Following the signings of Gerrit Cole, Josh Bell and others in the 2011 MLB Draft, I wrote up my new top 30 Pirates prospects last night. Today, the excellent minor-league-focused site Pirates Prospects has a new list of the Bucs' top 10, along with top tens from various contributors.
Cole tops their list, whereas Jameson Taillon topped mine, but at this point, I don't think you can really go wrong with either one. Luis Heredia is third on their list, right behind Cole and Taillon, and I'm not sure I agree with that - not that Heredia isn't a very good prospect, but with guys of the quality of Starling Marte and Bell now in the system, I'm not sure I see the need to rate a 17-year-old pitching prospect so high. Heredia's upside obviously is stratospheric, but he has an incredibly long way to go before he achieves it. Bell and Marte fill out the top five.