Samuel Infante has some pretty wide variety of initial rankings in the various prospect lists. Photo via BaseballFactory.com
Just a couple days after Fangraphs announced their mid-season updates, MLBPipeline did as well.
No changes from their Mar 2020 list other than to include three of our 2020 draft picks. Lets talk about where they got inserted:
- 2020 1st rounder Cade Cavalli slots in at #4 in the system, which is exactly where BA and Fangraphs put him, and behind the exact top 3 that everyone has for the system (Kieboom, Garcia, Rutledge). Consistent.
- 2020 2nd rounder Cole Henry slots in at #6 in our system per MLB, about where BA has him but ahead of where Fangraphs put him. I think i’m ok with this ranking, given that he’s behind Wil Crowe but ahead of two very young starter prospects in Eddy Yean and Andry Lara.
- 2020 supp 2nd rounder Samuel Infante comes in at #26, well down the list and well below either BA or fangraphs. #26 in a system is nearly non-prospect territory, and puts him below Jackson Cluff. Who would you rather have? Infante or Cluff?
The addition of these three guys bumps the following players off the back end of hte top 30: Jakson Reetz, Jhonatan German and … Nick Raquet.
I thought BA was high on Infante, but ranking him below Cluff, who will enter his age-24 season with one minor league season under his belt, a .229/.687 career slash line, and only a 69% steal success rate, is goofy.
Seems like MLB.com has a strong bias against guys they didn’t pay that much attention to as amateurs, and Infante falls into that category. The Nats scouted him heavily and liked him a lot. He could well be a bust (most draft picks are), but I like his upside way more than Cluff’s.
SaoMagnifico
12 Aug 20 at 11:23 am
agree.
Todd Boss
12 Aug 20 at 1:04 pm
Sure looks like your friend and mine, Seth “Good Times” Romero, will be called up tomorrow and could make his major league debut in relief after Slim Sam Freeman’s elbow went pop tonight.
Wishing Sam well. That’s a crappy little way to end a crappy little season, if that’s it for him this year (spoiler: it is).
Stock rising: Kyle Finnegan, who looks like a huge whiff by prospect evaluators and especially the Oakland A’s organization. Stock falling: Ryne Harper, who at least only cost Mike Rizzo a soda and a snack bar this past offseason.
SaoMagnifico
12 Aug 20 at 11:23 pm
Yeah, I had seen some of the positive stuff about Romero. But goodness, the guy barely pitched at low A and will be skipping three levels.
Yes, tough break for Freeman, who had been excellent and quite a “find.”
I’m still not sure what to think about Ryne Harper. He had five clean outings to start the season, got bombed by the O’s, another clean outing, then last night’s debacle. In his defense, he threw two strikes to Guillorme that weren’t called so should have struck him out to start the inning. Curious defensive positioning then gave Nimmo a free pass on the bunt. Eaton took a terrible route on the drive that blew the game open.
Finnegan looks terrific. He and Rainey are the back end of the future . . . and that future may be very soon.
Among starters, Sanchez looks like he’s toast. I think it’s time to start giving Fedde his starts and let Sanchez work things out as a long man or on the IL.
KW
13 Aug 20 at 11:15 am
It’s hard to know about Cluff. The only thing that seems clear about him is that the Nats should have had him at Auburn instead of Hagerstown, as he didn’t thrive in the advanced placement. He had good 2019 college numbers, albeit at altitude in a third-tier conference. What killed him at Hags was that his 37/39 BB/K plate discipline at BYU went out the window, to the tune of 26/63 as a pro. He will be 24 for 2021, so his time clock is already ticking rather fast, although similarly to what it was for Freeman.
Frankly, I agree with MLBPipeline having Infante at #26. I would their placement of Cluff more than of Infante.
KW
13 Aug 20 at 11:26 am
. . . would “question” their placement of Cluff more than of Infante.
KW
13 Aug 20 at 11:29 am