When we put out our Prospect Guide last December, I thought there was a chance that five of our top eight players could lose their prospect status by the end of the season. They were the five prospects on the cover. Tyler Glasnow and Josh Bell seemed like sure bets. Jameson Taillon seemed like it could happen, but back then there was no way to tell for certain how he would do in his return and how they would handle his innings.
Elias Diaz got a tiny head start last season in September and as the third catcher, there was always a possibility he saw a lot of time. I also assumed that if he was called up if Francisco Cervelli was out for an extended amount of time, Diaz would see a lot more action than if he was replacing Chris Stewart. Alen Hanson was the other and with the added positions last year, that would give him a better shot at finding a spot. I didn’t think he would easily surpass the total, but I thought there was a good shot it could happen.
Now more than halfway into the season (88 games played to be exact) there is a possibility that only Taillon loses that prospect status. Our standard for a prospect is 130 at-bats, 50 innings for a pitcher and 30 appearances for a reliever. If a reliever went over 50 innings in under 30 appearances, he would be eliminated from the book. Taillon is easily the closest with 28 innings pitched and he could be four starts away from losing his prospect status.
As for the other four players, there is a chance they don’t lose their prospect eligibility. Starting at the top, I wouldn’t say it’s definite that Tyler Glasnow returns right after the All-Star break. Here is where his control issues come into play. He only had one start and pitched 5.1 innings, so assuming he isn’t right back up, he could still make 8-9 more starts and it wouldn’t be a given that he reaches that 50 inning point. High pitch counts could force him out of a couple starts early. I definitely wouldn’t say he has a great chance to lose his prospect status, but I think he has the second best chance behind Taillon.
Josh Bell would be next on the prospect list and he would need to start some games down the stretch to go from two at-bats to 130 by the end of the year, especially if he isn’t up for good, which it doesn’t sound like he is at this point. His odds of losing his prospect status are based more on what the Pirates decide to do with him, rather than his performance like with Glasnow. If Glasnow pitches well, he will surpass 50 innings by a wide margin, but Bell could keep hitting in Triple-A and they just won’t get him enough at-bats by the end of the year. I think he ends up very close to that 130 mark.
Elias Diaz won’t make it this year. Part of the reason I say that with confidence is that he has been picking up service time since Opening Day, and while he isn’t the type of player you worry about Super Two status with, you probably don’t want to have him over a full season in the majors at the end of this year. If they need him, he will be up of course, but I don’t think we see him just activated from the disabled list and kept in the majors. I think he spends some time in Indianapolis before we see him in Pittsburgh.
Alen Hanson doesn’t have a spot at this moment unless they use him in place of Adam Frazier. It would give them more speed on the bench, a little more power in the bat and a better defensive second baseman, but Frazier seems more suited for a pinch-hitting role and his speed is still above average. Frazier also isn’t a bad second baseman and he has more experience in the outfield. Even if that switch happened, Frazier has 24 at-bats over 16 games (14 games played), so he isn’t seeing a huge amount of playing time. You switch to Hanson and he is probably going to see games where he is only used as a pinch-runner, plus he only had two at-bats when he was called up earlier. For that reason, I don’t see Hanson losing his prospect status, even if he joined the team right after the All-Star break. That wouldn’t be out of the question with the way he has played on offense, defense and ran the bases the last three weeks.
Back to Frazier and he’s another where I don’t see it happening. He is on pace for it right now if he remained with the team all year. He would actually finish with 135 at-bats at the current pace. Once they do September call-ups though, then he will be losing some time with a deeper bench. I don’t think he stays the whole time either and it wouldn’t be a bad idea to get him more at-bats and more time in the outfield in Triple-A before you decide to limit him to a bench role. There is also talk they may keep three catchers when Cervelli first comes back, so that would probably mean Frazier leaves if he’s still around then.
Chad Kuhl has made three starts and put in 13.1 innings, but his last start didn’t go well and you could see him go back to Indianapolis after the break. He’s not the same as Glasnow, where if he performs well, they will find a spot for him. Kuhl would need a spot to be open, otherwise he might just see September innings from here on out and that would be a lot of long middle relief appearances to get him to 50 innings. I think he falls short too, though if he’s in the rotation after the break then he might have an outside chance.
The only other prospect who has played for the Pirates this year is Steven Brault and he put in just four innings. I think we see him in September out of the bullpen, but he falls well short of losing his prospect status. He’s definitely the lowest chance out of this group.
At least with Brault, Kuhl and Frazier, I didn’t expect any of them to see the majors before September, so I figured they would be in the 2017 Prospect Guide. The system would clearly look a lot deeper if Glasnow, Bell, Hanson and Diaz all joined them. For Hanson and Diaz, I expect them to be in the next guide. I didn’t think it was possible going into the year that Glasnow or Bell would be there too, but you can see how it could happen with each of them. Neither has been given that full vote of confidence yet that makes you think they are a sure thing to be around for a majority of the remaining games this season.
PIRATES GAME GRAPH
The Pirates are on their All-Star break until Friday.
TODAY’S SCHEDULE
Today’s Starter and Notes: The Pirates are on their All-Star break. They are off until Friday when they begin a three-game series in Washington.
In the minors, both Indianapolis and Altoona are on their All-Star break now. Both Bradenton and Bristol have off today as well, so it’s a light day on the schedule. There is a pitcher of interest though, as Gage Hinsz goes for West Virginia. He has improved his control a lot over last season when he walked 23 batters in 38 innings. This season, he has seven walks in 37.1 innings. His strikeouts have also gone up slightly, with 24 last year, compared to 28 this season. Hinsz has gone at least five innings in all seven starts. Tenth round pick Matt Anderson makes his third start/fourth appearance for Morgantown. He has 14 strikeouts in his first 7.2 innings.
MLB: Pittsburgh (46-42) @ Nationals (54-36) 7:05 PM 7/15
Probable starter: TBD
AAA: Indianapolis (48-44) @ Louisville (44-47) 7:05 PM 7/14 (season preview)
Probable starter: TBD
AA: Altoona (50-38) vs Harrisburg (47-41) 7:00 PM 7/14 (season preview)
Probable starter: Alex McRae (10.25 ERA, 10:19 BB/SO, 26.1 IP)
High-A: Bradenton (46-41) @ Dunedin (47-41) 6:30 PM 7/13 (season preview)
Probable starter: Austin Coley (3.65 ERA, 28:55 BB/SO, 91.1 IP)
Low-A: West Virginia (43-44) vs Augusta (48-40) 7:05 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Gage Hinsz (4.10 ERA, 7:28 BB/SO, 37.1 IP)
Short-Season A: Morgantown (10-14) @ Hudson Valley (12-12) 7:05 PM (season preview)
Probable Starter: Matt Anderson (4.70 ERA, 3:14 BB/SO, 7.2 IP)
Rookie: Bristol (8-10) @ Kingsport (7-11) 7:00 PM 7/13 (season preview)
GCL: Pirates (6-9) vs Tigers East (7-8) 12:00 PM (season preview)
DSL: Pirates (11-21) vs Yankees1 (16-15) 10:30 AM (season preview)
HIGHLIGHTS
Here is a home run from Willy Garcia, who has just three on the season after collecting 15 last year.
RECENT TRANSACTIONS
7/10: Ryan Vogelsong assigned to Altoona on rehab.
7/9: Jonathan Schwind promoted to Indianapolis.
7/8: Pirates sign Josh Outman.
7/8: Josh Bell promoted to Pittsburgh. Tyler Glasnow optioned to Indianapolis.
7/8: Nick Kingham assigned to GCL Pirates on rehab.
7/7: Juan Paula promoted to Morgantown.
7/7: Tyler Glasnow recalled. Kyle Lobstein optioned to Indianapolis.
7/6: Steven Brault optioned to Indianapolis. Kyle Lobstein promoted to Pirates.
7/6: Jacob Stallings sent outright to Indianapolis.
7/6: Pirates released Clario Perez.
7/5: Gerrit Cole assigned to Indianapolis on rehab.
7/5: Steven Brault promoted to Pirates. Jacob Stallings designated for assignment.
7/5: Austin Meadows placed on disabled list.
7/5: Tomas Morales promoted to Indianapolis (sent back to Altoona on 7/6)
7/4: Jameson Taillon placed on 15-day disabled list.
7/4: Jin-De Jhang promoted to Indianapolis. Tomas Morales assigned to Altoona.
7/4: Erik Lunde activated from disabled list. Assigned to Bradenton. Raul Hernandez assigned to GCL.
7/4: Elias Diaz assigned to Bradenton on rehab.
7/4: Chris Stewart placed on disabled list.
7/4: Pirates claim Eric Fryer off waivers. Rob Scahill placed on waivers.
7/3: Pirates sign Chris McDonald and Evan Piechota. Both assigned to GCL.
7/3: Pirates sign six international free agents.
7/3: Yunior Montero promoted to West Virginia.
7/3: Curtis Partch sent outright to Indianapolis.
7/2: Pablo Reyes activated from temporary inactive list. Trace Tam Sing placed on temporary inactive list.
7/1: Julio Vivas promoted to West Virginia.
7/1: Rinku Singh assigned to GCL Pirates on rehab
7/1: Pirates sign Andrew Walker. Assigned to GCL.
6/30: Jorge Rondon sent outright to Indianapolis.
6/30: Erik Lunde assigned to GCL Pirates on rehab.
6/30: Raul Hernandez assigned to Bradenton.
6/30: Jose Regalado placed on disabled list. Tanner Anderson promoted to Bradenton.
6/30: Tomas Morales assigned to Indianapolis. Ed Easley released.
6/30: Jose Osuna promoted to Indianapolis. Jhondaniel Medina assigned to Altoona.
6/29: Pirates sign Nick King and Daniel Cucjen.
THIS DATE IN PIRATES HISTORY
Six former Pittsburgh Pirates players born on this date, included a pitcher that helped the team get to two World Series. Starting with the best first, we have Lee Meadows, who pitched for the Pirates from 1923 until 1929. He was a very good pitcher on some very bad teams before coming to the Pirates. His 100-128 record in his first 8 1/2 seasons does not tell the whole story. When he was put on a Pittsburgh team in 1923 that was in contention over the rest of his career, his record turned around. Meadows ended up going 88-52 with the Pirates, including 19-10 seasons in both 1925 and 1927, helping the Pirates to the World Series each year. In between those two seasons, he led the NL with 20 wins. You can read a full bio here.
As for the five other players born on this date, we have pitcher Tom Gorzelanny (2005-09), his teammate from the 2008-09 season, pitcher Phil Dumatrait. Another teammate of Gorzelanny, 2005-07 first baseman Brad Eldred. We also have 1970 catcher Dave Ricketts and utility fielder Johnny Wyrostek, who played for the Pirates during the 1942-43 seasons.
On this date in 1997, Francisco Cordova and Ricardo Rincon combined on a 10-inning no-hitter over the Houston Astros at Three Rivers Stadium. It was only the second time in team history a no-hitter went into extra innings, with the Pirates and Harvey Haddix losing in the 13th inning in the previous game. This was the eighth no-hitter in franchise history and first since 1976 and stands as the most recent one as well. You can view the boxscore here.
