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Pirates Promote Right-Handed Pitching Prospect Eduardo Vera to Altoona; Lefty Blake Weiman to Bradenton

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Pirates Prospects has learned that right-handed pitcher Eduardo Vera has been promoted to the Altoona Curve and relief pitcher Blake Weiman has been promoted to Bradenton from West Virginia.

Vera has been pitching for Bradenton this season, where he has a 2.95 ERA in 58 innings, with a 30:10 SO/BB ratio, a 1.00 WHIP and a .230 BAA. He established himself as a prospect last year when he showed mid-90s velocity, to go along with excellent control over three pitches.

Vera missed a lot of time due to needing Tommy John surgery at the end of Spring Training in 2015. That caused him to miss the entire season, plus more than half of 2016. He was able to return with the added velocity, up from 88-90 MPH range before the injury.

After putting up a strong 2017 season and excelling at the beginning of 2018, Vera now has a chance to pitch three months of Double-A ball. That’s important because he is a free agent at the end of this season and the Pirates will need to decide whether to add him to the 40-man roster to retain his rights.

To fill the roster spot in Bradenton, relief pitcher Blake Weiman moves up from West Virginia. He has dominated at Low-A, which was a low placement for the 2017 eighth round pick out of Kansas. He had a 1.29 ERA in 28 innings, with 35 strikeouts and an 0.82 WHIP. The southpaw Weiman has dominated lefties, holding them to a .167 average with 17 strikeouts in 42 at-bats.

Right-handed reliever Joel Cesar has been activated from the disabled list and will take Weiman’s roster spot in West Virginia.

John Dreker
John Dreker
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball. When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.

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