Statcast Heroes: Oneil Cruz, Rowdy Tellez, Paul Skenes, Nick Gonzales, Garret Forrester

Every Wednesday, I’ll be recapping the weekly Statcast leaders at each level of the Pittsburgh Pirates system that has data available. That includes the Major Leagues, Triple-A, and Single-A.

The results give a quick glimpse at players who stand out in a given week, with the chance to identify players who wouldn’t normally be discussed. As for the players who are normally discussed, this allows for a deeper dive into why they’re performing well.

The weekly leaders can be found at the bottom of the article, after five players who stood out in the last week.

Oneil Cruz With One of the Hardest Hits This Year

At 116.4 MPH, the double from Oneil Cruz last week was one of the hardest hit balls this year. The hit came in Thursday’s game against Milwaukee, as part of an active streak where Cruz has recorded a hit in each of his last seven starts.

Since Cruz said he has lost his confidence, he has done a good job at the plate trying to get it back. He’s batting .333/.379/.407 in his last 29 plate appearances. With the Pirates struggling on offense, it would be great to see Cruz’s bat waking up.

Rowdy Tellez Hitting the Ball Hard

The Pirates added Rowdy Tellez as their first baseman this offseason, and it hasn’t gone well. He’s batting .198/.283/.259 with one homer in 92 plate appearances. If there’s a silver lining, it’s that he was hitting the ball hard over the last week, even if that only led to three hits.

Tellez had two doubles on April 28th, including one that traveled 109 MPH. He had a 107.6 MPH single the day before. Tellez also had some hard and far hits that went for outs.

Two Starts From Paul Skenes

This week is the first week where top pitching prospect Paul Skenes is scheduled for two starts. He made his first one on Tuesday night, and will make his next start on Sunday. Since this article goes Wednesday-Tuesday, this was the first week where Skenes had two starts.

As usual, he owned the top velocity section in Triple-A, with 15 pitches at 100.1 MPH or higher, getting up to 101.0 MPH. [ppp_patron_only level=”5″ silent=”no”]

He combined for 27 whiffs across the two starts. He allowed one earned run in 10.1 innings across the two starts, with 14 strikeouts and two walks.

Nick Gonzales Continues to Hit

Indianapolis only played three games over the last week, due to weather issues in Omaha. That was still enough for Nick Gonzales to put up plenty of hard hits. The 2020 first rounder lost his hitting and on-base streak with an 0-for-4 performance on Thursday, but went 4-for-13 with two homers in the three games.

Gonzales had three of the top ten hardest hit balls for Indianapolis this week. He also had three of the furthest hit balls, including the longest with his monster 422 foot solo home run on Tuesday night.

A Third Round Pick is Heating Up

Garret Forrester hit his first homer of his pro career on Tuesday, after being drafted by the Pirates in the third round last year. Forrester, a corner infielder who has been getting work behind the plate, has a nine game on-base streak and a five game hitting streak. This past week included all five of those games, where he went 10-for-18 with a double and a homer.

Forrester had four of the hardest hit balls this past week for Bradenton. His home run on Tuesday wasn’t one of those, exiting at 101.1 MPH. He did have two harder hits on Tuesday, with singles that went 105.9 and 106.7 MPH on a day where he went 3-for-3 with a walk.

Weekly Leaders

Every week, I’ll be recapping the leaders across four categories in both the majors and the minors. This week includes the first full week in Single-A. All stats run 4/10/24-4/16/24, and can be found at Baseball Savant.

Top Exit Velocities

Bryan Reynolds stood out in the MLB section with three of the hardest hit balls, but only one for a hit. Yasmani Grandal is hitting the ball hard in Triple-A. Omar Alfonzo continues to hit the ball hard in Bradenton, with the hardest hit in Single-A.

MLB

1. Oneil Cruz – 116.4 MPH (4/25, Double)
2. Joey Bart – 111.1 MPH (4/25, Home Run)
3. Bryan Reynolds – 109.3 MPH (4/26, Lineout)
4. Bryan Reynolds – 109.1 MPH (4/27, Home Run)
5. Rowdy Tellez – 109.0 MPH (4/28, Double)
6. Jack Suwinski – 108.1 MPH (4/27, Single)
7. Jack Suwinski – 107.7 MPH (4/24, Double)
8. Rowdy Tellez – 107.6 MPH (4/27, Single)
9. Connor Joe – 107.1 MPH (4/26, Double)
10. Bryan Reynolds – 107.0 MPH (4/30, Lineout)

Triple-A

1. Yasmani Grandal – 109.2 MPH (4/25, Groundout)
2. Canaan Smith-Njigba – 108.4 MPH (4/25, Single)
3. Andres Alvarez – 108.0 MPH (4/24, Lineout)
4. Matt Gorski – 107.3 MPH (4/25, Triple)
5. Nick Gonzales – 106.9 MPH (4/24, Single)
6. Yasmani Grandal – 105.7 MPH (4/25, Lineout)
7. Nick Gonzales – 105.6 MPH (4/30, Home Run)
8. Nick Gonzales – 105.1 MPH (4/25, Forceout)
9. Canaan Smith-Njigba – 104.6 MPH (4/24, Lineout)
10. Liover Peguero – 103.5 MPH (4/24, Double)

Single-A

1. Omar Alfonzo – 107.5 MPH (4/24, Double)
2. Garret Forrester – 106.3 MPH (4/28, Single)
3. Jesus Castillo – 102.4 MPH (4/28, Groundout)
4. Esmerlyn Valdez – 109.1 MPH (4/27, Double)
5. Garret Forrester – 106.7 MPH (4/30, Single)
6. Omar Alfonzo – 106.4 MPH (4/27, GIDP)
7. Garret Forrester – 105.9 MPH (4/30, Single)
8. Garret Forrester – 104.6 MPH (4/26, Groundout)
9. Wesley Zapata – 103.9 MPH (4/27, Groundout)
10. Justin Miknis – 103.8 MPH (4/25, Groundout)

Top Distances

Reynolds also showed up well in the distance section. Gonzales beat Joey Bart for the longest hit of the week. Minor league Rule 5 pick P.J. Hilson had the third longest shot, with a 405 foot homer in Bradenton.

MLB

1. Joey Bart – 419 (4/25)
2. Bryan Reynolds – 402 (4/24)
3. Bryan Reynolds – 387 (4/27)
4. Connor Joe – 387 (4/30)
5. Rowdy Tellez – 386 (4/24)
6. Andrew McCutchen – 382 (4/26)
7. Jack Suwinski – 380 (4/25)
8. Michael A. Taylor – 380 (4/29)
9. Ke’Bryan Hayes – 377 (4/27)
10. Oneil Cruz – 371 (4/27)

Triple-A

1. Nick Gonzales – 422 (4/30)
2. Canaan Smith-Njigba – 387 (4/24)
3. Liover Peguero – 387 (4/30)
4. Yasmani Grandal – 384 (4/25)
5. Matt Gorski – 383 (4/25)
6. Nick Gonzales – 372 (4/30)
7. Nick Gonzales – 371 (4/24)
8. Jake Lamb – 365 (4/25)
9. Liover Peguero – 361 (4/24)
10. Ji Hwan Bae – 352 (4/25)

Single-A

1. P.J. Hilson – 405 (4/26)
2. Shalin Polanco – 370 (4/30)
3. Shalin Polanco – 369 (4/28)
4. Shalin Polanco – 365 (4/28)
5. Kalae Harrison – 362 (4/27)
6. Kalae Harrison – 357 (4/27)
7. Omar Alfonzo – 349 (4/24)
8. Juan Jerez – 348 (4/25)
9. Omar Alfonzo – 347 (4/28)
10. Justin Miknis – 346 (4/27)

Top Pitch Velocities

This section is always ruled by Skenes, Aroldis Chapman, and Jared Jones at the top. This week, Kyle Nicolas joined the mix. In Single-A, every one of the top velocity pitchers has dealt with control issues, while possessing swing and miss stuff.

MLB

1. Aroldis Chapman – 103.0 MPH
2. Aroldis Chapman – 101.9 MPH
3. Aroldis Chapman – 101.6 MPH
4. Aroldis Chapman – 100.1 MPH
5. Aroldis Chapman – 100.0 MPH
6. Jared Jones – 99.8 MPH
7. Aroldis Chapman – 99.7 MPH
8. Jared Jones – 99.6 MPH
9. Aroldis Chapman – 99.5 MPH
10. Kyle Nicolas – 99.4 MPH
11. Kyle Nicolas – 99.4 MPH

Triple-A

1. Paul Skenes – 101.0 MPH
2. Paul Skenes – 100.9 MPH
3. Paul Skenes – 100.9 MPH
4. Paul Skenes – 100.7 MPH
5. Paul Skenes – 100.4 MPH
6. Paul Skenes – 100.3 MPH
7. Paul Skenes – 100.2 MPH
8. Paul Skenes – 100.2 MPH
9. Paul Skenes – 100.1 MPH
10. Paul Skenes – 100.1 MPH
11. Paul Skenes – 100.1 MPH
12. Paul Skenes – 100.1 MPH
13. Paul Skenes – 100.1 MPH
14. Paul Skenes – 100.1 MPH
15. Paul Skenes – 100.1 MPH

Single-A

1. Carlos Jimenez – 97.2 MPH
2. Khristian Curtis – 97.1 MPH
3. Carlos Jimenez – 97.0 MPH
4. Khristian Curtis – 96.9 MPH
5. Tyler Kennedy – 96.8 MPH
6. Antwone Kelly – 96.7 MPH
7. Tyler Kennedy – 96.7 MPH
8. Khristian Curtis – 96.7 MPH
9. Khristian Curtis – 96.7 MPH
10. Antwone Kelly – 96.6 MPH

Swing and Miss

It was a promising start for Quinn Priester this past week, getting 14 whiffs. The Pirates will turn to him to avoid a sweep on Wednesday. Skenes had two double-digit whiff starts. Bradenton had three double-digit whiff starts from Michael Kennedy, Carlos Jimenez, and Carlson Reed.

MLB

1. Quinn Priester – 14 (4/26)
2. Bailey Falter – 11 (4/29)
3. Mitch Keller – 9 (4/25)
4. Martin Perez – 9 (4/27)
5. Luis Ortiz – 7 (4/24)
6. Jared Jones – 7 (4/28)
7. Roansy Contreras – 7 (4/29)
8. Mitch Keller – 7 (4/30)
9. Roansy Contreras – 6 (4/24)
10. David Bednar – 5 (4/27)
11. Luis Ortiz – 5 (4/28)
12. Kyle Nicolas – 5 (4/29)
13. Josh Fleming – 5 (4/30)

Triple-A

1. Paul Skenes – 16 (4/24)
2. Paul Skenes – 11 (4/30)
3. Brent Honeywell – 4 (4/24)
4. Connor Sadzeck – 4 (4/25)
5. Brent Honeywell – 4 (4/30)
6. Ben Heller – 4 (4/30)
7. Connor Sadzeck – 3 (4/25)
8. Brady Feigl – 2 (4/24)
9. J.C. Flowers – 2 (4/25)
10. Carmen Mlodzinski – 2 (4/30)
11. Brady Feigl – 2 (4/30)

Single-A

1. Michael Kennedy – 13 (4/27)
2. Carlos Jimenez – 13 (4/30)
3. Carlson Reed – 12 (4/26)
4. Hung-Leng Chang – 9 (4/24)
5. Antwone Kelly – 9 (4/25)
6. Khristian Curtis – 7 (4/28)
7. Magdiel Cotto – 5 (4/24)
8. Tyler Kennedy – 5 (4/26)
9. Yoldin De La Paz – 5 (4/30)
10. Inmer Lobo – 4 (4/24)
11. Inmer Lobo – 4 (4/28)

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