A look at how the current top 30 prospects did today. If a player is in the majors for an extended time (Max Moroff), 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 Mid-Season Update, and links on each name go to their Pirates Prospects player pages.
1. Mitch Keller, RHP, Bradenton – [insert_php]
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2. Austin Meadows, CF, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
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3. Shane Baz, RHP, GCL Pirates – [insert_php]
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4. Cole Tucker, SS, Altoona – [insert_php]
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5. Kevin Newman, SS, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
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6. Ke’Bryan Hayes, 3B, Bradenton -[insert_php]
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7. Will Craig, 1B, Bradenton – [insert_php]
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8. Elias Diaz, C, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
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9. Taylor Hearn, LHP, Bradenton – [insert_php]
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10. Gage Hinsz, RHP, Bradenton – [insert_php]
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11. Calvin Mitchell, OF, GCL Pirates – [insert_php]
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12. Braeden Ogle, LHP, Bristol – [insert_php]
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13. Edgar Santana, RHP, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
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14. Kevin Kramer, 2B, Altoona -[insert_php]
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15. Steven Brault, LHP, Indianapolis– [insert_php]
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16. Clay Holmes, RHP, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
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17. Jordan Luplow, LF, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
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18. Luis Escobar, RHP, West Virginia – [insert_php]
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19. Max Kranick, RHP, GCL Pirates – [insert_php]
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20. Steven Jennings, RHP, GCL Pirates – [insert_php]
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21. Adrian Valerio, SS, West Virginia – [insert_php]
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22. Nick Kingham, RHP, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
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23. Conner Uselton, OF, GCL Pirates – Disabled List
24. Dovydas Neverauskas, RHP, Pirates – [insert_php]
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25. Eric Wood, 3B, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
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26. Eduardo Vera, RHP, West Virginia – [insert_php]
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27. Logan Hill, LF, Altoona – [insert_php]
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28. Tyler Eppler, RHP, Indianapolis -[insert_php]
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29. Lolo Sanchez, CF, GCL Pirates – [insert_php]
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30. Dario Agrazal, RHP, Altoona – [insert_php]
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Indianapolis won 3-2 over Louisville, as Tyler Glasnow made his tenth straight start for Indianapolis in which he allowed two or fewer runs. Glasnow wasn’t sharp early and that led to runs in the first and second innings, but he quickly settled in and kept the opposition off the board for the next four frames. He allowed six hits and one walk, while striking out seven batters. He threw 66 of his pitches for strikes and posted an impressive 8:3 GO/AO ratio. Glasnow has a 1.61 ERA through 61.2 innings, with 92 strikeouts.
Johnny Barbato threw two no-hit innings following Glasnow. He picked up three strikeouts. Edgar Santana threw a scoreless ninth for the save.
The offense put up two runs in the second inning. Elias Diaz singled, stole a base and then scored on a Gift Ngoepe double. Kevin Newman would pick up an RBI on a ground out for the second run. In the fourth, Newman reached on a bunt single, moved to second on an infield single by Jordan Luplow, then got to third on a grounder. Joey Terdoslavich brought Newman home with a sacrifice fly.
The team had eight hits, with Elias Diaz collecting the only multi-hit game. Jordan Luplow walked three times in addition to his single. Terdoslavich also had two walks.
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Altoona won 2-1 over Trenton behind Brandon Waddell and solid bullpen work from three relievers. Waddell made his second start for Altoona since suffering his second forearm strain of the season back in June. He went 4.2 innings in this game, running up his pitch count due to some control issues. He managed to allow just one run on six hits and three walks. Waddell had five strikeouts and a 5:2 GO/AO ratio.
The bullpen was strong in this game, starting with Brandon Cumpton, who stranded two inherited runners in the fifth inning. He retired all four batters he faced, two by strikeout. Sean Keselica threw a scoreless seventh and Tate Scioneaux retired all six batters he faced to pick up his 11th save.
Altoona didn’t need much offense on this night with the pitching they received. Justin Maffei contributed to both runs, going 3-for-4, with two doubles, an RBI and a run scored. Anderson Feliz had a triple, two walks and a run scored. The rest of the team went 2-for-25 with 12 strikeouts. Cole Tucker had an RBI single and his fourth stolen base since joining the Curve.
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Bradenton was rained out.
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CHARLESTON, WV – I heard some rave reviews about Oneil Cruz’s power on Friday night. After seeing him in batting practice, West Virginia hitting coach Ryan Long said it looks like he has MLB power, and some of the best in the system, majors included. Manager Wyatt Toregas joined in the discussion, saying he has Pedro Alvarez type power. That of course is a lot of hype for an 18-year-old kid in Low-A ball. But then I got to see Cruz for the first time tonight, and witnessed the power as he did this:
The power came so easy. He had two other hits on the night, and showed very little effort. The two singles saw him going the other way, and the home run was pulled. He’s shown some impressive batting practice power, hitting one off the building across the street in right field, and hitting lasers over the wall in center field at the deepest part of the park.
I got to see a little bit of the good and a little bit of what Cruz needs to work on tonight. Obviously the good was that he had three hits and a home run. He does look like he might have a bit too much movement with the bat, and he does have a long swing which led to at least one swing and miss on the evening on an outside pitch.
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Defensively there have been concerns about his height and whether he can stick at third. I will say that he moves very well for a guy that is 6′ 6″ and built like a tall tree. But he did have a few issues tonight with his glovework. On one play he bobbled the ball when trying to come up with it, but a strong throw still got the runner after he recovered. Another play saw him have trouble getting the ball out of his glove, which allowed a runner to reach. He had another issue like that, but got the runner on that play.
Again, this is an 18-year-old kid in Low-A, so there will definitely be things to work on. But that power was extremely impressive, especially for how easy it came.
The other highlight of the evening was Luis Escobar, who threw 6.2 shutout innings, allowing three hits, four walks, and striking out nine. Two of the walks came in the final frame, with one coming on a four pitch walk against a lefty, and the other coming when Escobar threw wide of the plate on a 3-2 pitch, trying to get a right-hander on the outer half of the plate. Prior to the seventh inning, he was dealing, working well with his fastball while mixing in a solid changeup and curveball. I talked with Escobar at length about some mechanical changes he has made this year, along with discussions with Toregas, who has managed Escobar the last two years. Expect a detailed article on that early next week.
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Albert Baur is very old for this level at age 25, so any production from him comes with that disclaimer. However, he’s a huge guy and I’ve wondered why he doesn’t hit for more power. He connected on a long home run tonight, and has been hitting well lately. The Pirates have been working with him on keeping his bat in the zone longer so he can get better leverage on the ball, rather than going in and out of the zone quickly, resulting in a lot of ground balls and weaker hits. If he wants a shot at being a prospect, he will need to rapidly move through the system at this point, and that would only be possible by increasing his power.
I wrote about Yoel Gonzalez last night, but I’ll mention him again because he’s been impressive at the plate. He went 2-for-4 with two doubles tonight. I was impressed by his framing skills as well tonight, and the defense has always stood out to us. But he looks different at the plate this year, and it’s starting to show through in the stats. – Tim Williams
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Morgantown lost 3-2 to Batavia due to three errors and two unearned runs. Scooter Hightower started and pitched well for six innings. One of two errors on the night by Sandy Santos led to the only run Hightower allowed. He gave up five hits and a walk, while striking out five batters. Hector Garcia was out next and he allowed two runs in his only inning. His unearned run was due to his own throwing error.
The Black Bears had ten hits on the night, but didn’t do well with runners on base. They got doubles in the first inning from Bligh Madris and Dylan Busby to bring in the first run. In the eighth inning, a triple from Tristan Gray and a double from Deon Stafford brought in the second run. They had at least one runner on in eight of the nine innings, but they went 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position. Busby had two hits on the night, his first multi-hit game since July 11th.
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Bristol lost 11-8 on a night marred by errors. If you saw the Morning Report today, it talked about defense around the system and how bad Bristol has been this year. I should have waited another day for that article because they somehow got worse, committing five errors, which led to five unearned runs. Kyle Watson again led the way with his 15th error in 22 games, and another that led to an unearned run. I’m not sure why he is in there at shortstop everyday, but it doesn’t help that the other shortstop on the team, Nick Valaika, committed two errors at second base tonight and saw his average drop to .118 on the season. Bristol is one loss away from clinching a losing season with 25 games left in their schedule. They have the worst record in all of baseball.
Travis MacGregor didn’t have his best day, but the defense did him zero favors. He pitched into the fourth inning, though all four batters he faced came around to score and none of those runs were earned. He gave up three earned runs in the third inning after pitching well in the first two frames. Alex Manasa followed and allowed a solo homer in his two innings of work. Drew Fischer served up the final three runs, with one being unearned.
Yondry Contreras extended his hitting streak to seven games, collecting two singles and scoring two runs, along with an RBI. Edison Lantigua remained out of the lineup for a seventh straight day. We will get an update on him on Monday.
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The GCL Pirates won a wild one over the Blue Jays on Saturday afternoon, scoring the winning run on a Lolo Sanchez sacrifice fly in the 12th inning for the 10-9 victory. Austin Meadows had a big day and the biggest hit in this game. He went 4-for-5, including a three-run homer to tie the score in the bottom of the ninth inning. This was his first nine inning game in the field. He is 7-for-13 in four rehab gamess.
The Pirates weren’t facing your average GCL pitcher in this game. The Blue Jays sent TJ Zeuch to the mound on rehab. He was a first round draft pick out of Pitt last year and was in High-A ball when he got injured back in late May. They hit him around, putting up three runs on six hits in 2.2 innings.
Besides the game-winning sacrifice fly, Lolo Sanchez also led off the game with his fourth homer and added two singles, along with three runs scored. Mason Martin was on base five times, including a double off of Zeuch. Martin also had two walks and was plunked twice. He scored three runs. Victor Ngoepe had two hits and scored two runs.
Max Kranick started this game and gave up one unearned run over four innings. He allowed one hit and one walk. We will have much more on this start and his progress tomorrow morning. Vince Deyzel followed Kranick and his outing went from strong to a disaster after a two out infield single in his second inning of work. Deyzel was through 1.2 scoreless when a slow grounder to third base turned into a hit. From that point on, five runs scored before he could record an out.
Claudio Scotti came up big in relief, throwing three innings for the first time this season. He was charged with an earned run, but that should be removed at some point. When teams play extra innings in the GCL/DSL, they start with a runner on second base. If that runner scores, it doesn’t count as an earned run. MiLB has been slow to remove those earned runs from players, but they eventually will.
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The DSL Pirates got strong pitching and some timely hitting in their 7-1 victory on Saturday morning. Noe Toribio started and went five shutout innings, allowing three hits, with no walks and seven strikeouts, which is a new career high. He also posted a 6:2 GO/AO ratio. Julio Rosario followed and allowed an unearned run in his three innings of work. Luis Diaz came on to pitch the ninth in his pro debut, which has been two years in waiting due to a shoulder injury. He walked the first batter, then lightning started near by and caused the game to be stopped and eventually ended early.
Jean Eusebio had a big game, going 3-for-5 with his sixth double and his tenth stolen base. He also scored a run. Pedro Castillo drove in two runs on two singles, while also adding a walk and a run scored. Williams Calderon had two runs scored and two RBIs. Sherten Apostel had a walk, hit-by-pitch and a run scored. He has reached base safely in 18 straight games. A streak that started the day after he had just one at-bat before leaving early due to a migraine. He reached base safely in eight straight games before that.
