A look at how the current top 30 prospects did today. If a player is in the majors for an extended time (Trevor Williams, Alen Hanson, Jose Osuna), or loses his prospect eligibility, he will be removed from this list. 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 more active prospects on the list. Rankings are from the 2017 Prospect Guide, and links on each name go to their Pirates Prospects player pages.
1. Austin Meadows, CF, Indianapolis -[insert_php]
include_once (‘./p2-stats/stats_functions.php’);
display_top30(640457,’B’,’20170510′);
[/insert_php]
2. Mitch Keller, RHP, Bradenton – [insert_php]
display_top30(656605,’P’,’20170510′);
[/insert_php]
3. Kevin Newman, SS, Altoona – [insert_php]
display_top30(621028,’B’,’20170510′);
[/insert_php]
4. Cole Tucker, SS, Bradenton – [insert_php]
display_top30(657061,’B’,’20170510′);
[/insert_php]
5. Ke’Bryan Hayes, 3B, Bradenton -[insert_php]
display_top30(663647,’B’,’20170510′);
[/insert_php]
6. Will Craig, 3B, Bradenton – [insert_php]
display_top30(643269,’B’,’20170510′);
[/insert_php]
7. Taylor Hearn, LHP, Bradenton – [insert_php]
display_top30(621368,’P’,’20170510′);
[/insert_php]
8. Gage Hinsz, RHP, Bradenton – [insert_php]
display_top30(656543,’P’,’20170510′);
[/insert_php]
9. Nick Kingham, RHP, Extended Spring Training – [insert_php]
display_top30(592468,’P’,’20170416′);
[/insert_php]
10. Steven Brault, LHP, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
display_top30(643230,’P’,’20170510′);
[/insert_php]
11. Clay Holmes, RHP, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
display_top30(605280,’P’,’20170510′);
[/insert_php]
12. Braeden Ogle, LHP, Extended Spring Training – [insert_php]
display_top30(669180,’P’,’20170416′);
[/insert_php]
13. Max Kranick, RHP, Extended Spring Training – [insert_php]
display_top30(668820,’P’,’20170416′);
[/insert_php]
14. Elias Diaz, C, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
display_top30(553869,’B’,’20170510′);
[/insert_php]
15. Edgar Santana, RHP, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
display_top30(650828,’P’,’20170510′);
[/insert_php]
16. Luis Escobar, RHP, West Virginia – [insert_php]
display_top30(650813,’P’,’20170510′);
[/insert_php]
17. Dovydas Neverauskas, RHP, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
display_top30(596720,’P’,’20170510′);
[/insert_php]
18. Yeudy Garcia, RHP, Altoona -[insert_php]
display_top30(650817,’P’,’20170510′);
[/insert_php]
19. Kevin Kramer, 2B, Altoona -[insert_php]
display_top30(596012,’B’,’20170510′);
[/insert_php]
20. Tyler Eppler, RHP, Indianapolis -[insert_php]
display_top30(621169,’P’,’20170510′);
[/insert_php]
21. Stephen Alemais, SS, West Virginia – [insert_php]
display_top30(641301,’B’,’20170510′);
[/insert_php]
22. Brandon Waddell, LHP, Altoona – [insert_php]
display_top30(663399,’P’,’20170510′);
[/insert_php]
23. Travis MacGregor, RHP, Extended Spring Training – [insert_php]
display_top30(669740,’P’,’20170416′);
[/insert_php]
24. Barrett Barnes, LF, Extended Spring Training -[insert_php]
display_top30(608627,’B’,’20170416′);
[/insert_php]
25. Max Moroff, 2B, Pirates -[insert_php]
display_top30(621559,’B’,’20170510′);
[/insert_php]
26. Eric Wood, 3B, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
display_top30(607780,’B’,’20170510′);
[/insert_php]
27. J.T. Brubaker, RHP, Altoona – [insert_php]
display_top30(664141,’P’,’20170510′);
[/insert_php]
28. Chris Bostick, INF/OF, Pirates – [insert_php]
display_top30(607471,’B’,’20170510′);
[/insert_php]
29. Connor Joe, 3B, Altoona – [insert_php]
display_top30(656582,’B’,’20170510′);
[/insert_php]
30. Pat Light, RHP, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
display_top30(572990,’P’,’20170510′);
[/insert_php]
[insert_php]
display_topperf(‘20170510’);
[/insert_php]
[expand title=”Box Score” tag=”span”]
[insert_php]
create_boxscore(‘20170510′,’ind’);
[/insert_php]
[/expand]
INDIANAPOLIS — He gave up a lead-off double on the second pitch of the game and had the top-ranked prospect in baseball up next.
Tyler Eppler overcame all of that to put together one of the best starts of his professional career. He struck out a career-high eight and walked nobody in seven shutout innings.
Eppler got Yoan Moncada to pop out to third base and his efficient outing never slowed down from that point, allowing just three hits the remainder of his outing.
“We’ve seen this similar version before this year,” Indianapolis manager Andy Barkett said. “This kid has good stuff and ice in his veins. We’ve got a little bit of momentum and have been playing pretty good lately. He took the ball and ran with it, attacked the strike zone, used his pitches well and was in control it seemed like the whole game.”
Eppler had a game plan going into the game. He wanted to use his fastball and changeup the first time through the lineup, then mixing his curveball into the mix the second time around. That curve was working even better the third time through the lineup. Add in his slider-cutter pitch, and, well, you get a pretty dominant outing.
“He was throwing all of his pitches for strikes,” Barkett said. “(Charlotte) was off-balance and they didn’t show much adjustment to him and if they did, he was able to get one step ahead of him. Overall, it was just a dominating performance.”
Charlotte lead-off hitter Jacob May crushed a double off the wall in deep center field to open the game, taking advantage of an elevated slutter.
Eppler quickly rebounded from the mistake by getting Moncada, the top prospect in baseball, to pop out to third base. Eppler then picked off May going to third base, before striking out Danny Hayes.
The game had an early 11 a.m. first pitch, which might have led to a slightly sluggish start, Eppler said.
“I said I had to lock in now,” Eppler said. “The next guy coming up — Moncada — you don’t really pay that much attention to the name. You’re just trying to make quality pitches and try to get him to pop out like I did, or get an easy groundout. Just trying to be efficient as possible.”
Despite the early hit, Eppler got out of the first inning with just 11 pitches. The efficiency continued with just 14 pitches in the second inning.
Eppler worked around a one-out single from former major league Ryan Raburn in the second inning, striking out Adam Engel and inducing a Tyler Ladendorf groundout. Rymer Liriano broke his bat on a groundout.
“I think the biggest thing was how convicted he was in his plan going in,” Stallings said. “He had a plan and knew exactly what pitch he wanted to throw pretty much the whole game. He did a nice job of executing and anytime you can throw four pitches for a strike that’s really hard to hit.”
Eppler retired the side in order in the third inning, but needed some deep counts to do so and threw 19 pitches. He struck out May, who had the lead-off double, swinging at the slutter to end the inning.
Moncada led off the fourth inning with a line drive single to right-center field. Eppler made two consecutive pick-off attempts, but Moncada stole second on his first throw home. Stallings’ throw to second base was too high to make it a close play.
But that’s where the Charlotte scoring threat ended. Eppler induced a pair of groundouts with just four pitches. He struck out Raburn to end the inning.
Eppler struck out Engel swinging at a 93 MPH fastball to lead-off the fifth and retired the side with 12 pitches.
Eppler had to battle through the sixth inning, needing 21 pitches to work around a one-out single by Jacob May. Eppler got Moncada to fly out to deep center. Then he struck out Danny Hayes swinging to end the threat, but needed 11 pitches to do so after eight foul balls.
That way he approached the long at-bat to Hayes showed how Eppler has developed his approach.
“Whenever that happened in the past I would say, ‘Okay, I’m going to throw a fastball down the middle and see what happens,” Eppler said. “Instead, I just made those quality pitches on the edges and making them fight for it and finally got him to give in on that last changeup.”
He finished his season-long outing with a pair of popouts and a strikeout in the eighth inning. Eppler finished with a career-high eight strikeouts.
Jacob Stallings continued his solid start to the season at the plate, going 1-for-3 and scoring the game’s only run. He’s hitting .294 this season and scored from first on Joey Terdoslavich’s RBI single off the wall in deep center field. Terdoslavich should have had a double but appeared to either stumble or hesitate rounding first. That miscue cost the Indians a run. Anderson Feliz doubled in the next at-bat, but Terdoslavich only advanced to third instead of scoring if he had started from second.
Adam Frazier was 2-for-3 in his second rehab game, playing in left field. Read here for more about Frazier’s rehab process.
Danny Ortiz, Joey Terdoslavich and Anderson Feliz each had two hits. Phil Gosselin was 0-for-3 with a strikeout and hit into a double play.
Doyvdas Neverauskas pitched a scoreless ninth, inducing a double play to end the game. He walked one and struck out one, throwing 12 of his 17 pitches for a strike.
Indianapolis has swept Charlotte in three consecutive series in Victory Field. – Brian Peloza
[expand title=”Box Score” tag=”span”]
[insert_php]
create_boxscore(‘20170510′,’alt’);
[/insert_php]
[/expand]
Altoona won 10-3 on Wednesday afternoon, but it was not a good day for the team. In the top of the first inning, Kevin Newman took a fastball to the helmet that knocked him down, had him on the ground for two minutes and caused him to leave the game. The trainer held a towel to his face while he was down. According to Baseball America, Newman was still at the hospital three hours later. Manager Michael Ryan told the local media that Newman had a forehead contusion, but no concussion. This link has video of the incident, while the center field camera view I saw looked just as bad. Sean McCool will be covering tomorrow’s game and there will be an update after Newman is reevaluated.
In the bottom of the first inning, Brandon Waddell gave up two hits and three walks without recording an out. He was pulled due to reaching his single inning pitch count. The game got a lot better after Waddell left.
Tate Scioneaux threw four shutout innings, giving up just one hit and no walks. That was followed by three shutout innings from Luis Heredia, who walked the first two batters he faced, then retired nine of the next ten batters. Heredia went one inning in each of his first three games. Montana DuRapau closed out the win with two scoreless frames.
On offense, it was the usual suspects. Kevin Kramer extended his on base streak to 27 games with an RBI double in the first inning. Edwin Espinal had three hits and drove in two runs. He hit two doubles, giving him nine on the season. Espinal is now hitting .351 through 25 games. Jordan Luplow hit his sixth home run of the season, a two-run shot in the first inning. Pablo Reyes doubled early in the game, then in the fifth inning, he got hit by a pitch, stole second, scored a run, then topped off the scoring with an RBI ground out. The Curve did all of their scoring in two innings, with four runs in the first and six in the fifth inning.
[expand title=”Box Score” tag=”span”]
[insert_php]
create_boxscore(‘20170510′,’bra’);
[/insert_php]
[/expand]
Mitch Keller cruised through four innings on Wednesday night, then things went sour in the fifth inning. In the first four frames, Keller allowed just one walk and that was quickly erased on a double play. In the fifth, he struck out the first batter, then got a one pitch out. Things fell apart after that, as he gave up a hit, then hit a batter, which was followed by a visit at the mound by the trainer. The announcers for Jupiter said they were looking at his forearm, but Keller threw a couple warmup pitches to show he was okay and he was allowed to continue. He walked the next batter on five pitches, one at 97 MPH, and then was removed. He also threw a wild pitch to the final batter, up near his head.
It may have been a quick hook just out of caution, or it could be more. He threw 68 pitches total, with 19 coming in the fifth inning. Both numbers are well short of his limit for the game/inning. Keller had not allowed a run, so this might be something worth watching.
(UPDATE: Mitch Keller told Tim Williams that he got stung by a bee on his forearm and that’s what stopped the game. You can resume normal breathing.)
Bradenton won 5-1, with Jess Amedee and Daniel Zamora finishing off the victory. The Marauders had seven hits, but also drew 11 walks. Will Craig, Jordan George, Logan Hill and Mitchell Tolman all walked twice. Hill hit his seventh double, just missing his ninth homer on a ball that hit high off the wall. Cole Tucker extended his on base streak to 19 games with a single that could have been an error according to the announcers, but he legitimized the streak later in the game with a well-hit double. Tucker also stole his 24th base, which leads everybody in baseball. Ke’Bryan Hayes had a single, walk and stole his 12th base in 13 attempts.
[expand title=”Box Score” tag=”span”]
[insert_php]
create_boxscore(‘20170510′,’wva’);
[/insert_php]
[/expand]
West Virginia lost 4-3 in a game that included five ejections. James Marvel started and went five innings, giving up four earned runs. He served up two homers, which equals the amount he allowed in the first 94 innings of his career. Marvel had four strikeouts and a 6:1 GO/AO ratio. Coming into the game, he allowed 0-2 runs in five of his first six starts. Matt Eckelman threw two scoreless innings and Dylan Prohoroff threw a scoreless eighth.
The fun in this game started in the fourth when Marvel hit Luis Castro. That led to four players being ejected, with Arden Pabst and Hunter Owen being the two Power players out of the game. In the top of the fifth, the Asheville pitcher was ejected. I’m assuming he threw at Clark Eagan leading off the inning, although Eagan didn’t get hit. The pitcher may have been ejected during the brawl and the move wasn’t noted in the boxscore until the following half inning.
The Power had six hits in the game. They had five singles and a double from the red hot Alexis Bastardo, who is 11-for-20 in his last six games. Ty Moore had two hits, an RBI and a run scored. Hunter Owen and Trae Arbet each drove in a run. Stephen Alemais was 0-for-4 with a run scored. His average has dropped 31 points in the last three games due to a 1-for-15 stretch.
