Baseball America – July 02, 2019

16 JULY 2019 • BASEBALLAMERICA.COM

ACES HIGH

Power arms MacKenzie Gore, Casey Mize, Brendan McKay and Nate Pearson

are helping pitchers gain ground on hitters in our Midseason Prospect Update

by JOSH NORRIS

The last two major league rookie classes have brimmed with talented

young hitters who should factor in the MVP conversation for years to come.

From Ronald Acuña Jr., Juan Soto, Shohei Ohtani and Gleyber Torres in

2018 to Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Fernando Tatis Jr., Eloy Jimenez and Nick

Senzel this year, most of the recent top prospects are, well, no longer pros-

pects.

Rays shortstop Wander Franco assumes the top spot on our midseason

Top 100 Prospects ranking. Like Guerrero in 2017, Franco has thoroughly

dominated the low Class A Midwest League after entering the year as its

youngest player.

Behind Franco, the pitchers have begun to even the scales with position

players. Many members of the next wave of phenoms can be found on the

mound, led by a fearsome foursome of power arms, two lefthanded and two

righthanded.

A wave of pitching

prospects has been

taking the minor

leagues by storm,

though they all take

different routes to

achieve the same

results.

Clockwise from

upper left they are:

Rays lefthander

Brendan McKay,

Tigers righthander

Casey Mize,

Padres lefthander

MacKenzie Gore

and Blue Jays

righthander

Nate Pearson.

MID

SEA

SON

TOP

We take

stock of

the Top 100

Prospects

at the half-

way point—

who’s rising,

who’s falling

and who has

graduated

›COMPLETELY

UPDATED

TOP 100

PROSPECTS

RANKING

AT THE

HALFWAY

POINT

›STOCK

WATCH

REPORTS

FOR NOTABLE

RISERS AND

FALLERS

INSIDE

LEFT: BRENDAN MCKAY BY BRIAN WESTERHOLT; CASEY MIZE AND NATE PEARSON BY MIKE JANES; MACKENZIE GORE BY LARRY GOREN. RIGHT: LARRY GOREN; BRAD KRAUSE; ZACHARY LUCY. ALL FOUR SEAM IMAGES.