The highlights have been a little slow the last few days for Altoona and Indianapolis, so we waited a little bit to show this first clip. This is Stetson Allie’s 16th homer of the season, one behind JaCoby Jones for the Pirates organization lead. It’s an impressive shot from Allie, who has been on a recent hot streak, improving his two biggest weaknesses, low average and high strikeouts.
Even after an 0-for-3 yesterday, Allie has raised his average since the All-Star break 21 games ago. He is batting .269 over that time, which is 34 points higher than his pre-break average. More recently, he has shown a great 7/5 BB/SO ratio in his last ten games. Prior to the break he was striking out once every three at-bats, but since then he is at 5.5 at-bats per K.
We praise the power output from JaCoby Jones(17 homers) and Willy Garcia(16 homers) this year, though we always mention that neither has shown great plate patience. Allie has 52 walks this year, more than both of them combined. His 104 strikeouts is high, but well behind both of those players, so his plate patience is less of an issue than it is for them. I mentioned a week or so ago in another highlights article that Allie needed to show some improvements to be a possible addition to the 40-man roster over the off-season and so far, he is headed in the right direction.
Keon Broxton showed some hustle on this RBI double in the video below. For those that follow minor league baseball, the title of the video suggests some wishful thinking on the part of Altoona, but I assure you that Byron Buxton wasn’t traded to the Pirates. Keon Broxton is having a solid all-around season as a 24-year-old(turned 24 in May) in his second season of AA. He’s displayed improvements over last year, cutting down on his strikeouts while improving his walks. He also has 11 homers and 18 stolen bases, both surpassing last year’s totals. He’s still a fringe prospect at this point, but he has shown that he deserves a shot at AAA next year.
Some other clips to fill out your Saturday. Jose Tabata had two highlights from Friday. This double here….
…and this sliding catch that he went all out for in foul ground. It’s actually quite impressive with all the bullpen distractions, players/wall/mound.
Chase d’Arnaud picked up this outfield assist with an unusual twist.
