A look at how the current top 30 prospects did today. If a player is in the majors for an extended time (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, Indianapolis – [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, Pirates – [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, Indianapolis – [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, Indianapolis -[insert_php]
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25. Max Moroff, 2B, Pirates -[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 — He almost didn’t make it out of the first inning.
Clay Holmes struggled with his command for the third consecutive start, but still managed to only allow one earned run in five innings.
That effort was enough to keep things in reach, allowing Austin Meadows, Gift Ngoepe and Jason Rogers to provide enough offense in a 5-3 win over Gwinnett.
Holmes’ end result didn’t look bad on paper. Holmes allowed three hits and that one unearned run over five innings, striking out three batters. But he walked four batters, hit another batter, threw five pitches that brushed batters back, and had one pitch so far out of the zone catcher Jacob Stallings couldn’t get a glove on it.
“It was just one of those days where command of anything really wasn’t there,” Holmes said. “I did just what I could to make pitches when I had to, use the off-speed and try to keep my team in the game. I don’t think one thing led to the command, I just had to do what I could with it.”
Holmes nearly didn’t make it out of the first inning. He only allowed one run, but walked two batters and hit another. He threw 32 pitches and was just a few away from being taken out of the game. Cody Dickson was warming up in the bullpen as the organization will remove a pitcher once he throws 35 pitches in one inning.
“He was just a little scattered from the get go and we’ve seen that from him,” Indianapolis manager Andy Barkett said. “That’s something we kind of ironed out and thought we kind of worked through, but obviously it reared its head today
Gwinnett loaded the bases but Holmes struck out David Freitas swinging at a breaking pitch.
“You know your pitch count is getting up there and you have to get some early contact. You’re forced to make a pitch and was able to do it with bases loaded. You’re forced to make a pitch and try to do what you can with it.”
Holmes settled down after that, needing 13 pitches to get out of each of the next three innings. He worked around a walk in the second inning and a single in the third inning, while retiring the side in the fourth inning.
Gwinnett added a run in the fifth inning. Holmes issued a lead-off walk to Jace Peterson, who stole second. Peterson scored on Holmes’ catching error covering first base.
Holmes retired the next three batters on a groundout, fielder’s choice and strikeout, which ended the inning and his outing.
“I think he had pretty good stuff, he just wasn’t in the zone very well,” Barkett said. “I think he got back in the zone enough to get some weak contact and hit some balls at people. He threw enough breaking balls that led to swings and misses, he was able to be effective enough.”
In his previous two starts, Holmes walked seven batters. He walked one batter in a one-inning relief appearance five days ago.
Gift Ngoepe, playing in his second game since being optioned down by the Pirates, went 2-for-4 with a solo home run in the fifth inning. In two games since being back, Ngoepe is 2-for-7 with four walks, three strikeouts and the home run.
The home runs are nice, but that shouldn’t be Ngoepe’s focus of improvement now that he’s back with the Indians.
“He’s going to have to cut down on his swing with two strikes and use the whole field, bunt, hit-and-run, play his short game a little bit better,” Barkett said. “I think that’s something he needs to focus on.”
Jason Rogers had a pinch-hit solo home run in the eighth inning, his seventh homer of the season.
Austin Meadows was 3-for-4 with one RBI, after going 2-for-16 in the previous four games.
Dovydas Neverauskas worked around some early trouble to pitch a scoreless eighth inning. Gwinnett’s Xavier Avery put down a bunt single that rolled down the first base line to the bag. David Freitas hit a hard single two pitches later, putting the tying runs on base with nobody out. As the Indianapolis bullpen started warming up, Neverauskas struck out the next two batters and induced a popout to end the threat.
“We need to see a sense of urgency out of him,” Barkett said of Neverauskas. “It seemed like when we got someone going in the bullpen all of a sudden he started pitching differently. It would be nice to see that from the first pitch on, but beggars can’t be choosers and we’ll take what we can get.”
Pat Light worked around a single and walk in the ninth inning to earn the save.
In an unique stat, Indianapolis has won the last 15 games that catcher Jacob Stallings has started. – Brian Peloza
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Altoona lost a tough one on Sunday, as Montana DuRapau allowed a walk-off single with two outs and the bases loaded, to give Bowie a 7-6 win in 11 innings.
Brandon Waddell started this game for Altoona. He was coming off of his best outing of the season earlier this week, throwing six shutout innings back on Tuesday. This outing on Sunday is one he would like to forget. He loaded the bases with a walk, double and a walk to the first three batters of the game. After getting a strikeout, he gave up a walk to bring in the first run, then a two-run single to make it 3-0. He would pick up the second out before leaving the game due to his pitch count being at 32 pitches.
Austin Coley followed Waddell and gave up a single to make it 4-0. He had a terrific outing otherwise, giving up one run over 5.1 innings. That dropped him down to a 2.70 ERA through 53.1 innings this season.
Sean Keselica was out next and allowed Bowie to tie the game up, though he surrendered just one run in his three innings of work. DuRapau took the loss with four hits and two walks in his 1.2 innings.
Kevin Newman had a strong game, which has been long overdue from him. After putting up a .487 OPS in 22 games last month, Newman was at the end of a week in which he had a .577 OPS. He ended up going 3-for-6 in this game and all three hits were doubles. That’s more doubles than he had in his last 28 games combined.
On the flip side, Jordan Luplow has been hitting since the start of May and he continued his hot streak on this night. He smacked his 13th home run of the season, while also adding a single and two walks. He now has a .964 OPS, which ranks third in the Eastern League.
Jin-De Jhang had two hits. Pablo Reyes had a single, a walk and drove in two runs. Connor Joe is 3-for-24 with ten strikeouts in his last six games. Edwin Espinal is 0-for-18 in his last four games, though he has struck out just twice over the span.
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Bradenton was rained out on Sunday. They will have a doubleheader tomorrow.
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Luis Escobar had an extremely inconsistent outing on Sunday, giving up three runs on five hits, one walk and three hit batters over 5.1 innings. He also had eight strikeouts and a 6:0 GO/AO ratio.
In one sense, it was a typical Escobar outing. He threw 56 of his 88 pitches for strikes, which is a decent percentage. He gets a lot of chases out of the zone though, so it’s unlikely that more than 40 of his pitches were actually in the strike zone. That works in his favor quite often, as Low-A hitters have a tough time laying off his curveballs in the dirt and his high fastballs. When he faces a patient team, which Rome wasn’t in this game, then he can run into issues.
Escobar recorded a ton of swinging strikes, including one at-bat in which he got a guy swinging three times on a fastball-changeup-curve sequence. His changeup is this game was very strong and was swung over almost every time, fooling multiple hitters. His fastball was off and on during the game and I noticed numerous times where he just overthrew the ball, which has been an issue with him in the past. When he doesn’t overthrow, he gets a nice downward plane on the pitch and it’s tough to hit. The pitch will flatten out if he tries to hard. The curve was also on and off, but he got some decent results.
I think the overthrowing was a big issue this game and caused most of the damage in the boxscore. That seems like an easy enough issue to fix because a very large percentage of his pitches weren’t overthrown, but when a pitcher is out there and you tell him to attack hitters, it doesn’t always work as planned. They will sometimes try to hard with two strikes or runners on base. You like the strikeouts and the soft contact on the ground, but he needs to throw more strikes and not rely so much on impatient hitters to get themselves out because that won’t work as well the higher he goes in the system.
West Virginia won this game 8-7, with a Hunter Owen error in the ninth leading to three unearned runs, making it a close game. The bottom of the order starred in this game. Kevin Mahala batted seventh and drove in three runs on three hits and he scored twice. Andrew Walker was behind him in the order and went 2-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI. Ty Moore at the bottom of the order had two hits and drove in a pair. Albert Baur also had a solid game with a single, two walks and three runs scored.
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The DSL Pirates won their opening game by a 5-4 score. The boxscore hasn’t been uploaded yet (from a 10:30 AM game on Saturday), so if it is posted today, we will include a recap here. What I do know besides the score is that top prospect Jean Eusebio had a single and a double in his debut. The DSL Pirates have off on Sundays, so there is no game today.
No boxscore yet, but I have the stats:
Jean Eusebio went 2-for-5 with a single and a double. Sherten Apostel went 2-for-5, with two singles. Every other starter besides catcher Samuel Inoa had one hit and Inoa reached once via walk. Pedro Castillo had an RBI triple. Shortstop Francisco Acuna was 1-for-3 with walk, HBP, RBI and a run scored. Emison Soto had a single, walk and two stolen bases. Larry Alcime was 1-for-4 with a single.
Starter Noe Toribio allowed four runs (two earned) over four innings. Pablo Santana followed with three shutout innings. Samuel Reyes went 1.2 innings, giving up two hits, no runs and he had three strikeouts. Wilmer Contreras recorded the final out for the save.
Here’s the season preview for the DSL Pirates. Here is a look at the top ten players to watch. Eight of those players are listed above. The other two not listed are starting pitchers.
