dodgers prospects with each having a different number one.
Last season, the Dodgers had three players on the MLB.com list, Yasiel Puig (76), Zach Lee (78) and Joc Pederson (85). Four prospects seem to show up on most lists for this season: outfielder Pederson, pitchers Julio Urias and Lee and shortstop Corey Seager. Newly signed Cuban infielder Alexander Guerrero wasn’t included since he’s older than the maximum age of 23. Tonight, MLB.com released their top 100 prospects for the 2014 season and those four made the list.
Here’s where all four rank on the MLB.com Top 100 list:
(34) Corey Seager
Seager is just 19-years-old and made his way from Low A Great Lakes to High A Rancho Cucamonga. While he struggled in his brief time at Rancho, GM Ned Colletti believes some adversity for a prospect isn’t the worst thing. Overall, he hit .269 with 16 home runs and 72 RBI and was rated the number two prospects in the system by both BA and BP.
At 6’4″, many believe that when he comes to the big leagues he’ll transition to third base as the Dodgers have Hanley Ramirez at shortstop, hopefully for the foreseeable future.
(36) Joc Pederson
The Dodgers top outfield prospect was a non-roster invitee to Spring Training this season as the organization believes he’s close to making his big league debut. Obviously, his path isn’t clear since the Dodgers have four high-priced outfielders, but the 21-year-old Northern California native hit .278 with 22 home runs and 58 RBI at Double A Chattanooga.
According to BA, Pederson is the Dodgers third ranked prospect and BP had him slotted as the second top prospect.
(63) Zach Lee
Of the four ranked prospects, Lee is arguably the closest to making his big league debut. The failed signing of Masahiro Tanaka leaves the Dodgers shaky at the back end of the rotation and like Pederson, the 22-year-old pitcher was invited to Dodgers major league camp.
At Double A, Lee went 10-10 with a 3.22 ERA, but showed significant success in all facets after a down 2012 season. He’s the Dodgers fourth ranked prospect according to BA and BP.
(64) Julio Urias
At just 17-years-old, the left-handed starter has arguably the highest ceiling of any pitcher in the Dodgers system. With Low A Great Lakes, Urias went 2-0 with a 2.48 ERA, but in order to limit the wear-and-tear on his arm, the Dodgers held him to an innings limit.
Many project Urias to breakthrough in 2015 or in 2016 and he was ranked the third prospect by BA and top prospect by BP.
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