Brendan Gawlowski: I am chatting from beautiful Bend, OR, where I absconded for a few days after finishing the Marlins list.
12:01
Brendan Gawlowski: Eric is working furiously on the Rays, that will be up later this week and then we’ll be mercifully done with those… for a few months.
12:02
Brendan Gawlowski: I’m staying with a couple family friends, one of whom is Austrian and knows nothing about baseball, but he gave me a piece of advice just before starting here: “Don’t embarrass yourself.” So, with that in mind, let’s go.
12:02
KURTIS SWENSON: Christian Oppor is making me sad, is there any hopes he gets over his intense yips hes having this season?
12:03
Brendan Gawlowski: Sure, but he’s gonna fall off the T100 in our next update.
Thomas White Photo: Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union/USA Today Network via Imagn Images
Below is an analysis of the prospects in the farm system of the Miami Marlins. Scouting reports were compiled with information provided by industry sources as well as my own observations. This is the sixth year we’re delineating between two anticipated relief roles, the abbreviations for which you’ll see in the “position” column below: MIRP for multi-inning relief pitchers, and SIRP for single-inning relief pitchers. The ETAs listed generally correspond to the year a player has to be added to the 40-man roster to avoid being made eligible for the Rule 5 draft. Manual adjustments are made where they seem appropriate, but we use that as a rule of thumb.
A quick overview of what FV (Future Value) means can be found here. A much deeper overview can be found here.
All of the ranked prospects below also appear on The Board, a resource the site offers featuring sortable scouting information for every organization. It has more details (and updated TrackMan data from various sources) than this article and integrates every team’s list so readers can compare prospects across farm systems. It can be found here. Read the rest of this entry »
Brendan Gawlowski: As you all undoubtedly saw, I published the Giants list last week.
2:03
Brendan Gawlowski: Eric and James are working furiously on the Twins. I’m about 20 players into the Marlins system, that’s gonna be a long one. I see a path for us to have TB and Miami done next week and be finished with the whole kit and kaboodle but those are both deep systems so we’ll see.
2:03
Brendan Gawlowski: I’ve Isotopes/Rainiers fired up in the background
2:03
Brendan Gawlowski: Let’s go
2:04
Phillip Denny: What’s your 2/5 of the way through the season evaluation of the DePodesta regime in CO?
Below is an analysis of the prospects in the farm system of the San Francisco Giants. Scouting reports were compiled with information provided by industry sources as well as my own observations. This is the sixth year we’re delineating between two anticipated relief roles, the abbreviations for which you’ll see in the “position” column below: MIRP for multi-inning relief pitchers, and SIRP for single-inning relief pitchers. The ETAs listed generally correspond to the year a player has to be added to the 40-man roster to avoid being made eligible for the Rule 5 draft. Manual adjustments are made where they seem appropriate, but we use that as a rule of thumb.
A quick overview of what FV (Future Value) means can be found here. A much deeper overview can be found here.
All of the ranked prospects below also appear on The Board, a resource the site offers featuring sortable scouting information for every organization. It has more details (and updated TrackMan data from various sources) than this article and integrates every team’s list so readers can compare prospects across farm systems. It can be found here. Read the rest of this entry »
Brendan Gawlowski: Hello everybody. I’ve been told that in this chat, only folks with an account are able to ask questions. It’s a new system. DA has invited us all to share the following statement about that: “We’re trying out a new system where you’re required to log in to FanGraphs to ask a question. You don’t need to be a Member, but you do need to have an account, just like you need an account to comment on any article. We’ll see how it goes. If you have feedback, feel free to just leave it as a question, or you can send a note to support@fangraphs.com.”
2:01
Brendan Gawlowski: Looks like a lot of you aren’t having problems, but perhaps it’s a better day than normal for you regulars to submit a few questions. We’ll see!
2:02
Brendan Gawlowski: Housekeeping: I’m working furiously on Giants, Eric is almost done with Pirates, James is battling on a Twins list.
2:02
Brendan Gawlowski: our milb.tv game of the day is Springfield-Frisco. I’ve got my eye on Rafe Perich in particular, a guy I kinda liked on the backfields in ’25. He crushed High-A this year and is now up in AA.
2:02
Brendan Gawlowski: And away we go
2:03
P: You and Eric both talked about the the ball possibly being juiced at Double A and below on your chats last week. Have pitching prospects across the board performed worse this season because of it? I’ve been wondering why the Braves hitters seem to be raking this year, but the pitchers don’t seem to be.
Cole Carlon Photo: Joseph Rondone/USA Today Network via Imagn Images
This year, I’ve mostly been focused on minor league coverage — those pesky lists don’t write themselves — but with the draft on the horizon and four conference tournaments happening in one metro, I flew down to Phoenix last week. Eric split his time between the Mountain West, West Coast, and WAC tournaments while I sat on the Big 12’s signature event in Surprise. It was a strange week in some respects. The top two, and maybe even top three, guys on my pref list aren’t eligible until next year’s draft, thanks in part to injuries that knocked a couple of the league’s best prospects out of the tournament entirely. Moreover, the relatively brief nature of a single-elimination tournament means I didn’t come away with a complete impression of a lot of players, including guys who will presumably be drafted relatively early.
With that in mind, I encourage you to consider this a rundown of what I saw rather than a definitive list of the top prospects from the league. These are just my observations from the field, and do not reflect a more holistic evaluation process. Eric and I will do more work on the Draft Board as we get closer to July, a process which may shift how I or we think about some of the players covered below, and we’ll likely add other players from the Big 12 into the mix. With a nod to how short the look was in some cases, where applicable, I’ll share the questions I have about some of these players going forward alongside my notes.
2026 Draft Class
As mentioned above, a few of the league’s top dogs were stuck in the kennel. Sawyer Strosnider, arguably the Big 12’s most projectable hitter, missed TCU’s one-and-done after injuring his ankle in practice the week before. His teammate Chase Brunson, another potential high pick, missed the game with knee trouble. Finally, Kansas was able to lift the trophy without first baseman Brady Ballinger, who was nursing a hamate injury. He’s a power hitter who entered the season with draft helium, though he has seen his stock take a bit of a tumble after only hitting seven homers as a junior. Read the rest of this entry »
Brendan Gawlowski: I need a couple minutes before we get going, finishing up something real quick. Sorry about the delay.
2:09
Brendan Gawlowski: Okay, sorry about thaaaat
2:10
Brendan Gawlowski: As I’m sure you saw, we did our Red Sox last week, fun system. Big thanks to Eric for swooping in on complex stuff so I could be fully present while covering the B12 tourney.
2:10
Brendan Gawlowski: He’s tackling Pirates right now, I’ll be pivoting to… Giants? I think the Giants.
Brendan Gawlowski: Hello everybody, sorry for the weirdness the last couple weeks.
5:00
Brendan Gawlowski: I was violently ill last Tuesday and skipped last week’s chat out of necessity
5:00
Brendan Gawlowski: This week I’m back in AZ and was flying down during the normal chat window
5:01
Brendan Gawlowski: So, expect this to be a little smaller and we probably won’t go as long as normal. But we’ll see where it takes us!
5:02
Hazmat Corntail: Anthony Eyanson is off to a fast start so far, and pitching tonight. He was 40+ after the draft could he be in the top 10 pitchers in next year’s 100?
5:02
Brendan Gawlowski: Working on the Red Sox list and, spoiler alert, he’ll be in the 50’s
