Baseball America has released its list of the top 20 prospects from the Florida State League, and there isn't a single Pirates prospect on it, even though Bradenton had four of the top 10 hitters in the league by OPS, and three of those (Robbie Grossman, Ramon Cabrera and Elevys Gonzalez) were good ages for the level.
↵So what gives? BA's Jim Callis has been explaining the decision on Twitter. On Grossman:
↵↵↵Stats > tools, not sure he's even a solid regular.
↵
Grossman was the Pirates' minor-league player of the year, and he has a stat line that jumps off the page, but that wasn't enough for Baseball America, which prefers prospects who look like they have tools, rather than skills. This is why, for example, prospect evaluators prefer Starling Marte to Grossman.
↵This doesn't make the Pirates' minor-league system look very good, by the way. The Marauders did have a pitcher in Kyle McPherson who was promoted to Class AA at midseason, and he might or might not be in the Eastern League top prospects list. But the Pirates had a number of Bradenton players with great stats, and it doesn't appear Baseball America thinks very highly of any of them.