Keith Law posted his updated top 50 prospects list on Thursday morning. Usually we post an article for those, but he an interesting decision for his list, which I didn’t have explanation for, so I’m posting it here instead.
Law had Mitch Keller ranked 10th overall and Kevin Newman ranked 44th, and that was it for the Pirates. I wasn’t sure if he just left Austin Meadows off because he was currently injured or did he really think he wasn’t a top 50 prospect? He answered it later in his chat and it was a little bit of both, with injuries over the years piling up, he knocked him from #8 in early April to off the top 50.
I’m not sure how many people you could find who think Newman is a better prospect than Meadows, but it’s his list, so he can do whatever he wants on it. Keller is up two spots from the April list and Newman dropped 18 spots.
Baseball America had their updated top 100 prospects list last week and they had Keller 15th, Meadows 22nd and Newman 87th. Baseball Prospectus did an updated top 50 and they went with Keller 17th and Meadows 21st.
MLB Pipeline has a bunch of updates coming up soon. Before the July 31st trade deadline, they plan to update their top 100, the top 30 for each team and the top ten for each position. So expect a few articles when those come out.
* Tyler Glasnow makes his sixth start tonight for Indianapolis. Many people asked when he was sent down, how long would he have to stay down to get an extra year of service time. That was obviously not the reason he was sent down, but I don’t think anyone who watched him pitch in the majors thought it was the goal back in June either. He’s been down for a little while, so it is something we can look at now just for reference.
Glasnow picked up 66 days of service time last year, partially helped by his trip to the disabled list while in the majors. He picked up another 69 days this year from April 2nd to June 9th. A full year of service time is 172 days, which means he reaches it with 37 more days.
That means that if he was called back up on August 27th, he would fall one day short of one full year and the Pirates would still have six years of control. As I said, that wasn’t the goal and he could definitely pitch his way back sooner, but it wouldn’t exactly be the worst thing for the Pirates if he keeps improving and they get an extra year out of him. It also wouldn’t be a bad idea because if they need a starter, Steven Brault is the most deserving and ready option right now. Since Glasnow is starting tonight and then wouldn’t be available for five days (same schedule as Gerrit Cole too), you’re really talking about five more weeks of starts in Indianapolis for this to happen. Just something to think about.
PIRATES GAME GRAPH
The Pirates were off yesterday.
TODAY’S SCHEDULE
Today’s Starter and Notes: The Pittsburgh Pirates have been on the All-Star break since Sunday. They open a series at home against the St Louis Cardinals tonight. Gerrit Cole will be on the mound for the series opener. He is making his 19th start. Cole has a 4.41 ERA at home in eight starts. He has faced the Cardinals twice this season, allowing three runs over 12 innings. The Cardinals will counter with right-hander Mike Leake, who has a 3.12 ERA in 109.2 innings, with 74 strikeouts and a 1.15 WHIP.
In the minors, Tyler Glasnow makes his sixth start for Indianapolis. He has struck out at least seven batters in every outing and allowed two or fewer runs each start. Pedro Vasquez starts for Bradenton. He ranks sixth in the Florida State League with a 2.52 ERA and his 1.13 WHIP is ninth in the league. Eduardo Vera has allowed four earned runs over 24 innings in his last four starts combined.
I have given up on Morgantown because they have no clue who is starting for them apparently. It says Scooter Hightower, but he was also supposed to start two days ago. It could also be Stephan Meyer, who was listed for yesterday, or just some random third person like what happened on Tuesday when they whiffed on both guesses. Bristol will go with Travis MacGregor tonight and the GCL Pirates should be Shane Baz making his third start, which should be three innings.
MLB: Pittsburgh (42-47) vs Cardinals (43-45) 7:05 PM
Probable starter: Gerrit Cole (4.43 ERA, 27:94 BB/SO, 107.2 IP)
AAA: Indianapolis (51-39) vs Louisville (35-55) 7:15 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Tyler Glasnow (1.84 ERA, 15:49 BB/SO, 29.1 IP)
AA: Altoona (46-42) vs Bowie (48-42) 7:00 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Austin Coley (3.12 ERA, 20:67 BB/SO, 86.2 IP)
High-A: Bradenton (49-37) @ Clearwater (48-41) 7:00 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Pedro Vasquez (2.52 ERA, 18:69 BB/SO, 89.1 IP)
Low-A: West Virginia (38-48) vs Augusta (33-53) 7:00 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Eduardo Vera (2.76 ERA, 8:62 BB/SO, 71.2 IP)
Short-Season A: Morgantown (14-9) vs Staten Island (17-6) 7:05 PM (season preview)
Probable Starter: TBD
Rookie: Bristol (7-14) @ Johnson City (8-13) 7:00 PM
GCL: Pirates (5-11) vs Yankees East (9-4) 12:00 PM
DSL: Pirates (20-15) vs Rangers1 (22-13) 10:30 AM (season preview)
HIGHLIGHTS
Here are two highlights from Bligh Madris, who seems to be a very popular subject for the Morgantown highlight man. This is the second time we are featuring two highlights for Madris. Nothing against Madris mind you, but he has .670 OPS and there are as many highlights of him as everyone else on the team combined.
Clip #2
RECENT TRANSACTIONS
7/13: Dany Hernandez promoted to Bristol. Will Reed assigned to GCL Pirates from Bristol.
7/13: Pasquale Mazzoccoli promoted to West Virginia.
7/12: Luis Escobar activated from temporary inactive list. Nick King assigned to Morgantown.
7/11: Hector Garcia assigned to GCL Pirates on rehab.
7/10: Starling Marte assigned to Bradenton on rehab.
7/8: Antonio Bastardo designated for assignment. Phil Gosselin recalled from Indianapolis.
7/8: Dan Runzler activated from disabled list. Justin Maffei assigned to Altoona from Indianapolis.
7/8: Luis Escobar placed on temporary inactive list. Nick King assigned to West Virginia.
7/8: Cody Dickson placed on disabled list.
7/6: Pirates recall A.J. Schugel. Elias Diaz optioned to Indianapolis
7/6: Gift Ngoepe activated from disabled list.
7/6: Pirates release Jared Lakind
7/5: Hunter Owen assigned to West Virginia. Nick King assigned to Morgantown.
7/5: Adonis Pichardo assigned to Bristol from GCL Pirates.
THIS DATE IN PIRATES HISTORY
Six former Pittsburgh Pirates players born on this date, including one of the better pitchers from the early years of the Pirates. Jesse Tannehill pitched for Pittsburgh from 1897 until 1902, starring on the first two teams in franchise history to finish first in the National League. Tannehill was a star during his day, going 197-117 in his career and 116-58 during his time with the Pirates. No one in team history with more than 650 innings, has a better winning percentage. From 1898 until 1902, he won at least 20 games in all but one season. That one year he didn’t, he won 18 games and led the NL with a 2.18 ERA. One interesting note about his career can be found on Baseball-Reference, where they list the most comparable players. For Tannehill, the top five are: The other three pitchers in the 1902 rotation, Sam Leever, Deacon Phillippe and Jack Chesbro, plus Babe Adams and Ed Morris, who both made their name with the Pirates.
As for the other five former players, we have third baseman Jose Hernandez (2003, 06), pitcher Earl Francis (1960-64), pitcher Bob Purkey (1954-57, 1966), utility fielder Jack Farmer (1916) and 1913-15 pitcher Joe Conzelman. More on them can be found in the link above.
Also in the above link, there is a recap of a wild game between the Pirates and Cincinnati Reds from the 1974 season that turned the year around for Pittsburgh. They were 12 games under .500 going into the game and went 51-25 the rest of the way. You can find the boxscore here.
