On Tuesday afternoon, the South Atlantic League named the players selected for their June 20th All-Star game in Columbia, SC. The West Virginia Power will have three participants in the game. Players chosen for the team include pitcher Cam Vieaux, second baseman Trae Arbet and outfielder Ty Moore.
Vieaux seems like an obvious choice due to his terrific start to the season. In his first seven appearances, he allowed a total of six runs. That included one shutout and six games in which he allowed one run each. He’s had a couple shaky outings, but he still has a 2.26 ERA, which ranks seventh in the league, and a 1.06 WHIP, which ranks eighth.
Arbet ranks 12th in the league with a .851 OPS and his .510 slugging percentage ranks ninth in the league. His seven homers this season are four more than he hit in his first four seasons combined, although that’s a little misleading. He has only played in short-season ball and missed almost all of last year with a hand injury. It’s still a terrific improvement and his first true signs of power, it’s just that he had only played 139 games total during those first four seasons.
Moore started the season in Extended Spring Training, but joined the Power when both Albert Baur and Victor Fernandez got injured during the first week of the season. He started off on a hot streak before really cooling down lately. He had a .961 OPS in 18 April games. Since then, he has a .539 OPS in 26 games (before going 0-for-4 on Tuesday), so the timing of the announcement two weeks ahead of the game helps him out, since his overall numbers are still decent and he deserves a spot.
The Bradenton Marauders had nine All-Star selections. There were a couple questionable ones, but there were still a couple players in Daniel Zamora and Pedro Vasquez, who should have been included. It’s possible one or both could make it as a substitute.
As for the Power, the best hitter who didn’t make the team is Hunter Owen with his .291/.400/.448 slash line. Carlos Munoz has an .853 OPS and a similar slash line. It looks like Owen plays a spot with a couple third baseman hitting better, plus his defense probably didn’t do him any favors during the voting. Munoz at first base isn’t strong defensively, plus he’s been a DH more often recently, so that’s possibly why he didn’t make it. The South Atlantic League has two more teams than the Florida State League, so it’s also slightly tougher to make the roster.
On the pitching side, Eduardo Vera, Matt Frawley and Geoff Hartlieb all have stats that probably got them some All-Star consideration. Vera’s 0.95 WHIP would place him fourth in the league if he wasn’t a few innings short of qualifying. Frawley has a 1.84 ERA, an 0.78 WHIP and 30 strikeouts in 29.1 innings. Hartlieb has a 1.05 ERA in 25.2 innings.
The All-Star games for Indianapolis and Altoona are held a couple weeks later than the two lower level teams, so those rosters won’t come out for at least ten days.
* As I mentioned in yesterday’s Morning Report, the Bradenton Marauders had a game canceled on Monday due to a rain out. Well on Tuesday, they ended up having both games of a doubleheader canceled. Going into this series they had just 14 games remaining in the first half to catch first place Palm Beach, without any head-to-head games left. Palm Beach had a 1.5 game lead going into action on Tuesday and they had a doubleheader canceled as well. So while Bradenton didn’t lose any ground, they have three fewer games left to try to win the first half title.
PLAYOFF PUSH
Bradenton trails in their division by 1.5 games with 11 games remaining in the first half. They do not play first place Palm Beach again during the first half.
West Virginia trails their division leader by six games, with 12 games left in the first half. They are in fifth place.
PIRATES GAME GRAPH
Source: FanGraphs
TODAY’S SCHEDULE
Today’s Starter and Notes: The Pittsburgh Pirates lost 6-5 to the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday night. The Pirates will go with Chad Kuhl today, who is making his 12th start of the season. He allowed two runs over five innings in his last outing. Each of his last four starts have come at home. He has a 3.80 ERA on the road this season. The Orioles will counter with lefty Wade Miley, who has a 2.82 ERA and a 1.43 WHIP in 60.2 innings.
In the minors, Jameson Taillon makes his third rehab start. He pitched three shutout innings for Altoona on May 28th. He then threw five scoreless innings for Indianapolis on June 2nd. Taillon had six strikeouts in each game. He threw 47 pitches in his debut and 68 in his start with Indianapolis. He is expected to increase that to 85+ pitches this time out. West Virginia starter Oddy Nunez has a .231 BAA, a 1.07 WHIP and a 2.16 GO/AO ratio. Bradenton has off today.
MLB: Pittsburgh (26-32) @ Orioles (30-26) 7:05 PM
Probable starter: Chad Kuhl (6.02 ERA, 20:40 BB/SO, 49.1 IP)
AAA: Indianapolis (32-25) @ Toledo (25-31) 7:05 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Jameson Taillon (0.00 ERA, 0:6 BB/SO, 5.0 IP)
AA: Altoona (31-24) @ Harrisburg (23-33) 6:30 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: JT Brubaker (4.53 ERA, 14:33 BB/SO, 43.2 IP)
High-A: Bradenton (33-23) @ Dunedin (29-29) 6:30 PM 6/8 (season preview)
Probable starter: Gage Hinsz (7.59 ERA, 14:21 BB/SO, 42.2 IP)
Low-A: West Virginia (26-28) vs Delmarva (24-32) 7:05 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Oddy Nunez (3.99 ERA, 7:35 BB/SO, 38.1 IP)
DSL: Pirates (2-1) vs Rays2 (3-0) 10:30 AM (season preview)
HIGHLIGHTS
Here is the second double from Sunday by Austin Meadows. It was his 14th double, which put him one behind Chris Bostick for the Indianapolis lead.
RECENT TRANSACTIONS
6/5: Casey Sadler promoted to Indianapolis. Dan Runzler placed on disabled list.
6/4: Cole Tucker placed on disabled list. Daniel Arribas added to Bradenton roster.
6/2: Pirates designate Alen Hanson for assignment. Recall Max Moroff and Phil Gosselin.
6/2: Adrian Valerio placed on disabled list. Andrew Walker added to West Virginia.
6/2: Jameson Taillon assigned to Indianapolis on rehab.
6/1: Gift Ngoepe optioned to Indianapolis
6/1: Brett McKinney assigned to Indianapolis
5/31: Anderson Feliz added to Indianapolis roster. Brett McKinney assigned to Morgantown.
5/30: Chris Stewart placed on disabled list. Pirates recall Elias Diaz.
5/30: Jackson Williams promoted to Indianapolis. Tomas Morales added to Altoona roster.
5/30: Trae Arbet added to West Virginia roster. Andrew Walker assigned to Morgantown.
5/28: Jameson Taillon assigned to Altoona on rehab.
THIS DATE IN PIRATES HISTORY
Three former Pittsburgh Pirates players born on this date, plus one very interesting day for transactions back in 1939. Starting with the players, we have 2009 pitcher Virgil Vasquez, catcher Roy Jarvis (1946-47) and shortstop Bones Ely, who played for the team from 1896 and 1901 and held the shortstop position for the first two seasons that Honus Wagner spent in a Pirates’ uniform. A few years back, we posted an article on Ely and his time with the Pirates. That can be found here.
On this date in 1939, the Pirates decided to release outfielder Heinie Manush and sign outfielder Chuck Klein, who was just released by the Phillies the day before. Manush wasn’t doing well in a pinch-hitting role, going 0-for-12 with a walk and an RBI. The release actually ended his big league career. Klein came in and did well for the Pirates, hitting .300 with 11 homers the rest of the way. By the end of next Spring Training however, he was released and re-signed with the Phillies. These two players were both elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Manush made it in 1964 and Klein 16 years later.
Here is the boxscore from the day Klein signed and Manush was released. The Pirates won 2-0 behind a complete game shutout from Bill Swift. Every player in the Pirates lineup that day had at least one hit, including two by Lloyd Waner. Klein scored the first run of the game, which ended up being the game-winner.
