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]
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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 — When a Major League player is on a rehab assignment, ideally everything goes smooth and awkward plays are held to a minimum.
And then you have the odd type of game Jameson Taillon experienced in his second rehab start after having surgery for testicular cancer.
Indianapolis defeated Gwinnett, 4-1, in a game that had five errors. The Indians scored all four of their runs in the seventh inning on a pair of sacrifice flies, a wild pitch and a fielder’s choice.
Taillon had a couple of awkward defensive plays to handle, both involving first baseman Jason Rogers.
Just four batters into the game, Taillon took a soft grounder off his leg. Taillon regrouped to field the ball but he made an error on the throw and Gwinnett’s Lane Adams ran into Rogers. The error allowed Gwinett to score its only run in the game.
One inning later, Rogers made a nice stop on a grounder up the first base line, but he made a throwing error to Taillon covering the bag. Later in the game, relief pitcher Brett McKinney committed an error when he didn’t catch the ball from Rogers, who was throwing it back to him after a pick-off attempt.
“Sloppy,” Indianapolis manager Andy Barkett said. “There were some funky plays in that game all the way around. Some things that you don’t see very often. But that’s baseball, though, if you come to the ballpark every night you’ll see something different.”
The big story of the game was Taillon’s return for a rehab start. He allowed just three hits over five innings, striking out six and walking none. He threw 49 of his 68 pitches for a strike.
“He looked sharp, he felt sharp,” Barkett said. “He threw the ball well. It’s just inspiring to see him out there and see him get back to work.”
Taillon had a familiar face behind the plate with catcher Jacob Stallings. The two worked together in Indianapolis before Taillon was promoted last season.
“Jameson looked healthy and I think that’s the most important thing for him,” Stallings said. “His stuff was there, his location was good. I wouldn’t have thought he had been off for a month or whatever it’s been. We were on the same page the whole night.”
More on Taillon’s start in the morning.
Stallings is turning into a perfect person to put in the lineup. The Indians have won the last 14 games that he has started, and he’s now the primary catcher with Elias Diaz in Pittsburgh.
Jason Rogers and Barrett Barnes each had a double, while Barnes finished two hits. McKinney, A.J. Schugel and Pat Light combined to throw four scoreless innings in relief, allowing just one hit and striking out four. – Brian Peloza
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Altoona had a tough game on Friday night in which they came back from a 3-0 deficit to take a 7-3 lead, only to lose the game in the bottom of the ninth on a walk-off single with the bases loaded.
Yeudy Garcia started and allowed three runs in five innings, with all three runs coming on a fourth inning home run. He gave up six hits, three walks, hit a batter and had five strikeouts, to go along with a 5:1 GO/AO ratio. Garcia usually has issues with high pitch counts, so with the walks, HBP, strikeouts and hits, you would have thought this would be a really bad one for him, but he only threw 78 pitches. He’s had higher pitch counts per inning during much better starts than this one. Garcia has a 5.13 ERA in 40.1 innings this season, with 40 strikeouts.
Jared Lakind followed Garcia and threw a scoreless sixth inning before allowing four runs in the seventh. Lakind has struggled badly this season, although it looked like he was possibly turning it around recently. He gave up just one run in his previous 8.2 innings before tonight. He now has a 6.23 ERA.
Miguel Rosario continued to keep runs off the board. His ERA dropped to 0.99 after 1.1 scoreless in this game. Since allowing two runs in his season debut, he has given up one earned run over 26 innings. Buddy Borden took the loss as his ERA skyrocketed to 1.08.
The Curve scored seven runs on this night, with three of those runs coming in the sixth inning off of the bat of Jerrick Suiter, who hit his first homer for Altoona. He also added a single later and scored another run. Kevin Newman went 2-for-5 with two singles and a run scored. Kevin Kramer drove in two runs with a single and a sacrifice fly. Pablo Reyes had his eighth double, to go along with a single, a run scored and an RBI. Jordan Luplow helped out with a walk, single, two runs scored, a stolen base and an outfield assist.
Jin-De Jhang dropped to .111 with an 0-for-3 night and he committed his first error of the season. Connor Joe is hitting .158 over his last ten games.
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Bradenton lost 2-0 to Ft Myers on Friday night, as Taylor Hearn picked up eight strikeouts over six innings of work. One swing was the difference in this game, as a two-run homer in the fourth inning accounted for all of the scoring.
Hearn was struggling through most of May until throwing seven shutout innings in his last start of the month. He started June off with a solid start, giving up those two runs on three hits and two walks. He did a great job of throwing strikes and when he wasn’t getting strikeouts, he was getting grounders. Hearn had a 6:2 GO/AO ratio and 61 of his 87 pitches went for strikes. He now has a 4.18 ERA in 51.2 innings, with 65 strikeouts, which ranks him first in the FSL in the latter category.
The offense was almost non-existent and they didn’t do themselves any favors on the bases. No one reached base more than once with the Marauders collecting a total of three hits and two walks. Ke’Bryan Hayes singled, but was thrown out trying to stretch it into a double. Casey Hughston singled, then was thrown out stealing. Mitchell Tolman singled, Logan Hill and Jordan George drew walks. Will Craig and Cole Tucker each went 0-for-4.
Casey Sadler pitched two more shutout innings in his sixth appearance since returning from Tommy John surgery. He has thrown a total of 12 innings now, giving up one run on five hits and two walks, with 14 strikeouts.
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West Virginia has had no luck with their middle infield prospects. They were supposed to have Stephen Alemais and Adrian Valerio split time at shortstop this year, but Valerio missed over a month with a broken hand suffered in Spring Training. Shortly after Valerio joined the team, Alemais suffered a hand injury on a collision at second base and he is in a cast now. Then last night, Adrian Valerio gets hit under the left eye by a throw that deflected off of a runner. He needed to go to the hospital and was put on the DL today.
Three of the Power pitchers are top 50 prospects, but that means that at least 2-4 nights a week until Valerio or Alemais returns, you could have nights like Friday night with no top 50 prospects playing.
The Power won 3-1, with Matt Anderson working around five walks in 5.1 innings to allow just one unearned run, though it was his own error so technically he earned it (one of my pet peeves is pitchers not getting credited with earned runs on their own errors). Carlos Munoz hit his fifth homer and his tenth double. Clark Eagan hit his eighth double. Hunter Owen hit three singles and had an RBI. Sandy Santos went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts. Geoff Hartlieb lowered his ERA to 1.11 with 1.2 scoreless innings.
Andrew Walker rejoined the team one day after he left the team and headed back towards Pirate City, so he’s racking up frequent flyer miles. He played one game last week when Trae Arbet got hurt and missed three days.
