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, 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 2016 prospect guide, and links on each name go to their Pirates Prospects player pages.
We’re working on a solution for the PHP stat codes not working in the app.
1. Tyler Glasnow, RHP, Indianapolis -[insert_php]
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2. Austin Meadows, CF, Altoona – [insert_php]
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3. Josh Bell, 1B, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
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4. Jameson Taillon, RHP, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
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5. Alen Hanson, 2B, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
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6. Harold Ramirez, OF, Altoona -[insert_php]
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7. Reese McGuire, C, Altoona -[insert_php]
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8. Elias Diaz, C, Pirates – Disabled List.
9. Nick Kingham, RHP, Indianapolis – Disabled List
10. Ke’Bryan Hayes, 3B, West Virginia -[insert_php]
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11. Kevin Newman, SS, Bradenton -[insert_php]
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12. Yeudy Garcia, RHP, Bradenton -[insert_php]
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13. Steven Brault, LHP, Indianapolis -[insert_php]
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14. Stephen Tarpley, LHP, Bradenton – [insert_php]
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15.Cole Tucker, SS, West Virginia – [insert_php]
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16. Chad Kuhl, RHP, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
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17. Max Moroff, 2B, Indianapolis -[insert_php]
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18. Mitch Keller, RHP, West Virginia -[insert_php]
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19. Clay Holmes, RHP, Altoona – [insert_php]
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20. Willy Garcia, OF, Indianapolis -[insert_php]
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21. Brandon Waddell, LHP, Altoona – [insert_php]
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22. Tyler Eppler, RHP, Altoona -[insert_php]
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23. Barrett Barnes, OF, Altoona -[insert_php]
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24. Trevor Williams, RHP, Indianapolis – Disabled List
25. Gage Hinsz, RHP – Extended Spring Training
26. Adrian Valerio, SS – Extended Spring Training
27. Adam Frazier, INF/OF, Indianapolis -[insert_php]
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28. Kevin Kramer, 2B, Bradenton -[insert_php]
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29. Jordan Luplow, OF/3B, Bradenton – [insert_php]
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30. JT Brubaker, RHP, West Virginia -[insert_php]
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In his last start, Tyler Glasnow showed some of his best control in pro ball, walking one batter in seven innings, with 11 strikeouts. That didn’t carry over to tonight’s outing. The right-hander gave up three runs on six hits and five walks in five innings, recording just one strikeout. It was the second time in the last three outings that he walked five batters in five innings of work.
Glasnow has actually been rotating between pitching gems and rough outings. As noted above, his start before this one had 11 strikeouts and one walk, and the one before that had seven strikeouts and five walks (although he didn’t give up a run in that game). Before that, he had another outing with 11 strikeouts and one walk, this time in six innings. That followed a start where he gave up three walks and struck out four in five innings, giving up four runs.
In short, Glasnow hasn’t been consistent with his control. Every start like the last one makes you think that he’s ready, and every start like this one reminds you that he still has things to work on. He’s not giving up many runs, mostly because his stuff is good enough to get away with mistakes at the Triple-A level. But that won’t play in the Majors, especially when his control is like this. He threw 98 pitches tonight, with 50 going for strikes.
The Indians won the game 6-3, thanks to a huge three-run homer from Gift Ngoepe in the top of the ninth inning. It was Ngoepe’s first homer of the year. He had two hits on the night, joining Willy Garcia and Adam Frazier. Danny Ortiz also had a home run tonight, hitting a solo shot in the third inning to get Indianapolis on the board.
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RICHMOND, VA – Altoona took on frequent patsy Richmond and came away with a 3-2 win. It was the Curve’s seventh straight win over the Flying Squirrels, leaving them 9-3 against Richmond and 8-14 against everybody else. Altoona spent much of the game hitting line drives off San Francisco’s number 12 prospect, lefty Andrew Suarez, who was making his first Double-A start. The Curve managed to finish with just six hits due to poor aim. Jose Osuna hit four line drives but finished just 2-4. Austin Meadows hit two drives to the outfield that were caught and took an 0-4 collar. Reese McGuire hit a laser right at the second baseman and finished 0-3. Harold Ramirez hit a line drive off the left field wall for a double and finished 1-4.
Altoona still got on the board first when Osuna led off with a double, moved to third on a sacrifice, and scored when Stetson Allie hit a rocket at the left fielder for a sacrifice fly. The other two runs came courtesy of Eric Wood, who avoided the lineout problem by blasting two long drives well over the fence in left, his third and fourth HRs. He finished 3-3.
Cody Dickson started and had one of his best games of the season, allowing one run on three hits over five and two-thirds innings. The control problems that have plagued him didn’t go away, though, as he frequently went deep into the count and, starting with the fourth inning, had a number of 2-0 and 3-0 counts. He left due to his pitch count of 96. He managed to walk only two, while fanning six, because the Richmond hitters frequently bailed him out. Still, he allowed little hard contact.
The first batter he faced singled sharply to left, but the other two hits were a slow bouncer and a bloop. The one run shouldn’t have scored. With runners on second and third, and two outs, Anderson Feliz fielded a grounder at short and threw to third instead of first. Wood ran down the runner to make the tag, but the runner on third scored.
Dickson, as he generally does, threw his fastball 88-92 MPH. His most effective pitch was probably his change. He struggled to throw his curve for strikes, or even to get it near the plate. He bounced both the curve and the fastball, although none of them got past McGuire. There were four steal attempts against the Curve, the first three successful. None were McGuire’s fault. One came on a changeup, one on a curve in the dirt, and one when reliever Brett McKinney totally ignored the runner, leading to a steal with no throw. The fourth attempt came with first and third and one out, and McGuire caught the runner with an accurate throw.
McKinney followed Dickson with a scoreless inning and two-thirds. He gave up two more weak hits, an infield hit that tipped off his own glove, and a bloop. Jhondaniel Medina managed a scoreless inning despite throwing only six of 15 pitches for strikes, with more help from the hitters. Montana DuRapau gave up several hard-hit balls in the ninth, but escaped with only one run allowed. – Wilbur Miller
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Yeudy Garcia hasn’t been the same pitcher this year that he was last year, when he was our Breakout Prospect of the Year. He hasn’t been near as dominant, with a drop in velocity on his fastball, and too much of a reliant on his slider, which isn’t a good enough pitch to use so frequently.
Tonight’s start looked good by the numbers, with one run on a walk and four hits in four innings, along with six strikeouts. However, the four innings was a problem, especially since Garcia needed 78 pitches to get to that point. He has dealt with some long innings this year, and that was the case again tonight.
In the bottom of the fourth inning, Garcia gave up a single up the middle, followed by a strikeout and a stolen base. He then started getting wild, allowing the runner to advance to third on a wild pitch, and letting him score on another wild pitch, after his second strikeout of the inning. He walked the next batter, and followed that with a hit by pitch, before striking out his third batter of the inning.
Garcia had another long inning in the second, giving up two singles with two outs, before getting a strikeout. He’s not getting quick outs like he was last year, and while he’s getting strikeouts, he’s not getting them as easy as last year.
The Marauders scored two runs in the fifth inning, thanks to a triple from Chase Simpson. It was the second triple of the game for the third baseman, who also added a double in his three hit night. Logan Hill hit his second homer of the year, a solo shot in the eighth inning, trying to get a comeback. The Marauders couldn’t make that happen, losing 4-3.
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LAKEWOOD, NJ – JT Brubaker had an outing much like his previous game, which also didn’t go well. He lasted just four innings on Thursday night, pitching into the fifth without recording an out. Early on, he was getting outs without damage, despite some hard hit balls. In the second inning, he gave up a long solo homer to left field, the seventh home run he has allowed already. Last year, he gave up just three homers in 73.1 innings. In the third inning, he allowed two straight singles, followed by a sacrifice fly that was the hardest hit ball of the inning, a line drive out to right field.
In the fourth, Lakewood just missed another home run when the ball hit high off the wall in left-center. Everywhere else in the park, the fence is about eight feet high, but in that area it’s twice as high, saving a run for Brubaker. He followed that long double with a walk, but worked out of the inning without allowing a run. In the fifth, the first four batters all reached base before he was pulled. Two of them came around to score off Eric Karch.
In his last start, I mentioned Brubaker was up in the zone with his fastball, then once he started having success with his change and slider, he went to the pitches too often and batters stopped chasing them out of the zone. That exact same thing happened in this outing. When he worked out of trouble in the fourth, he was getting batters to chase off-speed pitches outside the zone. When he tried to continue that in the fifth, they stopped chasing and he couldn’t retire anyone.
His final line was four runs on seven hits and three walks in four innings. He struck out six, mostly off the slider. Brubaker threw 84 pitches, 52 for strikes. His fastball touched 94 a few times, sitting 90-93. The slider was 83-84, while the change was hitting 86 consistently. Like his last game, the curve was a show me pitch and I only saw one, which missed the zone.
West Virginia lost 6-4 in this game, after taking a 3-2 lead into the bottom of the fifth. Those three runs all came in the top of the fifth. The Power got some help from a couple hit batters to start the inning, then finished the scoring on a Ke’Bryan Hayes double over the third base bag. The other run scored on a Cole Tucker “ground out” which I’ll describe below. In the eighth, they scored a run on a sacrifice fly from Carlos Munoz. He drove in Casey Hughston, who tripled into the right-center gap and showed some nice speed around the bases.
Tucker just returned a few days ago from his shoulder surgery. He went 0-for-5 in the game after collecting one hit in each of the first three games. Tucker made solid contact in his first two at-bats, lining out to second base and grounding out up the middle. The last three at-bats were all soft contact and nothing got out of the infield. In his third at-bat, he chopped one off the plate that bounced almost straight up, with the catcher trying to make the catch a foot in front of the plate. It hit off his glove and rolled about 30 feet or so up the first base line. That’s how the run scored, but Tucker never left the box until after the catcher was already chasing the ball, so he lost a gift hit there, though it may have been ruled an error.
Mitchell Tolman had two hits, while Tito Polo reached on a single and one of three Power hit-by-pitches. His single was just a slowly hit ball to shortstop, which didn’t even get a throw due to his speed. Seth McGarry pitched a scoreless ninth, striking out two batters and hitting 94 on the gun.
Casey Hughston make decent contact in all four at-bats, grounding out to second base the first three times, before hitting the triple. The recap says two grounders to shortstop, but they were playing the shift and he hit into it each time. That has to be a moral victory for him with all the strikeouts he has had this season. Unfortunately for Hughston, he misplayed a fly ball in the eighth inning, which led to the run difference in the game. – John Dreker
