Top prospect Jameson Taillon will get the start tonight on the road for Altoona. His ERA away from home this season is more than twice as high as it is at home(4.50 vs 2.02). Four games on the schedule today, two night games, one early afternoon start time and a morning game for West Virginia. For a look at the possible starters over the next few weeks, please check out our Probable Pitchers Chart. Check out the Recent Transactions section to the bottom of this page, for all Pirates minor league transactions. A full recap of yesterday’s action can be found here.
AAA: Indianapolis (35-18) vs Pawtucket (31-21) 1:35pm
Probable starter: Brandon Cumpton (4-2, 2.91)
Yesterday’s Result: Indianapolis 7, Pawtucket 2
Brandon Cumpton will make his tenth start of the season today, his eighth while with Indianapolis. Cumpton has also pitched once in relief while with Indianapolis and he made two starts for Altoona. Between both stops, he has pitched 56 innings, allowing 47 hits, three homers and 22 walks. Cumpton has 47 strikeouts, a very impressive 2.55 GO/AO ratio and a .224 BAA. In his last start, he allowed two runs on two hits and four walks in five innings. It was his shortest start since being promoted to AAA. At home, he is 2-0, 0.95 in three starts.
AA: Altoona (20-31) @ Binghamton (30-22) 6:35pm
Probable starter: Jameson Taillon (3-5, 2.91)
Yesterday’s Result: Binghamton 8, Altoona 5
Jameson Taillon will make his 11th start of the season tonight. He has pitched a total of 55.2 innings, allowing 53 hits, three homers and 23 walks. Taillon has 63 strikeouts, a 1.27 GO/AO ratio and a .248 BAA. He has pitched slightly better in May, posting a lower ERA, higher K rate and getting more ground balls. Taillon has faced Richmond five times this season already. This will be his first outing against Binghamton. He ranks fifth in the Eastern League in ERA and he is tied for third in strikeouts.
High-A: Bradenton (20-31) vs Ft Myers (36-14) 6:30pm
Probable starter: Adrian Sampson (2-1, 6.10)
Yesterday’s Result: Ft Myers 5, Bradenton 0
Adrian Sampson will get his ninth start of the season tonight. He has also pitched once in relief. Sampson has thrown a total of 41.1 innings, allowing 62 hits, seven homers and 11 walks. He has recorded 24 strikeouts and batters from both sides of the plate are hitting well off him. Right handed batters are hitting .358, with five homers, while lefties have a .339 BAA. Sampson is coming off an interesting start from six days ago. He allowed nine hits and a walk in five innings, but no earned runs. He also struck out four, his highest total in six outings, and he had eight groundball outs, his best game in that regard.
Low-A: West Virginia (28-24) vs Greensboro (22-28) 10:30am
Probable starter: Jake Burnette (0-1, 10.38)
Yesterday’s Result: Greensboro 12, West Virginia 3
Jake Burnette will make his fourth start of the season this morning. In his first game, he went 3.2 innings, allowing two runs on five hits and one walk, while picking up seven strikeouts. His second start was a very rough one, giving up six runs without being able to get out of the first inning before he was pulled. In his last outing five days ago, he was much better, allowing two runs on three hits and three walks in 4.1 innings. Burnette has 11 strikeouts in 8.2 innings after striking out just eight batters in 21 innings with State College last year.
Recent Transactions
5/28 Alex Dickerson activated from DL. Stefan Welch assigned to Jamestown roster.
5/27 James McDonald added to Altoona roster on rehab.
5/27 John McDonald added to Indianapolis roster on rehab.
5/26 Orlando Castro added to West Virginia roster. Josh Smith placed on DL.
5/26 Wyatt Mathisen placed on DL. Kawika Emsley-Pai added to West Virginia roster.
5/24 Chase d’Arnaud added to Indianapolis roster
5/23 Vic Black placed on disabled list.
