That does not read "he's a blue chipper" to me. I see it as saying Pineda has the highest probability, even though "Aumont gets the attention and Ramirez has the bigger fastball," which I completely agree with. I think he is most likely to make his mark in the big leagues, but my impression is that Ramirez and to a lesser extent Robles and Cortes have more electric stuff.
That's no knock on Pineda. High probability prospects are great. McNamara stocked the farm with high probability prospects through the draft, passing up on higher upside but more volatile commodities, and I don't disagree with the strategy. But when you've got Pineda and (say) Ramirez side by side and you ask yourself, "If everything goes right, who will be better?" I would think that Ramirez comes out on top. Pineda is more likely to "max out," but if Ramirez maxes out you've got a slightly better pitcher on your hands. My opinion, anyway. Moving on..
"Yet, I can't find a quote from a pro scout that does not have Pineda projected above those two blue-chippers."
That's because those articles are about Pineda. JAC goes out, finds a scout that likes Pineda, and gets his input. It makes for a good read. JAC is a reporter who is a fan of scouting, rather than a scout who reports his findings. At least that's the impression I've gotten from conversations with him and hanging around the ballpark. If the article is about Pineda blossoming, he's going to get quotes to support that. If he wanted to write a report about Pineda being overrated, I guarentee he could find quotes to support that as well.
But we keep coming back to JAC and the quotes and information he's gathered, so why does his ranking get lost in this? In his last update he had Ramirez at #7 but Pineda all the way down at #16. Why?
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