Purke, Gerrit Cole, Martin Perez, Jameson Taillon? pick one (Not fantasy related)

If Gerrit Cole is really as good as BA advertises, then I would definitely put him #1. But even BA admitted that some scouts will prefer Purke. I think Martin Perez is getting a little underrated right now. And I, like you, don’t know what to make of Taillon until he actually pitches some next year.

Gun to head: Cole, Taillon, Perez, Purke. But by next season that list could be completely flip-flopped.

And I’m shocked that he’s in last place. Ordered would be:

Purke
Perez
Taillon
Cole

Gerrit Cole has electric stuff, but the control issues worry me.

then Cole and Perez, in that order. I’ve never been blown away by Perez, so I think the top three are in one tier, and then Perez is behind them, but not way behind.

Taillon
Purke
Cole
Perez

All have number 1 starter stuff, but Taillon has the best combination of stuff, projection, polish, and command. He also has 4 pitches that could all be plus pitches. None of the other four can say that. Also, Gerrit Cole is getting a little overrated. He DOES NOT have Strasburg type stuff. He sits mid 90’s. Around 94-96. Strasburg sits high 90’s. Around 96-98. Strasburg has WAY better secondary stuff and way better command. No pitcher should ever be compared to Strasburg(maybe Taillon in a few years…maybe). Cole COULD be Strasburg if everything goes right, but it probably won’t happen because of how far away Stras is as a pitcher.

Purke is really good and has the best chance of the two to go number one overalll next year. Purke’s fastball is not far from being as good as Cole’s and he has better secondary pitches. He is also still VERY projectable because of his ultra thin frame. He is almost as bad as Chirs Sale was(size not delivery).

More based on his performance to date. He was dominant last year in A ball as an 18yr old. Texas was pretty aggressive sending him to the hitter friendly, Texas League, at 19yr. Still, Perez is the same age or younger than most of the guys listed and scouts are not questioning his stuff or makeup. I suspect, if the other guys were thrown into the Texas Leage at 19, they’d struggle too.

Give me the lefty, who draws comparisons to Johan.

I went with Cole but I can’t really justify the pick. Gut, I guess. They’re all defensible choices.

Obviously they’re all fantastic young pitchers with huge upside. We only really have solid statistical data on one of them. So I think that when you’re talking about relatively small differences like that and only scouting information to go on, you’re basically ranking them by intuition and maybe a small personal preference here or there.

There are certainly differences between them; some are lefty and some aren’t, some are more advanced than others. But I don’t think I’d feel comfortable ranking the four of these guys in any specific order without talking to some scouts first.

I’d probably take Perez based on the fact that he just put up some fairly solid K/BB numbers in Double-A as a 19-year-old, but one could probably convince me to take pretty much any one of these four guys with a well-organized and defended argument.

Love him as a prep prospect but you have to wonder if the Pirates will ever develop him correctly, since they never develop anyone correctly.