This week, we had live coverage from three affiliates, while I saw West Virginia on the road and reviewed a lot of the games via MiLB.tv, giving us an additional look at the players throughout the system. As usual, we provide recaps of the top performers, using their strong numbers as an excuse to go into detail on their upside and what has led to their results. Here is the rundown this week:
PITCHERS
Dario Agrazal – Agrazal is similar to Logan Sendelbach (see below) this season in that his stats are skewed early by a bad outing. In Agrazal’s case, it’s two poor outings and five strong performances. This week he had his best game, allowing one run over seven innings, while posting a 9:4 GO/AO ratio. He has some of the best control in the system, with three walks in 32 innings this year, continuing the pace he has put up each season of his career. Agrazal works low-90’s with the fastball, hitting 94 MPH. He keeps the ball low and can hit corners, pitching to contact for quick outs. He also has a change-up and a low-80’s curve with sharp, late break. Part of the appeal with him besides the command, is that he has a very easy and clean, repeatable delivery, leading you to believe that there could be more velocity. – John Dreker
Austin Coley – Coley got off to a rough start this year, giving up nine earned runs in eight innings over his first two starts. He has rebounded well, giving up seven earned runs in 27.1 innings over his last five starts, including back-to-back outings with six innings and one run allowed. He’s a sinkerball guy, and doesn’t get a ton of strikeouts. He was struggling earlier in the year with command around the zone, but has done a much better job in this regard lately. That said, he was a bit wild this past week, with 45 of 85 pitches going for strikes, but he got away with it, and gave up just one run on two hits and a walk in six innings. – Tim Williams
Frank Duncan – Duncan won’t impress you with his stuff, but the results this year are outstanding. Against the same team that knocked both Jameson Taillon and Wilfredo Boscan out of the top five in ERA, Duncan allowed one single and no walks over six shutout innings. He throws a sinker that hits low-90’s, mixing it with a change-up and a slurve, commanding all three pitches well. He may have the best command in the system, and so far this season that has led him to a 1.01 ERA, with 25 strikeouts and a 2.93 GO/AO ratio in 26.2 innings. He’s currently with Indianapolis, but the plan Is to return him to Altoona after 1-2 starts, where he will join their starting rotation. – JD
Tyler Eppler – Eppler pitched seven innings last week and had solid overall results, though he was helped greatly by the defense. That same thing happened in his previous start, with a nice pitching line, but some strong defensive plays saved the day. Eppler impressed with his slurve and change-up this week, while he had some issues commanding the fastball. The fastball has been good this year, as the 6’6″ righty gets nice downward plane, sitting 92-94 MPH. He has been the best starter for Altoona this season, owning the lowest ERA and WHIP, while posting the highest strikeout total on the team. His shortest outing was 5.1 innings and he went at least six innings in each of his other six starts. – JD
Mitch Keller – Keller has had an incredible start to his season, which now has him leading the South Atlantic League in WHIP and strikeouts, while ranking second with a 1.10 ERA. This week he started with six shutout innings on Monday, allowing two hits and striking out eight batters. He finished with two runs over seven innings on Sunday. In 41 innings, he has a 3:48 BB/SO ratio. Keller has been dominating with a fastball that normally sits 93-96 MPH, with downward plane and excellent command of the pitch. When he is on, his curve is usually around 76-77 MPH and is a second plus pitch. He also throws an occasional high 80’s change-up, which has looked good at times. Keller didn’t have either off-speed pitch working on Sunday, but was still able to get solid results due to commanding his fastball. – JD
Chad Kuhl – Kuhl leads the International League in ERA with a 1.10 mark and the scary part for opposing hitters is that he has had his work limited up until now. Due arm soreness in Spring Training, he was briefly shutdown and had to build his innings/pitch count back up, doing it in the Indianapolis rotation instead of Extended Spring Training after Trevor Williams got hurt. This week, Kuhl threw six shutout innings and it was a terrific looking outing. His sinker was sitting 93-95 like usual, his slider was getting strong results and his change-up looked better than it has in any other start. He worked quickly, was around the zone all game and kept the ball down. It’s basically been the same deal in every start this year despite the pitch limitations. – JD
Logan Sendelbach – In all but one of his seven outings, Sendelbach had put up strong results. In that game, his fastball was up the entire time and the opposition put up seven runs in 2.1 innings. In his other six starts combined, he has allowed five earned runs over 33.1 innings. This week he gave up one run over six innings and struck out a career-high six batters. Sendelbach doesn’t have overpowering stuff, so he relies on fastball command down in the zone. He also mixes in a slider occasionally that gets some swing and misses, but his main focus this season is just commanding the fastball, which has a nice downward plane when it is on. He has already shown significant improvements with the pitch over last year with Bristol, when he was getting hit around in almost every start. – JD
Stephen Tarpley – Tarpley made his season debut last week, making two starts and combining for three earned runs on five hits in ten innings, with four walks and eight strikeouts. Control has been a big focus for him in the past few years, but he didn’t get off to a great start this year. His walk rate was actually better in game two, but he ended up throwing a higher ratio of strikes in game one. He’s got some outstanding stuff for a lefty, with a fastball that sits low-90s and touches as high as 97, and a good feel for a changeup. With Brandon Waddell promoted, and Yeudy Garcia not showing his best stuff, Tarpley becomes the top guy to watch in Bradenton. – TW
Brandon Waddell – Brandon Waddell made two starts this past week for Altoona, giving them a total of 12.1 innings and only allowing three runs against him. During his start on the 10th, one of those runs was the result of a Jin-De Jhang passed ball, a bunt single that got stuck in Waddell’s glove, and a slow grounder. His strength has been his control of the strike zone so far as a professional, and he hasn’t disappointed in his first few starts at Double-A. He had a 65% strike rate this past week, and that number could have been much higher with a few calls going his way. Also impressive has been his ground ball rate, which is sitting pretty at 76% in his past two starts, including a 14:3 ratio in his start on the 10th in Altoona. -Sean McCool
POSITION PLAYERS
Danny Arribas – Arribas put up an .857 OPS this week, driven by a .500 OBP. He has a .384 OBP this year, which has him 12 points back of the top ten for the league. His .814 OPS for the season places him first on West Virginia. Arribas has four homers and four stolen bases in four attempts. He’s an athletic player, who can play multiple positions, but this season he has only played first base. Arribas has a 20:18 BB/SO ratio, so there is a lot to like about his early results. He has hit for average and got on base wherever he has played. The problem at this point is that he is 23 years old in Low-A, moving slowly through the system at first because he was a catcher, who needed defensive work. The other problem right now is that there isn’t a spot for him at Bradenton, where they already have too many good players who deserve playing time. – JD
Alen Hanson – Hanson had a positive sign this week to go along with his .808 OPS. He had just three strikeouts in 27 plate appearances. He was striking out a lot early in the season, but he was also hitting well at the time, so it wasn’t a problem. Watching him a lot this season, I have seen him spray line drives all over the field, while occasionally driving the ball. His defense has been outstanding at second base, though he has been playing left field regularly in advance of being called up today to briefly take the place of Starling Marte while he’s on paternity leave. Due to his plus speed, his range is phenomenal in the outfield, but there are obviously rough edges out there with reading the ball off the bat and getting jumps. His big league chance will likely be brief, then he can return to Indianapolis to work on consistency at the plate and improving his defense at other spots besides second base to become more versatile. – JD
Logan Hill – I had Hill as a sleeper pick coming into the year, due to his build and ability to hit for some power. He struggled in April, hitting for a .357 OPS and losing playing time on a crowded roster. He has picked up the production this month, with a .346/.433/.654 line in 26 at-bats so far. That is just three shy of his total at-bats in April, and we’re only half way through the month. So rather than losing time, he’s now playing his way into the lineup. He’s got two homers on the year, one of which came this past week. He also carries a six game hitting streak into this week, capping off his big performance last week with a 3-for-5 day on Sunday. – TW
Reese McGuire – Since last Sunday, Reese McGuire has made quite the turnaround at the plate with a .381 average and .863 OPS. That includes only his third extra base hit of the season, a hard hit RBI double down the right field line on Friday night. The uptick in base hits is a good sign for McGuire, and he continues to show a ton of discipline at the plate, as he hasn’t struck out since May 1st. He walked twice this past week, giving him a 15:7 walk-to-strikeout ratio on the season. Defensively, he continues to show why he is rated one the best defensive catchers in the minor leagues, as he calls a great game, and pitchers love throwing to him. Uncharacteristically, McGuire did have throwing errors pinned against him on back-to-back games on the 8th and 9th. – SM
Carlos Munoz – Munoz batted .368 last week and could finally be heating up after a slow start to the season. He usually starts off fast and fades at the end of seasons. Even with the strong week, he only has a .679 OPS so far this year. Munoz has continued one positive trend throughout his career, posting more walks than strikeouts, while also limiting his strikeouts. In 110 at-bats this season, he has a 17:12 BB/SO ratio. He will need to continue his recent work while also showing some of that power he displayed last year at Bristol. He’s already in his sixth season in the system and his bat needs to carry him because first base is his only possible position and his glove is average at best, plus he very slow on the bases. – JD
Kevin Newman – Newman’s hitting hasn’t slowed down this year, and while he’s mostly hitting singles, he is hitting a lot of them. He did have a double last week, which was his first extra-base hit of the month, and third of the year. What he has lacked in quality he has made up for in quantity, picking up a lot of multi-hit games. He has a four hit game and a three hit game last week, and now has 15 multi-hit games out of his 29 games this season. The bat is advanced for High-A, although the defense needs some work, and he should get a chance to work on that for at least a few more weeks at the current level, until the Pirates are ready to move him up to Altoona. – TW
Gift Ngoepe – Ngoepe is struggling through his second run at Triple-A, posting a .588 OPS in 26 games, with 42 strikeouts in only 92 at-bats. The assumption is his outstanding defense will eventually get him to the majors, but his batting this season isn’t making that a safe bet. He could be a nice bench piece in September due to his speed and his ability to also play second base and third base, on top of the plus defense at shortstop. He had an .833 OPS this week, which was tops on Indianapolis. – JD
Harold Ramirez – Ramirez was hitting .234 with a .631 OPS only a week ago, and he has risen his average over 50 points in a week. Since last Sunday, Ramirez has 13 hits for a .464 batting average and 1.054 OPS. It finally seems like he is breaking out of his early season slump and picking up where he left off last season in Bradenton. He has shown the ability to hit for some power, as well. He almost broke out statistically under the radar over the past week – not really doing anything super fancy but steadily improving. Defensively, he is much better at a corner outfield position than center field, as he has seemed to struggled with commanding the outfield while playing the position. Keep him in a corner spot, and he does just fine. – SM
Chase Simpson – Simpson has a lot of power potential in his frame, but that wasn’t leading to results early in the season. He has been doing a better job lately, and really turned up the production this week, hitting four doubles and two triples, while going 9-for-20 in his four games. He loses out on playing time due to the crowded Bradenton roster, but might see more chances in the future after some mid-season promotions, and especially if he keeps this performance up. – TW
Michael Suchy – Suchy is a big guy, and while he can play the outfield well, most of his upside comes with the bat. He has struggled this year, entering last week with a .534 OPS. The Pirates have stuck with him, giving him everyday playing time, despite plenty of talented options who need time in Bradenton. He responded this week with a strong performance, getting hits in all six of his starts, while going 9-for-22 with three doubles and a homer. There has been a trend in Bradenton where all hitters not named Newman have been picking up their production lately, and Suchy could be the latest guy in that trend, as he starts to put up numbers closer to last year. – TW
Jerrick Suiter – Suiter got off to about as bad of a start as you could expect from a big framed first baseman. After his game on April 28th, his OPS dropped down to .422. Since that point, he has posted a 13-game hitting streak, including 10-for-26 this past week. Despite his size, he has mostly been hitting singles, opting for a wider stance that doesn’t play well for power production, but allows him better control of where he’s placing the ball. So while he has a 13-game hitting streak, he only has three extra base hits in that span, only taking his OPS up to .657. In order to become a legit prospect, he’s going to need to continue doing this on a more consistent basis. – TW
Eric Wood – Wood’s numbers look extremely impressive over this past week thanks to an impressive 3-for-3 performance with two home runs at Richmond on the 12th. Both long balls were driven well over the left field fence in Richmond. He also led the Curve offense on the 11th with two hits and two RBIs. Wood has taken advantage of increased playing time at third base over the past few weeks, too, as he has been hitting decently well and fielding the position at a high level. He obviously has the skill to play third base, as he can make the difficult plays and throws, but Wood does show signs of mental breakdowns at times. Clean up a few things defensively, and he’d be fine. – SM
