Below are the top Runs Created* totals in the Pittsburgh Pirates’ farm system from the last week. The rankings include every hitter who had an at-bat for a Pirates’ minor league affiliate, not including DSL teams, and with no limitations on whether the hitter has prospect eligibility. Players who spent time at different levels are counted multiple times, once for each level, rather than combining their stats. Notes on the top ten players from the last week can be found below the chart.
*Runs Created is a stat created by Bill James used to estimate how many runs an individual contributes to his team. There are many formulas for runs created. For these purposes the basic formula is used. That formula is ((H + BB) * (1B + (2*2B) + (3*3B) + (4*HR))) / (AB + BB).
Alen Hanson has been on fire at the plate ever since the first two weeks of the season. He continued that this past week, going 12-for-28 with four doubles and a homer. Hanson had an .840 OPS in May, and has a .966 OPS so far this month.
Adalberto Santos went in a slump in the month of May, but seems to be coming out of it. Santos went 9-for-21 with two homers last week, and has a .983 OPS in 57 at-bats this month.
Walker Gourley has been hitting well all year in West Virginia. He continued that this week, going 9-for-16 with two doubles. The problem is that he’s not drawing a lot of walks, and not hitting for power. That leads to an empty average which probably won’t translate to the upper levels.
With the Pirates needing players who can hit left-handers, Matt Hague could be a sleeper option. The first baseman went 9-for-22 this week with three doubles and seven walks. On the season he’s doing great against lefties, with a .943 OPS. That’s only in 55 at-bats, but Hague has hit left-handers well throughout his minor league career, so it’s not exactly a small sample size issue.
Max Moroff has good hitting tools, but has been inconsistent at the plate this year. He went 6-for-10 in West Virginia’s shortened week, with three doubles. Barrett Barnes is another guy with good tools who has struggled at the plate. He went 7-for-20 with three doubles and two homers in the shortened week, and was named the SAL Player of the Week.
Jodaneli Carvajal always seems to start off hot at each level. Last year he was great the first few weeks with West Virginia, then struggled enough to get demoted to the NYPL. The same thing happened in State College last year. This year he’s off to a hot start with Jamestown, although based on history we shouldn’t expect it to last.
Andrew Lambo has carried his power production over to Indianapolis, going 8-for-27 with three doubles and two homers. Lambo seems like he’d have more value as a trade chip this year. He doesn’t provide an upgrade over Travis Snider, and he’s a minor league free agent at the end of the season. A team could trade for him, add him to the 40-man roster, then have three more years to keep him in the minors. The Pirates could add him to their own 40-man roster, but they already have a lot of similar valued players like Snider, Jose Tabata, and Alex Presley.
Elvis Escobar got off to a great start with Jamestown this week, going 9-for-26 with two doubles and a triple. He rounded out the top ten, although he narrowly edged out Jin-De Jhang, another Jamestown hitter, who went 6-for-20 with three homers in his first week.
