With Austin Meadows not participating in the Futures Game this weekend, it probably lost some viewers among fans of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Josh Bell received a lot of attention last year when he homered during the Futures Game. The game also included Elias Diaz, who was a top ten prospect in the system at the time, so there was a lot of interest in the game. Without Meadows going, the Pirates are left with one player, but you may want to check him out.
Dovydas Neverauskas will represent the World team and chances are he will throw one inning. Hopefully he isn’t one of the last two guys out of the pen who usually split the ninth inning. Neverauskas has hit 95 MPH in the past, so there was always some interest in him, especially when he was a young starter in the system. He made our top 50 once, back in 2014 when he was 41st overall. Unfortunately the control never came around that season and he dropped out the next year.
He was moved to the bullpen last year, then promoted to Bradenton at the end of the season. In Spring Training this year, the kid who touched 95 MPH since he was 18 years old, was now sitting 95-96 MPH. That drew some attention, as did his promotion to Altoona. Then that 95-96, started to creep up even more and he has hit 99 MPH at least once this year. That was right before he was promoted to Indianapolis.
The thing with him now is that he is commanding pitches at that velocity. When I saw him in the past, he had trouble controlling pitches when he was in the low-90s, but now watching him with Indianapolis multiple times, he is burying 96-97 MPH fastballs down in the zone, then getting swing and misses from his slider (he has two versions), which was hitting 90-92 with late action in the last two games. While being a one inning reliever will always keep the prospect status from climbing too high, he looks like a legit prospect now.
He is nowhere near the erratic pitcher he was at this time last year, and it seems like he just keeps getting better. The Pirates will have to decide if they want to add him to the 40-man roster this off-season because he would reach minor league free agency if they don’t add him. So I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw him in Pittsburgh in September, assuming he continues to look like he has early in his Triple-A career, just so they get some extra looks. Brian Peloza will have much more on Neverauskas on the site tomorrow in a featured article.
While Austin Meadows isn’t playing in the Futures Game, you might want to make sure you tune in Sunday night to see Dovydas Neverauskas pitch.
**It’s still too early to add the Playoff Push section back to this article. All of the full-season minor league teams still have almost two months left, while the lower minors (except the DSL) just started within the last month. It’s not too early to give an update though. So here they are for the five teams that have been playing for more than a month.
Indianapolis is tied with Columbus for first place. Indianapolis plays a doubleheader against Columbus today. It seems like these two teams are always battling it out for the playoffs. The International League takes four teams to the playoffs, three division winners and a wild card team. Indianapolis/Columbus trail two teams in the wild card. It’s a long way off, but if they were to tie and a wild card team had a better record, then Indianapolis and Columbus would play one game for the division title and only playoff spot.
Altoona is in first place in their division, just a 1/2 game ahead of Akron. That puts them in a pretty good spot now because the Eastern League takes the top two teams in each division to the playoffs, with the first place team getting the home field advantage. The race looks like it’s just three teams, with Harrisburg in third place two games back, followed by three teams that are all at least 11.5 games back and all well under a .500 record.
Bradenton doesn’t need an update because they won the first half title, so they automatically get home field advantage during the playoffs. That being said, they have been pretty bad during the second half, currently in last place.
West Virginia also plays a split schedule. They lost the first half title, but they can still make the playoffs in one of two ways. If they win the second half title, they’re in the playoffs. If Hagerstown wins the second half title (they were the first half champs) and the Power have the second best overall record, then they will make it. Right now Hagerstown trails by 4.5 games, and the Power trail by five games in the second half standings. West Virginia also has the fifth best overall record in their seven team division, so they will need to turn this around soon. They have 55 more games left, with two of them going on tonight, weather permitting.
The DSL Pirates are sixth out of six teams in their division with an 11-19 record. They are 9.5 games out. Obviously things don’t look good for them, but they still have more than half of their 72-game schedule left.
Last year we saw some prospects benefit from the playoffs. Chad Kuhl got a playoff start for Altoona, then moved up to Indianapolis for a start. Austin Meadows was promoted to Altoona late so he could get some Double-A games, as well as some playoff games. Ke’Bryan Hayes saw playoff action with Morgantown after playing in front of Tim Williams and 2-3 fans per day in the GCL. With Bradenton making the playoffs already, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him get a late promotion for a few regular season game and the playoffs.
So it provides some great experiences for the team, and gives some players at lower levels a taste of the tougher competition they will face the next year. Winning isn’t the object when building a farm system, it’s about developing prospects, but you would always rather have prospects who know what it’s like to win as a team. The other part is just the extra development the playoffs allow. For the players who aren’t moving on to the postseason, they just go home and in most cases wait for the Fall Instructional League to start.
PIRATES GAME GRAPH
Source: FanGraphs
TODAY’S SCHEDULE
Today’s Starter and Notes: The Pirates beat the Cubs by an 8-4 score on Friday night. They now send Chad Kuhl to the mound for his third start for the Pirates. He allowed three runs over five innings to the Dodgers in his first start, then followed that up with two runs over six innings against the A’s. The Cubs will counter with Jon Lester, who has a 2.67 ERA in 107.2 innings, with 105 strikeouts and a 1.05 WHIP. He allowed eight earned runs over 1.1 innings in his last start, which was against the Mets. Lester has faced the Pirates three times this year, allowing four runs over 18.1 innings.
In the minors, there are two doubleheaders today. Indianapolis is playing a split doubleheader, which I can’t remember ever seeing in the minors. Game one starts at 1:15 PM with Frank Duncan on the mound, followed by a 7:05 PM night game with Justin Masterson on the hill. West Virginia will also have a doubleheader, with Logan Sendelbach and Dario Agrazal currently scheduled to go.
Brandon Waddell and JT Brubaker have both struggled with their promotions. Waddell is averaging less than five innings per start in his last nine games, while Brubaker has pitched poorly in three of his four starts with Bradenton.
James Marvel goes tonight for the fifth time and he’s due for a strong performance. In his first and third starts, he threw a combined 12 shutout innings. In his second and fourth starts, he allowed a total of nine runs over 5.1 innings.
MLB: Pittsburgh (45-42) vs Cubs (52-34) 7:15 PM
Probable starter: Chad Kuhl (4.09 ERA, 4:7 BB/SO, 11.0 IP)
AAA: Indianapolis (47-42) @ Columbus (47-42) 1:15 and 7:05 PM DH (season preview)
Probable starter: Frank Duncan (2.56 ERA, 9:49 BB/SO, 56.1 IP) and Justin Masterson (5.25 ERA, 13:14 BB/SO, 24.0 IP)
AA: Altoona (48-38) @ Erie (37-52) 7:05 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Brandon Waddell (4.95 ERA, 29:41 BB/SO, 56.1 IP)
High-A: Bradenton (44-40) vs Brevard County (26-57) 6:30 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: JT Brubaker (6.53 ERA, 6:15 BB/SO, 20.2 IP)
Low-A: West Virginia (42-42) @ Lakewood (36-48) 5:05 PM DH (season preview)
Probable starter: Logan Sendelbach (3.21 ERA, 23:64 BB/SO, 87.0 IP) and Dario Agrazal (4.64 ERA, 12:47 BB/SO, 83.1 IP)
Short-Season A: Morgantown (10-11) vs Tri-City (9-11) 7:05 PM (season preview)
Probable Starter: James Marvel (4.67 ERA, 5:8 BB/SO, 17.1 IP)
Rookie: Bristol (8-7) @ Princeton (7-8) 7:00 PM (season preview)
GCL: Pirates (3-9) vs Braves (5-8) 10:00 AM (season preview)
DSL: Pirates (11-19) vs Rangers1 (20-9) 10:30 AM (season preview)
HIGHLIGHTS
Here is an RBI double from Barrett Barnes, who has been hitting well recently after a slow start to the season.
RECENT TRANSACTIONS
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.
6/28: Trevor Williams activated from temporary inactive list.
6/28: Carl Anderson assigned to GCL Pirates on rehab.
6/28: Pirates sign Max Kranick. Assigned to GCL Pirates.
6/27: Pirates sign Buddy Borden. Assigned to Bradenton.
THIS DATE IN PIRATES HISTORY
One former Pittsburgh Pirates player born on this date, plus a couple games of note. The only former Pirate born on this date is Coot Veal, who pinch-hit for the team on April 17, 1962. Veal turns 84 today. In his only game for the Pirates, he pinch-hit for pitcher Tom Sturdivant in the second inning and struck out looking. He spent the next 19 days on the Pirates bench before being sent to the minors. A month later, he was traded to the Detroit Tigers.
On this date in 1912, the Pirates sent their young pitching phenom Marty O’Toole to the mound, where he faced off against a young pitcher for the Phillies named Eppa Rixey. Back in 1911, the Pirates paid $22,500 to sign O’Toole, which was a huge sum back then. Early in the career it looked like a great purchase, but his star quickly faded. In this game however, O’Toole out-pitched Rixey, who would go on to win 266 games and get elected to the Hall of Fame. The Pirates won 2-0 and Hall of Famer Max Carey plated the go-ahead run with an RBI triple in the sixth inning.
The link above includes a game recap/boxscore for the Pirates 9-8 win in 12 innings over the Phillies on this date in 1977. The winning hit came off the bat of Mario Mendoza and the losing pitcher was former Bucco Gene Garber. The pitching match-up that day was Steve Carlton versus John Candelaria, and closer Kent Tekulve lost a two-run lead in the ninth to send it to extra innings.
