With Nevin Ashley on call for the majors, it seems like there was a chain-reaction with catcher moves in the minors. Kawika Emsley-Pai moves from the West Virginia Power to the Altoona Curve. Francisco Diaz moved from the Jamestown roster to West Virginia. Diaz started the year with the Power and was joined by Emsley-Pai when Reese McGuire went on the disabled list. When McGuire returned, Diaz was the one removed from the active roster.
Taking the place pf Ashley on the Indianapolis roster is catcher Ralph Henriquez. He is actually replacing Brandon Cumpton on the roster, but with Ashley in Pittsburgh, Henriquez will serve as the catcher along with Omir Santos. Cumpton will be recalled for the doubleheader for the Pirates in New York. Henriquez has been the backup to Elias Diaz in Altoona this year.
In other news, West Virginia first baseman Edwin Espinal was placed on the disabled list with a minor hand injury. He shouldn’t be out for more than the 7-day DL stay. Adam Landecker took his place on the roster. Espinal is hitting .252/.284/.323 in 35 games. He was on a recent hot streak, but an 0-for-9 in his last two games halted that.
Wrapping up the recent transactions, relief pitcher Cody Eppley was assigned to the Jamestown roster when Jaff Decker was sent back to Indianapolis. Eppley has had a rough time in six appearances with Indianapolis, allowing eight runs on 11 hits and five walks in 3.1 innings.
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball.
When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.
Is Cumpton going back down to pitch vs Gwinnett today or tomorrow?
Sadler is pitching today, so I’m guessing they are giving Cumpton an extra day to get settled back in
Any updates on Meadows , Barnes, Lambo?? Looks like Meadows hamstring issue was more serious than originally portrayed – he’s been out a month and a half now. Same with Barnes.
The most recent updates for all three can be found in the prospect watch http://18.206.184.11/2014/05/prospect-watch-three-hits-each-for-alen-hanson-and-gregory-polanco.html
Thanks John – the problem is they are not so recent – a month old for Barnes and Meadows. Its hard to believe that no one has asked and there isn’t a more recent update on either??
We would post it if there was anything new worth noting. No news just means nothing has changed. Lambo had a bruised thumb and hamstring injuries are tough to judge. Barnes had one last year that cost him a month and another shut him down for two months. Meadows they are just being overly cautious with and last report, he wasn’t doing any game activities