2021 national rankings (in season)

Two teams have four in the top 65
Pirates: Cruz, Davis, Priester, Gonzalez
Nats: Ruiz, Cavalli, Gray, House

And House, Yorke, and Gonzalez are all ranked in order, so nobody has four in the Top 62.

Mariners missed on four in the Top 65, but they did have three in the top 12.

? #4 ? ?

Pessimist.

Duran at 37…yikes. Does his grandmother work for BA?

Yorke is easily above Duran. Maybe we should trade Duran now while he still holds this type of value

There's actually only two questions that need answers on Yorke and they are bookend questions. Will he win ROY and MVP in the same year and, will he be a unanimous first ballot HOF.

Remember when Byron Buxton was the #1 prospect for like 2-3 seasons?  And then he finally almost reached his potential 5 years later.

I think giving Duran a little longer might be warranted with the missed season.

Ages were a little different but agreed. Especially when we are seeing that the gap between AAA and the majors is so large this year. Kid needs time. He’s show the ability to adjust. I think he still becomes a starter

I hope we all agree that it would be ludicrous to give up on Duran at this point. But the question is how high our expectations should be to begin with. Certainly not as high as they were for Buxton - or Yorke, IMO.

I was not trying to compare Duran and Buxton. I was just pointing out that it's insane to give up on him already. People overreact to every good streak and bad streak. This is baseball and things change very slowly.

If they traded everyone who wasn't immediately successful in MLB, they wouldn't develop anyone.

They like Liu a lot

Yeah, ultimately I do think Yorke is a better prospect than Duran.

The fear is that Duran is Michael Chavis with speed.

Like Chavis, I'm willing to give Duran the benefit of the doubt because it's a pretty small sample size (Pedroia didn't look good in his looks in the majors in 2006 and April 2007).

But I can see a scenario where Duran doesn't hit well enough, strikes out too much so that his BA isn't that high and doesn't produce enough plate discipline to draw walks, and doesn't turn his blazing speed into stolen bases.

But I want to see if he gets better pitch recognition because if this guy drew walks at a reasonable pace, he wouldn't have to be a big hit for average hitter and I think he still can be a .260 hitter perhaps with some improvement. If he walks enough or gets on-base enough he has enough speed to really be disruptive. And there's no way that he doesn't with some power. He is jacked.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that there's enough there with Duran that I still want to see more.

Defensively I'm not sure what they do. They could move him back to 2b but they can't do that kind of a move midseason. If they think that his future next year shouldn't be in CF and that Hernandez should be the CF then they should make the move to 2b with his this winter and see if he can win a job there.

But with Yorke, I have a lot less doubts with him on offense. His hit tool reminds me of Pedroia. He will hit in the majors and some power will come with it. I have concerns about his defense but he has time to work on it and improve.

I guess it depends on how your rank. I try to go by: What do I think this guy will ultimately be?

Doing that, I have 1) Mayer, 2) Casas, 3) Yorke in that order. I think Duran would be 4th in that scenario.

The other difference is that Yorke walks a lot more often than Duran did/does. That indicates to me a more mature approach in a player conquering the level at a younger age.

Yorke has the growth curve in his favor while Duran who has turned 25 does not. Still, I think there's more to Duran than what we see. No, I don't expect him to be a real patient hitter, but I think he can cut down on his Ks a little more and put the ball into play a little more and use his speed a little more. The power is there. I don't think he has to try to hit for power. He's a strong kid who can get hold of a pitch, but I don't think that he needs to sell out to hit for some power.

I know others are ready to give up on him and I can see what they're seeing, so-so BA, mediocre OBP, speed not translating into stolen bases or above average defense - sell high, but I still think he can be a guy who can hit .275 with 20 HR power and 30 steals, a useful player being paid at minimum wage. The key will be for him to be able to make contact. The fact that he could hit for a high average back then indicates the ability to have a good hit tool.

I think Yorke will succeed because he's already drawing his walks and he has more time to master the strike zone, which he's already doing.