A look at how the current top 30 prospects did today. If a player is in the majors for an extended time (Tyler Glasnow, 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]
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2. Mitch Keller, RHP, Bradenton – [insert_php]
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3. Kevin Newman, SS, Altoona – [insert_php]
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4. Cole Tucker, SS, Bradenton – [insert_php]
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5. Ke’Bryan Hayes, 3B, Bradenton -[insert_php]
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6. Will Craig, 3B, Bradenton – [insert_php]
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7. Taylor Hearn, LHP, Bradenton – [insert_php]
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8. Gage Hinsz, RHP, Bradenton – [insert_php]
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9. Nick Kingham, RHP, Extended Spring Training – [insert_php]
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10. Steven Brault, LHP, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
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11. Clay Holmes, RHP, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
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12. Braeden Ogle, LHP, Extended Spring Training – [insert_php]
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13. Max Kranick, RHP, Extended Spring Training – [insert_php]
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14. Elias Diaz, C, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
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15. Edgar Santana, RHP, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
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16. Luis Escobar, RHP, West Virginia – [insert_php]
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17. Dovydas Neverauskas, RHP, Pirates – [insert_php]
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18. Yeudy Garcia, RHP, Altoona -[insert_php]
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19. Kevin Kramer, 2B, Altoona -[insert_php]
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20. Tyler Eppler, RHP, Indianapolis -[insert_php]
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21. Stephen Alemais, SS, West Virginia – [insert_php]
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22. Brandon Waddell, LHP, Altoona – [insert_php]
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23. Travis MacGregor, RHP, Extended Spring Training – [insert_php]
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24. Barrett Barnes, LF, Extended Spring Training -[insert_php]
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25. Max Moroff, 2B, Indianapolis -[insert_php]
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26. Eric Wood, 3B, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
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27. J.T. Brubaker, RHP, Altoona – [insert_php]
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28. Chris Bostick, INF/OF, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
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29. Connor Joe, 3B, Altoona – [insert_php]
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30. Pat Light, RHP, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
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Indianapolis has been rained out for a second straight day. This game will be made up as part of a doubleheader on May 16th.
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Altoona was rained out today. No makeup date was immediately announced.
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BRADENTON, Fla. – Mitch Keller is starting to look like the top pitching prospect in the system again. After a bumpy start to the season, Keller has started to turn things around in his last two starts. He has combined for 14 shutout innings in those two outings, giving up seven hits, one walk, and striking out 18. Tonight he carried a no hitter into the fifth inning, leading the way with seven shutout innings in the 4-0 Marauders win.
A few weeks ago I wrote about one of Keller’s issues early in the season. Last year in West Virginia he would throw his fastball almost exclusively for the first three or four innings, before switching over to his secondary stuff. He started learning early in this season that advanced hitters would pick up on that approach, and would start sitting on his fastball. It’s still good enough to be effective, even if hitters are expecting it. But when I talked to him a few weeks ago, he noted that incorporating the off-speed stuff into his game plan earlier would be a focus going forward.
Tonight he was throwing the curveball more often in the first few innings, going away from the all-fastball approach. He was still working off the fastball, but hitters weren’t able to cheat and sit on the pitch, knowing that he was mixing in other offerings. He struck out nine, and all nine strikeouts came on curveballs. The fastball was sitting 95-98 MPH, and the curve had good command most of the night, leading to his overall success.
Keller has shown the velocity and a good curveball in the past, along with a developing changeup. He’s learning when and how to use the pitches effectively, and tonight was an example of how he can continue to dominate advanced hitters when he does well with this approach.
Jake Brentz came on in the eighth inning and pitched the final two frames, getting the save. Brentz didn’t give up a hit, but walked two and struck out three. His fastball topped out at 100 MPH, mostly sitting 96-98 and paired with a sharp slider in the mid-80s.
Christian Kelley led the offense, going 3-for-4 with his first home run of the year, which gave the Marauders a 3-0 lead in the fourth inning. Kelley has propelled himself up the catching depth chart in the last year due to his defense and work with his pitchers. He came into this year looking to improve his offensive production, and is doing a good job so far, hitting for a .324/.419/.432 line.
Cole Tucker stole four bases tonight, and is now 22-for-26 on the season. He’s not the fastest player on the team (that belongs to Casey Hughston, who legged out a triple tonight), but Tucker has shown to be a very smart base runner, pairing his smarts with the speed he does have to be a threat. He has only been thrown out at second base once this year, which was on a pitch out. He has been thrown out a few times at third, although he continues stealing third base successfully, including once tonight. – Tim Williams
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CHARLESTON – Everything has been unfair to Oddy Nunez so far in 2017. Through his six starts, Nunez has given up 14 runs, but only 10 of them were earned. Behind him, the Power defense has committed 10 errors over those starts, and tonight, Nunez left the mound with a perfect game and a three-run lead only to see Blake Cederlind give up four runs in just one-third of an inning.
This comedy of errors makes Nunez a must-see player…simply because a look at his stat line will be utterly misleading. His bloated 4.29 ERA utterly belies his 1.90 GO/AO and 1.19 WHIP. The inflated numbers also don’t give you a sense of the tremendous amount of movement on all of his pitches, which leads to his excellent groundball abilities.
Nunez’s strengths were on full display tonight. He only needed 51 pitches to retire the side in four consecutive innings. He had full command of his entire arsenal throughout the start; he threw three balls in only two at-bats.
For once, Nunez received help from his defense. (A groundball pitcher is only as good as the men fielding behind him.) Kevin Mahala, a stronger defender than regular second baseman Trae Arbet, made two slick plays in the second inning, and Alexis Bastardo looked impressive on long sprints to track down two line drives to center.
Cederlind undid all of Nunez’s work, though, in just 15 pitches. He entered in the fifth inning and promptly allowed a single, a home run, a double, a walk, a sac bunt, a sac fly, and a wild pitch (in that order) to allow the Legends to take a 4-3 lead. Ultimately, Cederlind gave up four runs on five hits and two walks with three strikeouts in his two innings of relief. Geoff Hartlieb pitched an inning of scoreless relief, and Matt Eckelman gave up two runs with two outs in the ninth when the game was out of reach.
The Power unleashed an offensive onslaught. (The 10-15 MPH winds blowing out certainly helped.) Every Power batter reached base at least once, and Stephen Alemais, Trae Arbet, Clark Eagan, and Alexis Bastardo had multi-hit games. Alemais smacked his third home run of the year and scored two runs, and Arbet finished the night with five RBI and a homer short of the cycle. Eagan hit his second home run of the year.
Bastardo, who took over for a faltering Sandy Santos on May 3, seems to be filling in nicely. He is 3-for-7 since then and has placed two effective sacrifice bunts. He flashed some speed on the base paths tonight, stealing second and advancing on two wild pitches.
Carlos Munoz extended his on-base streak to 11 games when he reached on a walk in the Power’s six-run fifth inning. Ty Moore showed some baseball smarts by reaching base on a dropped third strike and then advancing to second on a botched pickoff attempt. Moore scored two runs and drove in two. Hunter Owen scored three runs.
You may have lost track of just how many the Power brought home tonight. (I did, too, on occasion.) They trounced Lexington 12-6. – Abigail Miskowiec
