The 2024 Top 100 Prospects list was released last week, and as you can guess, there was a lot of discussion regarding the rankings.
In this week’s Pipeline Podcast, prospect gurus Jim Callis, Jonathan Mayo, and Sam Dykstra tackled mailbag topics ranging from players who just missed the list to the most difficult players to rank.
On the MLB Pipeline Podcast, Callis and Mayo will take you through all of the latest reports and breaking news on baseball’s best prospects. Every week, you’ll learn about tomorrow’s stars from the men who know today. Download, subscribe, and help others discover the podcast by rating and reviewing it on iTunes or your preferred platform.
Callis: “This is an excellent question since there are so many players that are difficult to rate. Jasson Domínguez has been challenging to understand. He was the most anticipated international talent ever, but he struggled in Double-A last year, hitting only [.254]. We knocked him out of the Top 100, and he seemed to go on a tear afterwards. He comes to the big leagues, homers off Justin Verlander in his first game, hits three more homers in the following seven games, then blows out his non-throwing elbow and undergoes Tommy John surgery, which will sideline him for half the season — he’s still difficult for me to figure out.”
Mayo: “There were a couple of pitchers who were difficult for me, but the one I’m going to focus on is Tink Hence of the Cardinals. The stuff is legitimate, and it’s of high quality; he has the potential to have three plus pitches and four serviceable pitches. He’s showed the potential to miss a lot of bats, which is fantastic, but there are some qualifiers.”
Dykstra: “Jacob Misiorowski, and I’ll steal Jim’s line, Misiorowski could have the most electrifying stuff in the Minor Leagues right now, outside of Paul Skenes, who we have placed third. We have Misiorowski at 33. He advanced three levels in his first full season last year and was a second-round pick by the Brewers in 2022. He struck out 110 hitters in 71 1/3 innings, and they slowed him down late due to arm fatigue, but everything appears to be on track for 2024.”
Mayo: “Here’s the thing: this happens every year. The Draft rankings are not a set in stone situation, I’ll start with that. Some of it is because we’re talking to different subsets of evaluators. We’re talking only to amateur scouts and where they see players as the Draft approaches.
“Now for these players in particular, it’s not that Jacob Wilson did anything wrong. He did have a strong debut, drew a lot of walks as he always does, didn’t strike out like he always does, he hit .333 while making it to High-A as pointed out. The one question about Jacob Wilson … is how much is he going to impact the baseball at this level.
The two players that are ahead of him, Matt Shaw made it to Double-A and showed that he has no problem impacting the baseball and he’s super toolsy, he runs. Aidan Miller, I think we had kind of low on the amateur list because he didn’t play his senior year of high school and it was a little hard to get a sense of how the industry valued him. … Had he been healthy in Florida for his senior year, he very likely would have been a Top 10 pick. So, I think the fact that he came out and he performed well and he looked really good and the Phillies are excited, I think those are the reasons those guys floated ahead of Jacob Wilson.”.
