Jul 10, 2016; San Diego, CA, USA; World infielder Yoan Moncada (11) celebrates with teammates after a two-run home run during the All Star Game futures baseball game at PetCo Park. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports
Jul 10, 2016; San Diego, CA, USA; World infielder Yoan Moncada (11) celebrates with teammates after a two-run home run during the All Star Game futures baseball game at PetCo Park. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports /
A lot of players have been featured in MLB prospect lists, but who are some guys off all the “big” lists that could be very impressive in 2017?
In the last month, there have been a number of prospect lists that have come out, featuring a ton of different prospects, and there are many discussions of who on those lists are underrated or overrated.
But what about the guys who didn’t make any of those lists? Every year, there are dozens of guys who come from off all lists to be a significant prospect or to have a big impact in the major leagues.
Let’s take a look at a half dozen of those guys that could be huge in the 2017 season and are off the radar almost completely.
General Guidelines
From my personal guidelines, I looked at the major prospect lists that came out and determined six guys who didn’t appear on any of those lists but could be guys who could have a big 2017.
Not all of these guys will be guys who will hit the major leagues, though one or two could, and because they’re “off the radar” types, it’s certainly feasible that these guys will be guys that miss completely, but they definitely should be watched this season.
For those unaware, I also do writing for Tomahawk Take, the Atlanta Braves blog with FanSided. I recently did a scouting report on A.J. Minter, so to say I’m well acquainted with his background would be putting it lightly.
Minter is a pitcher who has really experienced the two major maladies that beset young pitchers in the game now, as he went through Thoracic Outlet Syndrome as a freshman in college and Tommy John surgery as a junior.
The Braves drafted him in 2015 in the 2nd round and paid him an above-slot bonus, in spite of him not being able to throw in 2015 at all.
In 2016, he did not pitch until a month into the minor league season, but once he got going, he was ridiculously good. He did not allow a run with low-A or high-A, and he finished his season pitching with the Braves AA bullpen.
Minter had a 1.30 ERA, 0.84 WHIP, 8.21% walk rate, and 35.07% strikeout rate over 31 appearances and 34 2/3 innings in the regular season. In the AA playoffs, he threw 3 1/3 perfect innings with 4 strikeouts.
Minter works with a fastball that he can run to 98-99 from the left side with a significant amount of arm side run, however, his big weapon is his devastating slider.
He uses the slider in two ways, and one goes with minimum vertical movement, and the other is more of a wipeout slider that dives at the toes of a right-handed hitter.
Minter very well could end up in the Atlanta bullpen this season, and there are many who say he could end up an elite closer from the left side, which puts him in an elite company.
I mentioned in my review of the top 10 Giants prospects that I believed Quinn to be a very good bargain in the 3rd round where the Giants drafted him in 2016 out of Samford.
While I had Quinn ranked 8th in the Giants system, which isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement, Quinn meets all the prototypes you’d want out of a right fielder.
He stands 6’2″ tall and weighs in at 225 pounds, with better-than-expected athleticism in the outfield from his muscular frame. He possesses a big time arm to make the right field profile work as well.
Most impressive about Quinn, though, is his prodigious power. He has a bit of pre-swing load that makes for a longer path to the hitting zone than you’d like, but once in the zone, he has explosive bat speed and power.
He hit .344/.434/.564 with 9 home runs across three levels after being drafted, and it would not surprise whatsoever if he’d open 2017 in high-A in the California League and finish in the upper minors with a possible appearance in the majors in 2018.
I mentioned in the Rockies top 10 write up about Castellani (where he ranked #7 in the organization) that in viewing home run allowed rates, I came upon Castellani.
Those tremendous rates that he allowed in what is typically known as a big-time hitter’s league in the California League earned more of a look from me, and I was certainly impressed.
I think if I were doing that list again today, he might be up another slot or two as I’ve seen even more of him.
Castellani has a unique arm angle that reminds me some of Tommy Hanson in the way he short arms the pitch, but he doesn’t throw the ball nearly with the same velocity as Hanson and instead gets ridiculous movement on the pitch.
While Mike Soroka of the Atlanta Braves drew rave reviews this season and ranked as high as inside of the top 50 of prospect lists, Castellani is a very similar pitcher and did similar things at age 20 in high-A. Soroka will be 19 in high-A, so there are plenty of similarities, yet rarely do you see Castellani mentioned anywhere.
After throwing 167 2/3 innings in 2016, he’ll certainly have no inning restrictions, and he’ll also likely open in the upper minor leagues in 2017. While there is a glut of arms in AA/AAA for the Rockies that he’d have to move past, he certainly could make a splash in the major leagues in 2017 with the right performance and a little bit of luck.
While Funkhouser certainly has pedigree, being considered one of the top arms in the 2015 draft before a poor showing at the end of the season caused him to fall to the Dodgers at the back of the first round, #35 overall.
He chose instead to gamble with returning to school and playing out the 2016 season. The gamble did not pay off as Funkhouser battled injury and ineffectiveness that caused him to slip all the way to the 4th round in the draft in 2016 to the Tigers.
In what could be one of their biggest draft steals in years, the Tigers may have stolen a potential ace here. Funkhouser’s velocity ticked back up with pro instruction, and he had some adjustment to his mechanics that helped him command much better (as evidenced by a tremendous 5.41% walk rate).
Funkhouser has a fastball that works 92-94 and can touch 97 in short spurts, and it works tremendously well low in the zone. He pairs that with a slider with excellent movement and a change that showed better in pro ball than he’d ever thrown in college.
I saw Funkhouser as a perfect lottery ticket after the first round for a team, and to get him in the fourth round is a great value for the Tigers. I ranked him #4 overall in the Tigers top 10, but that could prove cautious by the end of the year.
He’ll likely open in a full-season league, and it would not surprise if he finishes in the upper minors if he continues to sequence and command the way he did in his pro debut.
Smith is the final member of the 2016 draft class that I will highlight, but he may be the one that intrigues me the most in this “six-pack”.
Coming into the 2016 draft, Smith had a reputation as an excellent defender, and I will admit that I saw him as a defense-first third-round type of catcher, so when the Dodgers nabbed him in the first round, I was caught surprised, to say the least.
Instead, Smith showed enough after I reviewed his tape on the season that I had him 9th overall in the Dodgers top 10 ranking, and he could be a guy that moves quickly this season, depending on the Dodgers’ plans for him.
Smith had a tremendous defensive reputation coming from college, and he certainly had worked with excellent arms at Louisville, including multiple arms that went in the first few rounds of the draft in the last couple seasons.
What impressed most was his bat. Smith may never be a guy to hit 30 home runs, but I would compare his approach behind the plate to that of someone like Jason Kendall with excellent athleticism behind the plate and a fair share of speed on the bases.
Smith also flashed a very solid eye and contact tool that did cool some as his college plus pro season took a toll on him toward the end of the year, with his final slash line ending up at .246/.355/.329, but that .109 OBP delta is very impressive.
I’m not sure that the Dodgers will be moving Yasmani Grandal any time soon, but Smith could quickly establish himself as one of the top catching prospects in the game with just a little more from his stick as he already is earning a reputation as one of the elite defenders behind the plate in the minors.
When you release a top ten prospect list for a team as deep as the Yankees, it’s not surprising that a few feathers get ruffled about their favorite guy not being on the list.
What was surprising was that the most feedback I got on my Yankees top 10 list this winter was the inclusion of Florial at #10.
I’ll be honest in that there were a group of probably 5 guys that I could have gone with at #10 without a ton of heavy feeling one way or another, so I really went with Florial to highlight a player that I was getting a ton of positive feedback on.
Usually a guy who hits .227 isn’t someone who comes up in every conversation you have about an organization, but the 8 home runs and 10 stolen bases along with working his way all the way to high-A as an 18 year-old (he turned 19 in the offseason) impressed a lot of people.
He was part of the Yankees 2014 international singing splurge, and he’s shown profile right field skills with huge power and an arm that could draw a 70 grade from some scouts.
However, he has tremendous athleticism as well on top of that prodigious power. He shows good patience at the plate when he’s working the whole field with his swing as well, but he can get pull happy at times, as with any young hitter.
Florial very well could open the season in high-A in 2017 as that was the only place he faced any rough waters in 2016, and at 19 in 2017, he could finish the year in the high minors, which would certainly get him on a lot more radars.
How a guy with this level of athleticism and skill in an organization with the media notice of the Yankees isn’t getting prominently featured yet, I’ll never quite figure out, especially after listening to people wax poetic about him all fall as I got organizational reports!
