I just finished a new list of the Pirates' top prospects over at Bucs Dugout. It was actually pretty depressing to write, although there were a couple of mitigating factors:
↵1) The Pirates just graduated three of their top six prospects (Pedro Alvarez, Jose Tabata and Brad Lincoln) from my last list, plus Neil Walker, who was further down the list.
↵2) Most teams' prospect lists would look a little bit lacking at this point in the year. The key draft picks (for the Pirates, guys like Jameson Taillon and Stetson Allie) haven't signed yet, which basically leaves the Pirates with what they had when they started the year. Some prospects succeed and others fail, and that's normal. No team at this point in the year has had much of a chance to replace its failed prospects with brand new guys.
↵Still, it's been a tough year for Pirates prospects. An incredible number of them have gotten injured. Several (Starling Marte, Colton Cain, Brett Lorin) are just making their way back now, and more draft picks will sign in the coming weeks, so the last couple months of the minor league season will hopefully be a bit more uplifting than the first few were.