Welcome to the Pirates Prospects daily video rundown, where we pull some of the top videos of the Pittsburgh Pirates across the internet.
Daily Video Rundown
Aaron Shortridge
We saw Cody Bolton make his first regular season appearance since 2019, now on Tuesday another pitcher made his return to the mound. Aaron Shortridge was the Pirates fourth round pick back in 2018, but Tommy John surgery forced him to miss the 2021 season.
The 25-year-old righty pitched for the first time since that 2019 season, going three innings, allowing three hits and striking out a batter.
In 2019 while pitching for Bradenton, Shortridge went 9-5 with a 3.25 ERA, striking out 104 in 135 2/3 innings while walking just 25.
Rodolfo Castro
Castro made quite the statement in his first game back in Indianapolis, hitting a baseball 461 feet for his third home run at Triple-A.
461 FT ‼️ pic.twitter.com/KE0gyLB3Wb
— Indianapolis Indians (@indyindians) June 8, 2022
Mason Martin
It was a rough month of May for Martin, who batted just .189 but also hit seven home runs. He hasn’t started June off great but one thing has remained, when he does make contract, Martin hits it hard.
Mason Martin put a jolt into that one. Gets a 2 RBI double on the play #LetsGoBucs pic.twitter.com/xhfBmYkw6I
— Anthony Murphy (@__Murphy88) June 7, 2022
Martin hit his 14th double of the season on Tuesday, driving in a pair of runs.
Ji-Hwan Bae
Ji-Hwan Bae with a base hit up the middle to give Indianapolis the lead pic.twitter.com/wvXh1NLIGI
— Anthony Murphy (@__Murphy88) June 7, 2022
Before scoring on that Martin double above, Bae singled home Oneil Cruz. The RBI was Bae’s 26th of the season, and he was able to pick up a couple of hits in the contest.
Rodolfo Nolasco
Nolasco has been hitting the ball hard all season, it was just a matter of making more consistent contact. He stepped into this one, recording a RBI triple to open up the scoring.
Rodolfo Nolasco with a RBI TRIPLE to open up the scoring for the Marauders #LetsGoBucs pic.twitter.com/pEkj7RGAol
— Anthony Murphy (@__Murphy88) June 7, 2022
Anthony began writing over 10 years ago, starting a personal blog to cover the 2011 MLB draft, where the Pirates selected first overall. After bouncing around many websites covering hockey, he refocused his attention to baseball, his first love when it comes to sports. He eventually found himself here at Pirates Prospects in late 2021, where he covers the team’s four full season minor league affiliates.
Martin’s strike out rate is alarming on the face of it but is it really disqualifying for playing in Pittsburgh? His batting average is more of a concern to me. After all an out’s an out regardless of whether it’s a ground ball, pop up, strike out or whatever and hitting the ball hard when making contact has to moderate the strike out rate to some extent. He has twice as many RBI as any current Pirate player and scoring runs is the most important factor isn’t it? If he could learn to shorten up with two strikes and reduce strike outs perhaps he could increase his average but not if it’s at the expense of power. I just think he deserves a chance to play so everyone can find out. If he isn’t better than Chang then we’d know.
Martin has tons of power, but the K issue is a big deal. To play in MLB at first demands more contact.
Just like Fidel and Raul, you can’t keep our Castro down! Hopefully the next time he goes up will be the last.
Thé power is intriguing. The swings and misses not.
Man do I love Nolasco.
Shortridge = “Scrap Iron” ( a la Phil Garner’s ‘stache)
Plus surprising control for post-TJ.
No idea how hot or cold the radar gun was, but 90 mph is unlikely to be an MLB FB.