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The 2021 Minor League season begins at last next Tuesday, and that is cause for many celebrations.
Among the reasons for joy is the fact that wide-ranging prospect evaluations will no longer be static. Games against actual competition will give us the best looks at Minor Leaguers skills that we ve had since late 2019. No more alternate sites. No more instructional leagues behind closed doors. No more chewing on the crumbs of small Spring Training samples. This is the real stuff.
With that will come the rise and fall of farm systems on the whole. MLB Pipeline came out with its own 2021 farm system rankings last month, but as the Minor League season rolls along, some organizations will have big chances to improve their station as their prospects gain more experience and show off improved skills over the long haul. With that in mind, here are five farm systems that opened 2021 outside of the top-10 overall rankings but could climb into that group by this time nex
Giants Minor League Spring Training report
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Top 35 Prospects: St Louis Cardinals | FanGraphs Baseball
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The Giants’ dusty, tightly-confined backfields abut a gym with the sort of athleisure-wearing clientele you’d expect in Scottsdale. In January of 2019, when most baseball facilities across the country were dark, just feet away from oblivious Peloton riders and tennis-playing retirees, a few lucky scouts and media folks had a religious experience watching the sweetest-swinging teenager on Earth absolutely roast balls fed to his barrel by a high-speed pitching machine. Because of how close you can sit next to the field there, you can feel the sonic force of bat-to-ball impact radiate into your body. When Marco Luciano connects, you feel it to your core. He is not normal. To find bat speed comps you need to look toward Javier Báez, Eric Davis, or whoever the top of your mental catalog might be. And while he already generates plenty of it, Luciano’s square-shouldered frame indicated more power might be coming. After hitting the weight room throughout 2020, he weighed in for 20
The MLB debut of Joey Bart in 2020 didn’t quite go according to plan. The powerful backstop struggled mightily and is still looking for his first home run 33 games later. A lackluster .233/.288/.320 slash line, 2.7% walk rate, and 36.9% strikeout rate accompanied that home run goose egg. Yeah, not good. But hey, the silver lining here is that his struggles have opened a solid buy-low window in dynasty leagues.
Bart might not have the same hit tool as Adley Rutschman or even close, but the power is similar and easily grades as plus long-term with the upside for 25-plus homers annually. While the swing can get a tad long at times, Bart has shown good bat speed with a swing path geared for driving the ball in the air. If Bart can clean up his approach and become a bit more patient, he has the upside to develop into a top-5 fantasy catcher. Following his sluggish MLB debut, now is a great time to trade for him in dynasty leagues as his value might never be lower. Expect him back up so