TOP OF THE SYSTEM
A look at how the current top 20 prospects did today. Note that this list doesn’t include players currently in the majors (Stolmy Pimentel #13). If a player is in the majors, he will be removed, everyone below him will be shifted up a spot, and a new player will be added to the bottom of the list. If a player is out for the season (Jameson Taillon #2, Clay Holmes #12), he will be removed and everyone below him will move up a spot. Removing these guys doesn’t mean they have lost prospect status. It is just an attempt to get 20 active prospects on the list. Rankings are from the 2014 Prospect Guide, and links on each name go to their Pirates Prospects player pages.
1. Gregory Polanco, CF, Indianapolis – 3-for-5, HR, SB
2. Tyler Glasnow, RHP, Bradenton – Disabled List (4/14 Update)
3. Austin Meadows, CF, West Virginia – Disabled List (4/22 Update)
4. Alen Hanson, SS, Altoona – 3-for-5, 3B
5. Nick Kingham, RHP, Altoona – DNP
6. Reese McGuire, C, West Virginia – DNP
7. Josh Bell, RF, Bradenton – 1-for-4, 3 K
8. Luis Heredia, RHP, West Virginia Power – Disabled List (4/22 Update)
9. Harold Ramirez, OF, West Virginia – Disabled List (4/14 Update)
10. Tony Sanchez, C, Indianapolis – DNP
11. Andrew Lambo, OF, Indianapolis – 3-for-5, 2 2B
12. Joely Rodriguez, LHP, Altoona – DNP
13. Blake Taylor, LHP, Extended Spring Training – DNP
14. Cody Dickson, LHP, West Virginia – DNP
15. Barrett Barnes, CF, West Virginia – Disabled List (4/14 Update)
16. JaCoby Jones, SS, West Virginia – 0-for-5, SB
17. Michael De La Cruz, OF, Extended Spring Training – DNP
18. Wyatt Mathisen, 3B, West Virginia – 3-for-4
19. Jin-De Jhang, C, Bradenton – 0-for-4, 3 K
20. Brandon Cumpton, RHP, Indianapolis – DNP
ORDER YOUR 2014 PROSPECT GUIDE
The 2014 Prospect Guide is now available, and is the perfect resource to follow the minor league system during the 2014 season. You can order your copy on the products page of the site.
DAILY SUMMARY
Top Hitter: Gregory Polanco, RF – 3-for-5, HR, SB
Home Runs: Gregory Polanco (3), Matt Hague (1), Stetson Allie (3)
AAA: INDIANAPOLIS INDIANS
Result: Indianapolis 11, Toledo 6
Starting Pitcher: Casey Sadler, RHP – 7 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K
Top Hitter: Gregory Polanco, RF – 3-for-5, HR, SB
Other Notable Performers:
Andrew Lambo, DH — 3-for-5, 2 2B
Matt Hague, 3B – 1-for-5, HR
Blake Davis, 2B – 2-for-5, 3B
Game Notes: Casey Sadler put together his third quality start of the season and picked up his third win. He also struck out a season high six hitters. Sadler was efficient, throwing 64 strikes in 97 pitches. Phil Irwin had a rough outing from the bullpen, allowing five earned runs on three hits, while only getting two outs. Gregory Polanco continues to dazzle, as he got three more hits and crushed solo home run in the seventh. Andrew Lambo also broke out of a 3-for-16 slump with a pair of doubles. – Ryan Palencer
AA: ALTOONA CURVE
Result: Altoona 7, Harrisburg 0
Starting Pitcher: Adrian Sampson, RHP – 6.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, 0 HR
Top Hitter: Stetson Allie, 1B – 3-for-5, HR
Other Notable Performers:
Alen Hanson, SS – 3-for-5, 3B
Gift Ngoepe, 2B – 2-for-3, 2B, BB
Mel Rojas, CF – 2-for-5
Drew Maggi, LF – 2-for-3, BB
Game Notes: Altoona put seven runs on the board tonight, one night after scoring ten runs in a game. Stetson Allie hit his third homer of the year, and picked up three hits on the night. Allie is 12-for-39 with four doubles and two homers in his last ten games. Alen Hanson is also breaking out of his early season slump. He went 3-for-5 tonight, and is now hitting for a .295/.340/.386 line in 44 at-bats over his last ten games. Gift Ngoepe has been hitting well early in the season, with a .271/.438/.396 line in 48 at-bats. His strikeout rate is still around 30%, but he has more walks than strikeouts. With his defense, all he needs to do is get on base at a strong rate to have a shot at the majors. Adrian Sampson had another great outing, throwing six shutout innings, with seven strikeouts. Sampson now has a 1.17 ERA in 23 innings this year, with a 23:6 K/BB ratio.
A+: BRADENTON MARAUDERS
Result: Charlotte 7, Bradenton 1
Starting Pitcher: John Kuchno, RHP – 1.2 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 0 HR
Top Hitter: Eric Wood, 3B – 2-for-3, 2B, BB
Other Notable Performers:
Raul Fortunato, CF – 2-for-4
Adam Frazier, SS – 2-for-5
Ryan Hafner, RHP – 2.2 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 0 K, 1 HR
Game Notes: The Marauders had some horrible control tonight, giving up a combined nine walks against Charlotte. John Kuchno only allowed one walk, but didn’t have command of his fastball in his second inning of work, and was pulled from his start early after reaching his single inning pitch count. Kuchno was working 88-92 MPH with his fastball. Ryan Hafner came on in relief, and did well until the fifth inning. He walked two and didn’t get any strikeouts in his 2.2 innings of work. The big blow was when Patrick Leonard hit a no-doubt two run homer in the fifth, causing most of the damage against Hafner. On the offensive side, Eric Wood had a hard hit ball off the wall for a double in the ninth inning. Raul Fortunato had two well-hit balls through the infield for his multi-hit night. Other than that, the bats were quiet. Josh Bell and Jin-De Jhang combined to go 1-for-8 with six strikeouts.
A: WEST VIRGINIA POWER
Result: Kannapolis 8, West Virginia 6
Starting Pitcher: Shane Carle, RHP – 5.0 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 7 K, 1 HR
Top Hitter: Wyatt Mathisen, 3B – 3-for-4
Other Notable Performers:
Francisco Diaz, C – 2-for-5, 2B
Danny Collins, RF – 2-for-5
Edwin Espinal, 1B – 2-for-4, 2B
Game Notes: The West Virginia pitching staff has struggled the last two nights against Kannapolis. Shane Carle didn’t have a bad outing tonight, giving up two earned runs in five innings, with seven strikeouts. So far this season he has a 3.24 ERA in 16.2 innings, with a 19:1 K/BB ratio. The long ball has been the big issue, as he has given up three homers, including a two run homer in the first inning tonight. Wyatt Mathisen had a three hit night, breaking a cold streak where he was 1-for-21 in his last seven games. Edwin Espinal and Danny Collins each extended their hitting streaks to five games.
Tim started Pirates Prospects in 2009 from his home in Virginia, which was 40 minutes from where Pedro Alvarez made his pro debut in Lynchburg. That year, the Lynchburg Hillcats won the Carolina League championship, and Pirates Prospects was born from Tim's reporting along the way. The site has grown over the years to include many more writers, and Tim has gone on to become a credentialed MLB reporter, producing Pirates Prospects each year, and will publish his 11th Prospect Guide this offseason. He has also served as the Pittsburgh Pirates correspondent for Baseball America since 2019. Behind the scenes, Tim is an avid music lover, and most of the money he gets paid to run this site goes to vinyl records.
Amazing how things change. Who would have thought a year and a half ago that Casey Sadler and Adrian Sampson would have a more promising future than Phil Irwin?
I agree with Burgher Jon, would it be possible for you to put up the season stats daily next to their stats from that day?
We’re working on making that automated. Last year we did it by hand, which was exhausting to do every night. Also, the stats didn’t always update right away, so we’d have to either calculate them out or hold the article until the stats updated.
You know what’s really weird? Lambo’s OPS this year .933 is exactly the same as it was at AAA last year, but he doesn’t have a HR yet. His OPB is .100 higher and his SLG is .100 lower than last year. It’s like he’s a completely different hitter, yet still very effective. Strange.
I think he is in the process of recovering his mojo. He lost his bat on the flight to Venezuela last winter and hadn’t found it before the end of Spring Training. I read a quote attributed to him which indicated that he had started to believe he was a home run hitter, and didn’t need to work as much in the cage on just seeing the ball and hitting it. When I watched him last season I was impressed with how hard he was swinging. My guess is that he has backed off a little on his swing and is just looking to make solid contact to raise his BA. Once he has regained his confidence I think he’ll start swinging harder.
I think a similar thing happened with Neil Walker. When he first came up he was swinging hard and driving the ball to the gaps. Then he went through a couple of years when his SLG was down compared to what I see as his potential at least. It was like he decided that since he was playing second base he could swing like a second baseman. This year NH is hitting for more power, thankfully, and my guess is that it stems back to what he expects from himself. Confidence and self -vision is such an important element in sports performance, and so hard to fathom because it is inside a players heart.
Nice to see Allie producing. Hope he pans out. And I do enjoy your site regardless of whether I agree with your commentaries or not.
Absolutely would be great if Allie can keep this up for several months and maybe even get a sniff of AAA this year. The AVG is decent, OBP and SLG both good. The Ks are still high but much better than last year.
Gabby Sanchez’s last arbitration year is 2015. It would be great if Allie was ready to replace Gabby for the 2016 season so the Bucs don’t have to think about a long term contract for Gabby. Allie’s power potential is so much more attractive than Gabby’s. But Allie will have to have a successful season at Altoona this year and a successful AAA season in Indy in 2015 to be a real candidate for that slot.
This is the first time I’ve looked at Gift’s stats this year, wow, really impressive. If they determine Hanson has to move to 2B long term, maybe Gift could be the SS next to him. There certainly aren’t doubts about Gift’s defensive pedigree, and if he can get on base like that, WOW.
(Of course, often minor league OBP totals are artificially inflated, and we’ll see what he does once he gets to AAA and if he is able to maintain that or if guys just start being more aggressive and pitch to him.)
Against RHPs he’s .321/.486/.500 in 37 PAs. This is what I’m paying the most attention to.
We have a SS for the next 4+ years in Mercer that crushes LHP but stinks against RHP. Mercer would be the perfect utility IF/starter against LHP if we could find a starter who hits RHP well.
That’s really all I look at for any player, since 3/4ths of the MLB pitchers are RH. I believe at least last year Hanson had similar splits.
I’m not so sure that Mercer’s splits will remain so extreme. He didn’t have such a huge split in the minors, it might be SSS.
Really nice to see Hanson making adjustments and getting some hits to fall. Also, great to see Allie take the step forward so far that he has in AA. It will be just as interesting to see how he combats adjustments that the scouting reports dictate as the season progresses.
Toolshed