Sometime after that super two clock starts ticking.....

He needs to be called up first. 

Now that we are over a week into the season, the time is fast approaching when top prospects that have yet to accrue any MLB service time can safely be brought up without the sacrifice of a year of control for their team. With less than 172 days left in the season, players who have no prior MLB time can no longer reach a full year by straight-ahead counting. (Remember: a year of service is achieved at 172 days on the active roster or big league DL; while a season has more than 172 days, a player cannot accrue more than one year of service for each season.)

However, MLB rules provide that players accrue service time if they spend less than 20 days on optional assignment in a given year. Thus, we are still about a week and a half away from the point that prospects who are already on the 40-man (and thus currently on optional assignment) can be called up while still preserving six full seasons of future team control.


For those players, the real key is Super Two status. As MLBTR's Tim Dierkes wrote in October, qualification has landed between 2.122 and 2.146 years of service in recent years. To be safe, teams hoping to dodge an extra arbitration payday will want to wait until the calendar flips from May to June to promote the above-listed prospects.

Sun, Jun 1
Pirates outfield prospect Gregory Polanco was moved to the leadoff spot at Triple-A Indianapolis Saturday.
Advice: Polanco usually hits third, but with Andrew McCutchen manning that spot for the big league club, the Pirates are viewing Polanco as a potential leadoff hitter. "As the leadoff hitter, we want him to be the same guy. But being the first one to step in the box and start a game sometimes can be a little bit different," general manager Neal Huntington said. "Hitting after the pitcher sometimes can be a little bit different. Basically we wanted to reintroduce him to the top of the order which is where conceivably he could fit up here." Polanco is hitting a robust .349/.411/.552 with six homers, 46 RBI and 12 stolen bases for Indy this season. He's been big league-ready for a while but will have to wait a bit longer until the Super Two deadline passes.

It took a few more days than originally expected, but Gregory Polanco's time has finally come.

After an erroneous report spread about Polanco's impending arrival last week, the outfielder broke the news Monday that he's headed to the Show. Polanco will most likely be activated before Tuesday's game, and there's no reason to think he won't be in the starting lineup for the tilt with the Cubs.

His arrival has been long awaited, as fantasy owners have drooled over his potential. The 22-year-old batted a ridiculous .347/.405/.540 with seven home runs and 15 stolen bases at Triple-A Indianapolis before the promotion, and he's been batting leadoff in recent days to get a feel for setting the table atop a lineup.

Manager Clint Hurdle hasn't had a chance to give his input on where Polanco might bat in the Bucs' lineup, but wherever it is, it will most likely be a prime spot for fantasy production. That's especially true considering Polanco will take the roster spot of Neil Walker, who hit the DL on Monday after undergoing an appendectomy. With Walker's potent bat out of the middle of the lineup, the Pirates will have even more incentive to thrust Polanco right into the middle of the action.

Cautionary tales for great expectations exist in the early struggles of Oscar Taveras and, briefly, George Springer, so owners expecting the next coming of Yasiel Puig may be disappointed. But the potential is sky high, and Polanco should immediately be owned, if not started, in all leagues as such.

7-2 to start the season when EVERYBODY picked them to finish dead last in the Central and lose over a 100 games is very good.

Hope it continues (knock on wood!!!).

Pirates got snowed out yesterday. SNOWED OUT!!! They really need to either stop playing games in early April in the Northern cities or not start the season until late April.