A look at how the current top 30 prospects did today. If a player is in the majors and loses his prospect eligibility, 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 mid-season update, 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, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
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3. Josh Bell, 1B, Pirates – [insert_php]
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4. Kevin Newman, SS, Altoona – [insert_php]
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5. Mitch Keller, RHP, Bradenton -[insert_php]
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6. Nick Kingham, RHP, Altoona – [insert_php]
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7.Cole Tucker, SS, Bradenton – [insert_php]
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8. Chad Kuhl, RHP, Pirates – [insert_php]
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9. Will Craig, 3B, Morgantown – [insert_php]
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10. Steven Brault, LHP, Pirates – [insert_php]
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11. Ke’Bryan Hayes, 3B, West Virginia -[insert_php]
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12. Elias Diaz, C, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
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13. Clay Holmes, RHP, Altoona – [insert_php]
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14. Yeudy Garcia, RHP, Bradenton -[insert_php]
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15. Gage Hinsz, RHP, West Virginia – [insert_php]
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16. Trevor Williams, RHP, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
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17. Alen Hanson, 2B, Pirates – [insert_php]
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18. Brandon Waddell, LHP, Altoona – [insert_php]
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19. Tyler Eppler, RHP, Altoona -[insert_php]
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20. Max Moroff, 2B, Indianapolis -[insert_php]
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21. Taylor Hearn, LHP, West Virginia – [insert_php]
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22. Adrian Valerio, SS – Bristol – [insert_php]
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23. Braeden Ogle, LHP, GCL Pirates – [insert_php]
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24. Kevin Kramer, 2B, Bradenton -[insert_php]
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25. Travis MacGregor, RHP, GCL Pirates – [insert_php]
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26. Max Kranick, RHP, GCL Pirates – [insert_php]
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27. Frank Duncan, RHP, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
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28. Dovydas Neverauskas, RHP, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
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29. Connor Joe, 3B, Bradenton – [insert_php]
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30. Erich Weiss, 2B, Altoona – [insert_php]
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INDIANAPOLIS – One man’s loss may turn out to be Pedro Florimon’s gain.
As reported first by PiratesProspects.com on Tuesday, Indianapolis shortstop Gift Ngoepe and pitcher Doyvdas Neverauskas were suspended seven games — or the remainder of the Indianapolis Indians season — after being arrested outside of a Toledo bar.
Both players were potential call-ups when major league rosters expand on Thursday, with Ngoepe already being on the 40-man roster. They could still be promoted at some point, but the arrests won’t help those chances whatsoever.
Indianapolis manager Dean Treanor said he addressed the team about the incident, but did not go into specifics of what was discussed. As far as a possible promotion being negated by the arrests, Treanor said that decision “is not my call and I’m not part of that discussion.”
“It’s unfortunate for them,” Treanor said. “The timing is not very good at all, by the way.”
But with one person’s misfortune, may come the chance for another player. And that player could be utility player Pedro Florimon, who played a nice overall game in the Indians’ 4-2 loss to Toledo on Wednesday.
Florimon made three nice plays at shortstop, including one where he ranged toward the second base bag and made a strong, accurate throw to first to get the runner out. He was also 2-for-4 at the plate with one RBI.
After the recent off-field issues, Florimon’s name is back in the mix as a potential call-up candidate. He can fill a super utility role, playing games at second base (3 games), shortstop (21), third base (17), leftfield (24), centerfield (4), rightfield (2).
“He is steady,” Treanor said. “And he can play shortstop and he’s not flashy and that’s a huge positive for me. He plays the game the right way. He’s played very well in the outfield for us. We’ve had him at second. We’ve had him at third.”
Florimon is hitting .264 this season with an OPS of .723. He has 36 RBIs and 14 stolen bases and has batted over .300 in two months this season.
All of that is attractive and I think in the second half he’s been a big factor for us,” Treanor said.
John Kuchno returned to Indianapolis from Altoona but struggled during his start, allowing four runs on 10 hits. He walked two batters and struck out two, throwing 58 of his 91 pitches for a strike.
The pitch count was his highest by 25 pitches this season, and the most he had thrown since he was a starter in the 2014 season. Kuchno was hit hard from the beginning, allowing back-to-back home runs to Casey McGehee and Steven Moya in the first inning. McGehee’s homerun was to left field and left little doubt, but Moya’s homer was to rightfield and appeared it was going to be a high flyout but kept carrying out of the park.
Kuchno allowed two more runs in the fourth inning, before Curtis Partch and Jorge Rondon each pitched two scoreless innings. Kuchno is a very well-liked player in the Indianapolis clubhouse, but has struggled with a 5.47 earned run average with the Indians, making 26 appearances out of the bullpen prior to his start on Wednesday. He had been with Altoona since Aug. 10 before being promoted back two days ago.
“He was better than that when he left and pitched well just before he went back to Altoona,” Treanor said. “I think somewhere in there he lost his aggressiveness. And that’s the only way he can be — aggressive, attacking and I didn’t feel he did that today.”
The first three batters in the Indianapolis lineup — Florimon, Max Moroff, and Jose Osuna — each reached base twice. Florimon and Osuna each had two hits, while Moroff walked twice. But the next two batters in the lineup — Jason Rogers and Dan Gamache — went 0-for-8.
Gamache made just his fourth start of the season at third base, but made a pair of nice plays in the field. He nearly ran a 360-degree circle to catch a flyball near the pitcher’s mound that got caught up in a swirling wind. He also made a nice play on a foul ball, making the catch while running up the bullpen pitching mound.
Florimon’s RBI single in the third inning scored Jacob Stallings, who reached on an error. Osuna had an RBI single in the sixth that scored Justin Maffei, who reached via a walk.
Jordan Zimmerman started for Toledo, as part of a major league rehab assignment. He allowed just one hit — Florimon’s RBI single — in four innings of work, striking out four and walking one.
Willy Garcia and Danny Ortiz each had a hit — as all six of the Indians’ hits were singles. – Brian Peloza
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ALTOONA, PA – The Curve looked to maintain their one game lead over Akron in the Eastern League Western Division tonight against the Double-A Mets of Binghamton. Tyler Eppler made his 26th start of the year, logging the most innings pitched out of any pitcher in the Pirates’ organization.
Eppler went seven innings tonight, allowing only two earned runs on six hits. He did not walk any batters for the second game in a row. He has now pitched 156.1 innings this season with Dario Agrazal next in the organization with 142 IP in West Virginia.
“He’s a strong dude,” Pitching Coach Justin Meccage said. “It’s preparing him for what’s next. He’s a horse. Being a strike throwing can be good when it keeps you in games for longer.”
The B-Mets manufactured an early run in the first inning after a single, stolen base, and another ground ball single. In the third, they grabbed another run from Eppler as third baseman Phillip Evans hit one out to left-center field, a seemingly innocent hit that just seemed to keep traveling.
The early two-run lead was quickly canceled out in the fourth, with Stetson Allie hitting his 14th home run of the season, a long blast to left field scoring Barrett Barnes and Edwin Espinal. Allie is third in Altoona Curve franchise history with 52 home runs, behind Josh Bonifay and Adam Hyzdu.
After Altoona went up 3-2, the B-Mets scored two unearned runs in the fifth inning against Eppler. It started with a catcher’s interference on Chris Stewart, followed by an infield chopper that went over a leaping Eppler’s head. A stolen base, balk, and error in the infield allowed the two runs to score, but Eppler picked off Evans at first base to end the inning.
“What he did different tonight was that he threw balls,” manager Joey Cora said. “All was doing was throwing strikes and strikes and strikes, and we’ve been trying to tell him that he has to throw balls to try to make them feel uncomfortable.”
Meccage agreed that Eppler did a better job mixing his pitches and throwing both in and out of the zone.
“We talked a lot between this start and last start about mixing pitches more,” Pitching Coach Justin Meccage said. “He did that a lot more tonight. He did a better job throwing balls.”
In the bottom of the inning, the Curve took the lead for good, batting around to score four runs. Erich Weiss hit a hard single up the middle with the bases loaded to score two. Barrett Barnes singled and Edwin Espinal doubled to score twice more.
Altogether, the Curve had 11 hits tonight, with Barnes, Espinal, and Stewart with two hits apiece. Tomas Morales hit a pinch-hit triple in the eighth inning on a ball that got underneath the right fielder’s glove. Jon Schwind also had an extra-base hit, a hustling double to lead-off the eighth inning.
As I mention Barnes and Schwind’s hitting tonight, it would be remiss of me not to mention their defense, especially on two particular plays. In the top of the seventh inning with Eppler still on the bump, center fielder Schwind sprinted backwards and leaped into the wall at the 405ft sign to make a phenomenal catch to end the inning. As for Barnes, he dove on an short fly ball to left-center field to make a catch and end the game. It looked like he may have gotten a late jump on it, but he made up for it with a full extension dive.
The Curve won by a score of 9-4 to maintain their one game lead in the division standings over Akron.
**Chris Stewart started the final game of his rehab assignment tonight with the Altoona Curve, catching all nine innings. He went 1-for-3 in caught stealing attempts tonight, throwing out a runner in the second inning. In total, he went 4-for-12 in stolen base attempts against him during his rehab. He also went 2-for-4 from the plate with a signature opposite field hit in the fifth inning to help the Curve rally in the inning.
Altogether, Stewart went 5-for-27 from the plate in Altoona, but he walked eight times to give him a decent on-base percentage.
“The most important thing that Chris Stewart has done here is to show everyone his work ethic as a big leaguer,” Cora said about Stewart after the game. “He showed these guys that you don’t have to have the most talent or have the most power, but if you work hard and do the right things, you have a shot.”
Stewart will drive back to Pittsburgh tomorrow for the off-day and will rejoin the team on Friday. -Sean McCool
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Bradenton has their game canceled by rain.
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West Virginia lost 5-4, as Columbia picked up a walk-off double in the bottom of the ninth for the victory. Dario Agrazal started and allowed one earned run over five innings. Unfortunately, he was also on the mound for three unearned runs. Matt Frawley was next and he threw three shutout innings in his Power debut, one day after being promoted from Morgantown. Seth McGarry wasn’t in long before he took the loss, issuing a walk, then giving up the walk-off double.
The Power offense got some help, as two of their four runs were unearned. Jordan George capped off an incredible month of August with two doubles, a run scored and an RBI. He hit .391 in 21 games, with a 1.077 OPS. John Bormann and Casey Hughston each picked up an RBI, while Logan Hill, Tyler Filliben and Alfredo Reyes each scored a run. Mitchell Tolman walked for the 67th time, tops on the team.
Stephen Alemais left this game after the third inning and it was probably injury related. In last night’s game, he made a diving play for a ball and looked like he hurt his left wrist. He was down for a little bit and the trainer was out, but he stayed in the game. In the third inning on Wednesday night, he was extremely busy. He dove for two grounders and came up empty, with both hitting off his glove. He then had very minor contact on the tag during a stolen base attempt. That was followed by him making a very nice leaping catch on a liner, which was the first time he looked like he was in pain. The next play was a bloop over third base and he made a running catch and again looked to be in pain as he ran off the field. The camera actually followed him from shallow left field to the first base dugout and he didn’t look right. Alfredo Reyes then pinch-hit for him in the top of the fourth.
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Morgantown won a rain-shortened game by a 7-4 score over Batavia, the worst team in the league. Cam Vieaux started and went 3.2 innings with some control issues. He allowed one run on four hits and three walks, striking out three batters. On the third batter of the fourth inning, Vieaux’s landing foot slipped as he delivered the ball and he went down. He came up with a limp and felt the back of his leg, but threw a couple practice pitches after a visit from the trainer and stayed out there. When he walked that batter and two of the pitches missed badly, he was again visited by the trainer and was removed from the game. He had a slight limp walking off the field, but didn’t look to be in pain.
Evan Piechota followed and got the win by throwing 3.1 scoreless innings. The rain couldn’t have come at a better time, as reliever Brandon Bingel allowed three runs in the eighth. After giving up one run in his first 19 innings, Bingel has allowed runs in three straight appearances.
The Black Bears really had the bats going with 15 hits, including seven with runners in scoring position. Will Craig extended his on base streak to 32 games with a single in the first, then he added two more hits later in the game. Albert Baur also had three hits, including two doubles. He has 15 doubles on the season. Sandy Santos, Ty Moore and Erik Forgione each had two hits. Chris Harvey drove in a pair of runs.
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Bristol wasted a strong start by Matt Eckelman and some nice relief work in a 2-1 defeat on the next-to-last day of the season. Eckelman went six innings and allowed just one run, coming on a home run in the second inning. He had no walks, five strikeouts and a 7:2 GO/AO ratio. Assuming he doesn’t get promoted to Morgantown for one more start, Eckelman finishes with a 2.76 ERA in 62 innings, with a 9:55 BB/SO ratio.
Juan Diaz threw a scoreless inning, then Nick Hutchings got the tough luck loss in the tenth when Julio de la Cruz threw away a grounder, which went for a three-base error.
The offense obviously didn’t do much with one run in ten innings. That was because they couldn’t get any big hits. They had seven hits, three walks and five stolen bases in five tries. They had 12 at-bats with runners in scoring position and left ten men on base. The only run scored in the second inning, as Julio de la Cruz singled, then went to second on a wild pitch, before scoring on a Huascar Fuentes double. No one on Bristol had more than one hit in the game. The Pirates dropped to 25-42 on the season.
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The GCL Pirates were rained out on Wednesday. A scheduled doubleheader for Thursday has been canceled due to weather, ending the GCL season for the Pirates.
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The DSL Pirates finished their season on Saturday.
