A look at how the current top 30 prospects did today. Note that this list doesn’t include players currently in the majors. 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 (Nick Kingham), 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 30 active prospects on the list. Rankings are from the mid-season update, and links on each name go to their Pirates Prospects player pages.
1. Tyler Glasnow, RHP, Altoona – DNP
2. Jameson Taillon, RHP, Indianapolis – Disabled List
3. Austin Meadows, CF, Bradenton – DNP
4. Josh Bell, 1B, Altoona – 0-for-4
5. Alen Hanson, 2B, Indianapolis – 0-for-4, BB
6. Reese McGuire, C, Bradenton – DNP
7. Elias Diaz, C, Indianapolis – 1-for-4, BB
8. Harold Ramirez, OF, Bradenton – DNP
9. Cole Tucker, SS, West Virginia – 1-for-5, R, SB
10. Kevin Newman, SS, Morgantown – DNP
11. Ke’Bryan Hayes, 3B, GCL – DNP
12. Mitch Keller, RHP, Bristol – DNP
13. Clay Holmes, RHP, Bradenton – DNP
14. Stephen Tarpley, LHP, West Virginia – DNP
15. Adrian Sampson, RHP, Indianapolis – DNP
16. Max Moroff, 2B, Altoona – 0-for-5
17. Barrett Barnes, OF, Altoona – 2-for-4
18. JaCoby Jones, SS, Bradenton – DNP
19. Yeudy Garcia, RHP, West Virginia – 5.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 0 HR
20. Trey Supak, RHP, Bristol – DNP
21. Gage Hinsz, RHP, Bristol – 3.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 3 K, 0 HR
22. Adam Frazier, SS, Altoona – 2-for-5, 2B, R
23. Willy Garcia, OF, Indianapolis – 2-for-4, R
24. Steven Brault, LHP, Altoona – DNP
25. Kevin Kramer, 2B, Morgantown – 1-for-4
26. Tyler Eppler, RHP, Bradenton – DNP
27. Adrian Valerio, SS, GCL – DNP
28. Connor Joe, 1B, West Virginia – DNP
29. Jacob Taylor, RHP, GCL – DNP
30. John Holdzkom, RHP, Indianapolis – 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 0 HR
Top Pitcher: Jonathan Brubaker, RHP – 6.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 0 HR
Top Hitter: Carlos Munoz, 1B – 3-for-4, 3 HR, 5 RBI, 4 R, BB
Home Runs: Carlos Munoz 3(6), Elvis Escobar (4), Erik Lunde (2)
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The cold stretch for Alen Hanson continued on Saturday night. Despite hitting .279 for the season, and being basically a model of consistency after a slow start, Hanson is 2-for-16 in his last four games. He did walk in the bottom of the 10th, but was eliminated on a double play with the next hitter.
John Bowker, Gustavo Nunez, and Willy Garcia each added two hits each in the contest. For Garcia, the impressive July continued after a slow start to his Triple-A career. Garcia already has 21 hits for the month, which already triples his total from June at the level in five extra games.
After jumping up and down with the over work of the Pirates bullpen, Wilfredo Boscan saw his first game action since July 16. Boscan was expected to get around 75 pitches, due to the time off. He was able to do this and allowed three hits and two runs over five innings.
A.J. Morris relieved Boscan and worked a pair of perfect innings, striking out a pair. Bobby LaFromboise extended his scoreless inning streak to five and 14 of the last 15 appearances with his inning of work. Josh Wall also extended his scoreless streak in his first inning of work, but ran into trouble in the top of the 10th, allowing a pair to cross the plate and taking the loss.- Ryan Palencer
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Jason Creasy was having a good enough season that he earned a place in the Eastern League All-Star game, but the wheels have fallen off since the calendar turned to July. He came into the game with a 10.13 ERA this month and that obviously didn’t include the three runs in one inning he allowed during the All-Star game. With all that has gone wrong already this month, this was his worst outing. He allowed seven earned runs over three innings, with six hits, three walks and he hit three batters. Creasy was the player that showed the best control in the system last year, walking 22 batters in 148.2 innings. This season, he is now at 38 walks and 11 hit batters in 45 less innings.
Max Moroff is 2-for-14 since being pulled from a game earlier this week due to manager’s decision. He also sat out the day after being lifted mid-game. Josh Bell saw his 17-game on base streak snapped. He had not struck out twice in a game since July 1st. Barrett Barnes had two hit in his third game since being promoted to Altoona. Dan Gamache is still a few plate appearances short of qualifying for the batting title, but his .339 average is 13 points higher than the league leader.
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Saturday’s Bradenton game was canceled due to rain. The boxscore above is from Friday’s game, which has been officially declared a draw and all stats will count towards the season totals. Felipe Gonzalez got a spot start in place of Jayson Aquino, who was designated for assignment earlier this week. Gonzalez allowed one run over five innings. Austin Meadows went 1-for-3, which gives him a .304 average. That ranked him fourth in the FSL going into Saturday. Jin-De Jhang is one spot behind Meadows with a .300 average after going 2-for-3 on Friday.
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This morning I wrote about Yeudy Garcia, and how he and Stephen Tarpley give the Power two aces. Garcia didn’t have his best outing on Saturday, but he was still better than what you normally get from pitchers. He gave up two runs over five innings, which raised his league-leading ERA to 2.12 through 85 innings. Garcia had a 10:2 GO/AO ratio, improving on the 1.33 mark he had prior to the game, which is good for a power pitcher. John Sever followed Garcia with three shutout innings. In his last seven outings combined, Sever has given up one run over 17.2 innings, while striking out 19 batters.
Elvis Escobar hit his 19th double and fourth homer, giving him 25 extra-base hits on the season. He has shown solid improvements over last season with West Virginia, when he had a .554 OPS in 55 games and was striking out at a much higher rate. His big problem this year is his base running, with nine steals in 27 attempts, for one of the worst success rates you’ll ever see. Escobar isn’t that slow and he was 24-for-38 prior to this season, so the problem seems to be in his timing. Cole Tucker stole his 25th base of the season, which ranks him tied for tenth in the league, two behind teammate Tito Polo.
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Jonathan Brubaker pitched one of the best games all season and he almost got through six perfect innings. He retired the first 17 batters in a row, then struck out the next batter, only to have him reached when Christian Kelley had to throw the ball to first base to complete the out and he threw it away. Brubaker then allowed a single before getting a ground out to end the inning. He had a 5.33 ERA coming into the day, but did throw one-hit ball over five shutout innings during one of his previous starts.
Ty Moore had two hits, scored a run and stole his fifth base. He is hitting .345 and has reached base in 31 of 32 pro games, including each of the last 27 games. Kevin Kramer had a single, giving him hits in 10 of his last 11 games. He is 12-for-44(.273) during that stretch. First round pick Kevin Newman didn’t play in this game. John Holdzkom made his second rehab appearance and threw a scoreless seventh inning, striking out two batters.
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Gage Hinsz made his fourth start of the year and he’s still looking for his first solid outing. He gave up three runs over three innings in this contest, with the third run scoring after he faced one batter(walk) in the fourth inning that came around to score after he left the game. Hinsz allowed two earned runs in each of his first three games, but he has only pitched a total of 9.2 innings so far, giving him an 8.38 ERA. He has been working with a limited pitch count, as he had a setback prior to the season, so he got a late start to the season and he’s still building up. Despite the limited pitch counts, the inning total is still very low and this game saw him issue four walks, which followed one free pass in each of his last two contests.
Hinsz is the bigger prospect, but the story of this game was Carlos Munoz. He homered in the first inning, third inning and sixth inning. Munoz isn’t exactly the person you would expect to hit three homers in a game. He had a total of eight in his first four seasons in the Pirates’ system, and then three more this year prior to Saturday night. Munoz drove in five runs with three swings, but Erik Lunde had the big hit, a fourth inning grand slam that turned a close 4-2 game into a blowout. His homer followed five straight walks and Bristol walked six times in the inning.
The GCL Pirates had a doubleheader postponed due to rain.
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The DSL Pirates won on Saturday with some help from the Tigers’ defense, which committed six errors in the game, leading to four unearned runs. Pirates’ starter Miguel Hernandez pitched five innings, allowing just one unearned run, while Julian Villamar and Hector Garcia finished off the win, giving up one run over four innings. Garcia was an All-Star for the Pirates this season and he’s been their most consistent pitcher all year.
The Pirates had 12 hits, though Eddy Vizcaino’s triple was the only extra-base hit. Christopher Perez and Julio Gonzalez had rare two-hit games, as they now have .160 and .130 batting averages, respectively. In fact, Gonzalez had just four hits in his first 16 games as a pro and never more than one in a game. Jeremias Portorreal was on a hot streak coming into this week, but he has really cooled off. He is 3-for-27 over his last seven games and has struck out three times in each of his last two games.
