Over the course of the entire baseball season, every player will go through a series of ups and downs. The hope is that they will drag out the good, and limit the bad, and by it is all said and done, you have yourself a successful season.
Maybe no one is running a hotter bat right now than Bradenton Marauders’ infielder Jack Brannigan.
Drafted out of Notre Dame, Brannigan made a splash immediately when he was announced as a two-way player when the Pirates selected him. Scouts liked his potential on the mound, and it seemed at least at first the goal was to get him some work in as a pitcher at some point.
With his recent performance in the batters’ box, there might be enough intrigue with his overall skillset to scrap the two-way plans, at least for now.
Brannigan flashed his incredibly underrated speed to close out the month of May, stealing a base in five consecutive games, and his latest on Friday pushed him to double digits on the season.
In June, he’s flashed some of his raw power, hitting home runs in four of his last five games (five overall), and has a slash of .385/.500/1.038 this month.
One knock on Brannigan going through the draft process was his hit tool, with Baseball America giving it a ’30’ rating, and Fangraphs a ’30/40′ future value.
He’s walking a tight rope with the strikeouts, hanging out just under the 30% mark, which isn’t ideal for a college hitter playing in Single-A, but he’s still shown some flashes.
His latest home run from Friday night was particularly encouraging to see, waiting on a breaking ball away and driving it to right-center, over the fence for a go-ahead three-run shot.
Great piece of hitting by Brannigan, taking a breaking ball the opposite way for a three run home run to give the Marauders the lead #LetsGoBucs pic.twitter.com/NaakV0hP9t
— Anthony Murphy (@__Murphy88) June 10, 2023
An early season injury slowed down his progress, but it looks like he starting to catch up to everyone else, and then some.
Even if he never steps on the mound, Brannigan has plenty of tools to keep things interesting, as Baseball America also mentioned he had the defense to challenge for a Gold Glove at some point.
He’s flashed the arm that allows him to reach the upper-90s with his fastball, it’s just about working on the hit tool and when he does cool off this hot streak, limiting the valley that’ll come with it.
Prospect Notes
— Went back and watch the Thomas Harrington start from Thursday night, and it felt like it was a completely different pitcher on the mound.
Watching him in Bradenton he seemed more a finesse/pitch to contact type of pitcher, but Thursday night he was blowing elevated fastballs past hitters, mixing in the slider and changeup throughout.
There’s a very fun group of pitchers in the lower levels, to the point you could probably talk about someone different throughout the week and not really repeat.
— He hasn’t pitched much since the Pirates signed him, so it shouldn’t be too much a surprise that Friday was Brandan Bidois’ first professional win of his career.
With Bradenton he’s averaging mid 90s with his fastball, and his curveball is averaging over 3,000 rpms on it’s spin rate, which would be among the best in the majors right now.
Daily Video Rundown
Two Run HR for 2B Tsung-Che Cheng @GSOHoppers #LetsGoBucs pic.twitter.com/vAR6AdEoWD
— Pittsburgh Pirates Player Development (@PGHplayerDev) June 9, 2023
Tsung-Che Cheng picks up his eighth home run of the season for the Grasshoppers, this one a two-run shot in the first inning.
Nicky G gets us started.
Nick Gonzales with a home run to start off the home half of the first inning for Indianapolis.
HR #8 for @matthew_gorski7 is an absolute bomb to right-center pic.twitter.com/oL1HeQM42e
— Altoona Curve (@AltoonaCurve) June 9, 2023
Matt Gorski goes the other way for his eighth home run of the season.
PIRATES PROSPECTS DAILY
By Tim Williams
Looking for the nightly Prospect Watch, Pirates Recap, and game discussion? Check out Pirates Prospects Live.
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**New Mock Draft from MLB Pipeline
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**Jared Jones Continues Incredible Development With Altoona
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