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10 prospects ready to surge in 2017
- Updated: December 28, 2016
Prospects develop at different times and on different schedules. Some start out on a fast path to the big leagues and never stop. Some begin like that and then stall at the upper levels.
Other prospects develop slowly, taking longer for everything to click, but then they really turn into stars. This is a big reason why ranking prospects is such a dynamic activity. There are things happening constantly that make it worthwhile to change who is on a list and how the players are ordered on it.
MLBPipeline.com’s new Top 100 list doesn’t come out until the end of January, but the Pipeline crew is hard at work trying to sort out who should go where. The list will undoubtedly include players who weren’t previously Top 100-type prospects. There might be others who don’t start the year on the list, but they could make a jump that could land them there down the line.
Here are 10 such names, players not currently on the Top 100 prospects list, who are ready to surge in 2017.
Luis Alexander Basabe, OF, White Sox No. 9: Part of the big haul Chicago got from Boston in the Chris Sale deal, Basabe might be a bit more under-the-radar because he came over with top prospect Yoan Moncada and flame-thrower Michael Kopech. He’s a switch-hitter who has the chance to play up the middle in center field. He’s a basestealing threat who should continue to add more power. And he turned just 20 at the end of August.
Walker Buehler, RHP, Dodgers’ No. 7: The 2015 first-round Draft pick out of Vanderbilt dropped off radars because he needed Tommy John surgery the August after he was drafted. He worked his way back to throw five regular-season innings at the end of ’16, followed by five more — all of the shutout variety — in the Midwest League playoffs. A full healthy season should remind people why many thought he could be a top-half-of-the-first-round pick had he been healthy in ’15.
Ryan Castellani, RHP, Rockies’ No. 12: A second-round pick in 2014 out of the Arizona high school …
