Author Archive

Eric Longenhagen Prospects Chat: 9/5/25

12:01
Eric A Longenhagen: Hello from stormy Tempe, we’ll probably have a shorter chat today so I can batten down the hatches before this enormous cell hits the city.

12:02
Eric A Longenhagen: This week I wrote about the defense of more shortstops

12:03
Eric A Longenhagen: Meg and I also wrote a job posting looking for a second full time prospect writer. FanGraphs Is Hiring! Seeking a Full-Time Prospect Writer | FanGraphs Baseball

12:04
Jeb: Konnor Griffin, whoof. AA doesn’t seem to be phasing him at all so far. As a pirate fan, can he actually work out and be great? What does his ceiling look like? What can we dream on?

12:04
Eric A Longenhagen: Yeah, he’s quite good. I still think it’s a round down hit tool to some degree, but the power/speed combo is great. He’s a top 5 prospect.

Read the rest of this entry »


Let’s Scout More Top Shortstop Prospects’ Defense: Franklin Arias, George Lombard Jr., JJ Wetherholt, Edwin Arroyo

Franklin Arias, George Lombard Jr., and Edwin Arroyo Photos: Alex Martin/Greenville News, Dave Nelson/Imagn Images, Angelina Alcantar/News Sentinel

This is the second post in a series I’m working on in which I not only do a deep dive analyzing shortstop prospects’ defense, but also cut together a video package so that you can too. The first installment can be found in the navigation widget above. Today, I’m tackling Red Sox prospect Franklin Arias, Yankees prospect George Lombard Jr., Cardinals prospect JJ Wetherholt, and Reds prospect Edwin Arroyo. Let’s get started. Read the rest of this entry »


Eric Longenhagen Prospects Chat: 8/29/25

11:59
Eric A Longenhagen: Good morning everyone, let’s dive into your questions immediately.

12:00
Ben: Hey Eric, love these chats! We have two exciting SP debuts tonight. If you only could watch Tong or Tolle tonight, which would you choose and why?

12:02
Eric A Longenhagen: If you have to pick one (both *matchups* tonight are also incredible, Tolle vs Skenes, Tong vs Eury) I’d go Tolle just because we’ll get to learn more about him tonight than I think we will Tong. Tolle’s power fastball will play, how about the other stuff? How does he approach big league hitters the second and third time through? Tong’s question marks are more going to be answered over longer period because it has to do with him sustaining big stuff at his size.

12:03
Drew: Is Eduardo Quintero really a top 50 prospect like I’ve seen in other publications?

12:04
Eric A Longenhagen: That’s rich for me, clearly, or I’d have him in that area.

12:04
Rob: What have your impressions of Cam Cam been this year?

Read the rest of this entry »


Let’s Scout the Top Shortstop Prospects’ Defense: Kevin McGonigle, Jesús Made, Carson Williams

Junfu Han, Brett Davis, and Nathan Ray Seebeck – Imagn Images

I’m not telling our readers anything they don’t already know, but defense is a very important part of baseball, especially at the up-the-middle positions. You probably watch enough baseball to list the best and worst couple of defenders at each position with a fair amount of accuracy; I bet you’d nail most of them off the top of your head (aside from Trea Turner, I think the 2025 FRV list is damn good), and that you have a proper appreciation for the importance of defense at the premium positions, even if it comes with some amount of sacrifice on offense.

In the prospect realm, though, things are trickier. Prospect hit data from TrackMan and Hawkeye has become common in public-facing analysis and discourse, but defense remains something of a black box. There aren’t many publicly available minor league defensive stats, and so much of evaluating defense is still best done visually, at least in my opinion. I wrote a version of today’s piece a few years ago, wherein I performed the same sort of video deep dive that I use to evaluate top shortstop prospects’ defense, and ripped and edited together key plays from that deep dive to share with you.

This year, I’m turning that exercise into a series. I’m going to batch together a few players at a time until I’ve gone through all of the 50 FV shortstops, as well as a few key prospects with lesser grades. That will include all of the players linked here, plus a few more. Read the rest of this entry »


Eric Longenhagen Prospects Chat: 8/22/25

12:01
Eric A Longenhagen: Hello from sweaty, stormy Tempe where we’ve had a weird mix of 110+ degree heat and moisture the last few days. There were several heat-related incidents with players at Bridge Camp yesterday. Looks like it’s going to break next week and our weather patterns will change.

12:02
Eric A Longenhagen: Let’s get to your questions, might be a shorter chat this week as the only game in town is west valley today, which means a longer commute for you friendly neighborhood prospect writer.

12:02
Mike: Minnesota going to keep Abel and Bradley in the minors to lose every game?

12:04
Eric A Longenhagen: Their deadline was the only one that felt like a true, complete bottoming out, so maybe? I can see them wanting to give Zebby all the runway, but Urena and Hatch idk. Did Hatch tweak something in Japan they want to see vs MLB hitters for an extended spell? Trying to take the most generous read of the situation but yeah they might just be tanking. Which, ok.

12:05
Alex: Do the Braves have a chance to have more than one(Didier Fuentes) Top 100-ish prospects for 2026?

12:06
Eric A Longenhagen: Ritchie’s had a good year and held his stuff even though his innings load has doubled. Will they be as aggressive with him as the other young arms, or will they be gun shy because AJSS and Fuentes were clearly undercooked?

Read the rest of this entry »


Notes On More Pitching Rehabbers

Nick Turchiaro-Imagn Images

Beginning last Thursday and continuing through the weekend, several key rehabbers made appearances in the upper levels of the minor leagues. A few might have a meaningful impact on playoff races, while others are scuffling. I dish on eight pitchers below. Read the rest of this entry »


Eric Longenhagen Prospects Chat: 8/15/25

Read the rest of this entry »


NL West Arms Race: Can Pitching Prospects Contribute to the Dodgers and Padres?

Joe Camporeale and David Frerker-Imagn Images

We’re in the phase of the minor league calendar where the domestic complex league seasons have ended, in order to accommodate the incoming draft classes, while the rest of the minor leagues continue with their regular seasons for a few more weeks. There are some recent draftees who have already been sent out to affiliates, but the majority have gotten going at their respective facilities during unofficial “Bridge League” or “Continuation Camp” activity with loose, flexible schedules and start times. There’s a big group chat in which scouts and development personnel (plus a handful of media folks, and probably a clandestine autograph hound or two) exchange lineups and pitching probables to keep everyone abreast of the goings on. Ceasing official play in Arizona and Florida allows teams to onboard their draft classes in an unofficial setting and avoids the traffic jam of minor roster spots, which would exceed the allowed amount if the draft classes were just assigned to affiliates right away.

This is also a fruitful place for rehabbers to see their first real game action since injury because teams can just “roll” innings whenever they feel like it. If you’re on a 25-pitch limit and you’ve hit your count without getting three outs, the inning will just turn over regardless of how many guys are on base. This setting is about development and is not an actual game, so it’s a safe place to shake off rust and work up a sweat. On Tuesday, when the Padres officially caught the Dodgers in the NL West race, I saw their Bridge League teams square off with two rehabbing members of their 40-man rosters getting an inning of work at the start of the game. In this piece, I’ll pass along how Kyle Hurt (Dodgers) and Bradgley Rodriguez (Padres) looked and examine whether either team has a postseason pitching weapon lurking in the minors. Read the rest of this entry »


Ranking the MLB Prospects Traded at the 2025 Deadline

Leo De Vries Photo: Bill Mitchell

Ranked and briefly analyzed below are the prospects who have been traded during the loosely defined “2025 deadline season,” which for simplicity’s sake I consider all of July. Most of the deals these prospects were a part of have been analyzed at length on this site. An index of those pieces can be found here; you can also click the hyperlink in the “Trade” column below, which will take you to the relevant article. I’ve moved all of the 35+ FV and above players listed here to their new orgs over on The Board, so you can click through to see where they rank among their new teammates and read their full scouting reports, which have been updated where applicable. The Farm System Rankings, which update live, also reflect these changes, so you can see where teams’ systems stack up following the draft and the deadline. Read the rest of this entry »


Eric Longenhagen 2025 Trade Deadline Prospects Chat

12:19
Eric A Longenhagen: Hello hello from the kitchen counter in scorching hot Tempe, AZ.

12:20
Eric A Longenhagen: Let’s get right into it.

12:20
Jeb: Can you please enlighten me and everyone what the hell the Pirates are doing? None of yesterday made sense whatsoever

12:20
Kevin: Cherington has to be gone by the end of the year, right? Right?

12:24
Eric A Longenhagen: Lots of Pirates fan discontent in the chat. I am curious what their best offers were for IKF, Santana and Heaney during the last couple of weeks, I know they like Stafura more than I do, I think they got a couple short term role playing pieces (Flores, Devanney) and I think we need to see these guys, Yorke, etc. the players they’ve acquired in these seemingly always medium deadline deals actually be given the opportunity to do something

12:25
Eric A Longenhagen: I’m not about to call for anyone’s job when I know they’re underfunded.

Read the rest of this entry »