A look at how the current top 30 prospects did today. If a player is in the majors for an extended time, or loses his prospect eligibility, he will be removed from this list. Everyone below him will be shifted up a spot, and a new player will be added to the bottom of the list. If a player is out for the season, he will be removed and everyone below him will move up a spot. Removing these guys doesn’t mean they have lost prospect status. It is just an attempt to get more active prospects on the list. Rankings are from the 2017 Mid-Season Update, and links on each name go to their Pirates Prospects player pages.
1. Mitch Keller, RHP, Altoona – [insert_php]
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2. Austin Meadows, CF, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
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3. Shane Baz, RHP, GCL Pirates – [insert_php]
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4. Cole Tucker, SS, Altoona – [insert_php]
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5. Kevin Newman, SS, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
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6. Ke’Bryan Hayes, 3B, Bradenton -[insert_php]
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7. Will Craig, 1B, Bradenton – [insert_php]
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8. Elias Diaz, C, Pirates – [insert_php]
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9. Taylor Hearn, LHP, Bradenton – [insert_php]
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10. Gage Hinsz, RHP, Bradenton – [insert_php]
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11. Calvin Mitchell, OF, GCL Pirates – [insert_php]
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12. Braeden Ogle, LHP, Bristol – [insert_php]
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13. Edgar Santana, RHP, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
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14. Kevin Kramer, 2B, Altoona -[insert_php]
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15. Steven Brault, LHP, Indianapolis– [insert_php]
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16. Clay Holmes, RHP, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
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17. Jordan Luplow, LF, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
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18. Luis Escobar, RHP, West Virginia – [insert_php]
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19. Max Kranick, RHP, GCL Pirates – [insert_php]
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20. Steven Jennings, RHP, GCL Pirates – [insert_php]
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21. Adrian Valerio, SS, West Virginia – [insert_php]
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22. Nick Kingham, RHP, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
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23. Conner Uselton, OF, GCL Pirates – Disabled List
24. Max Moroff, INF, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
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25. Dovydas Neverauskas, RHP, Pirates – [insert_php]
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26. Eric Wood, 3B, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
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27. Eduardo Vera, RHP, West Virginia – [insert_php]
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28. Logan Hill, LF, Altoona – [insert_php]
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29. Tyler Eppler, RHP, Indianapolis -[insert_php]
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30. Lolo Sanchez, CF, GCL Pirates – [insert_php]
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Indianapolis lost 5-4 in ten innings to Buffalo on a walk-off single against Edgar Santana. Nick Kingham started this game and his string of great starts came to an end. The results weren’t bad with two runs over six innings, but this wasn’t what we saw from him the last four games when he commanded his fastball well.
Kingham gave up nine hits on the night and one walk, while striking out three batters. He was working heavy with his fastball and left some pitches over the plate. There were no cheap hits among the nine and Buffalo came up empty on some balls that were squared up. Kingham went to his curve more often late in his outing and the pitch was effective. You have to like that he was able to limit the damage, but some of that was due to hard outs right at fielders, and he wasn’t missing enough bats.
Indianapolis came back from a 4-0 deficit with two runs in the eighth and two in the ninth. They did it without Jordan Luplow who was tossed early due to arguing a strike call, which also led to Andy Barkett being thrown out. The home plate umpire had a terrible strike zone all game, but it went both ways, with bad strikes and balls called against each team, so no one really got an advantage, other than Luplow being thrown out for being the person who finally said something.
The Indians were able to make the most of that ejection when Danny Ortiz (Luplow’s replacement) hit a two-run single in the eighth inning. In the ninth, Jacob Stallings doubled in Christopher Bostick, then Stallings scored on a Kevin Newman single.
Edgar Santana wasted no time dashing the team’s hopes of a win. He first pitch was a single. His second pitch was a wild pitch and his third pitch was hit for the walk-off single.
Bostick had three hits. Max Moroff walked three times. Austin Meadows went 0-for-5 and played left field, where he picked up an assist.
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Altoona lost 6-1 to Portland, as Brandon Waddell had a rough outing. He went five innings, allowing five runs on eight hits, two walks and a hit batter. Waddell is usually a big ground ball pitcher, but he had a 4:4 GO/AO ratio in this game, to go along with three strikeouts. He has yet to go longer than five innings since returning from his forearm strain. Tanner Anderson allowed one run over two innings, then Alex McRae threw the final inning. McRae is being skipped this time through the rotation. He is leaving the team tomorrow for a few days to attend a wedding, so he was available today in relief instead.
The Curve scored their only run in the seventh inning on three straight two-out singles by Jerrick Suiter, Jordan George and Wyatt Mathisen. They got a fourth straight single from Jin-De Jhang to load the bases, but Michael Suchy struck out to end the inning. Altoona had just seven hits in the game and a first inning double by Pablo Reyes was their only extra-base hit on the day.
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Bradenton’s slim playoff hopes took a heartbreaking hit on Wednesday night, as they lost 7-6 in 14 innings. The Marauders trailed 4-0 going into the seventh inning stretch, before they put three runs on the board in the bottom of the inning. After Daytona scored a run in the top of the eighth, the Marauders tied it up with two more runs in the bottom of that frame. Both teams scored a run in the 11th inning, before Daytona won it in the 14th.
Pedro Vasquez started and had a really poor first inning, then settled down to put in six innings. He gave up four runs total, with three coming in the first inning. He was followed by four relievers, who each put in two innings. Jess Amedee was the only one who didn’t allow a run, though the other three gave up just one run each.
The Marauders had ten hits on the day with Stephen Alemais, Ke’Bryan Hayes and Will Craig collecting two hits apiece. Alemais tied the game in the bottom of the 11th with his first home run for Bradenton. Hayes scored two runs and stole his 27th base, while Craig had a walk and a run scored. Mitchell Tolman drove in a pair of runs.
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West Virginia lost 9-3 to Lexington, as Luis Escobar had his first really bad start since the end of June. Escobar lasted just 3.1 innings, allowing nine runs (eight earned) on seven hits, three walks and a hit batter. He struck out five batters and was already up to 79 pitches when he was removed.
Prior to this game, Escobar gave up a total of six runs over his previous seven starts combined. He now has 147 strikeouts, which is 17 shy of Tyler Glasnow’s team record set back in 2013. Glasnow threw 111.1 innings to reach that mark, while Escobar now sits at 114.2 on the season. He should make three more starts before the year is over, so it is within reach.
The Power got some great bullpen work from Pasquale Mazzoccoli, Matt Eckelman and Julio Eusebio, who combined to allow one single and one walk over 5.2 shutout innings, while striking out eight batters.
West Virginia’s offense didn’t show up until the game was well out of hand. They scored all three runs in the seventh inning. Yoel Gonzalez and Kevin Mahala each had two hits. Adrian Valerio went 1-for-3 before leaving early due to the lopsided score. When Valerio left, Oneil Cruz shifted over to shortstop, playing there for the first time since joining the Pirates. Unfortunately, he didn’t have any plays over his three innings at shortstop. He had a rough day otherwise, going 0-for-4 with two strikeouts and his fourth error since the trade.
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Morgantown got seven shutout innings from Scooter Hightower in their 5-1 win over State College. Hightower has pitched well all season and continued that on Wednesday night by giving up just four hits, while really peppering the strike zone. He has walked just five batters over 64 innings this season, but even this night was great by his standards. Out of 83 pitches, 65 went for strikes. Hightower now has a 2.11 ERA on the season. Blake Weiman allowed a run in the eighth and Matt Seelinger pitched a scoreless ninth.
On offense, Sandy Santos and Lucas Tancas each hit solo homers. Santos also had a triple and two runs scored. Jared Oliva had a double, triple, RBI and run scored. He has seven doubles and five triples on the season. Chris Sharpe added his eighth double of the season.
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Bristol has off today.
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The GCL Pirates won 4-3 over the Yankees East on Wednesday afternoon. The Yankees East scored three unearned runs in the first inning and that was the end of their offense, while the Pirates slowly chipped away at that lead.
The Pirates got a run in the first inning on the fifth home run of the season from Jeremias Portorreal. In the fifth inning, two walks and a sacrifice bunt turned into a run on an RBI single from Rodolfo Castro. They added another run in the sixth on four straight walks, with Lolo Sanchez picking up the RBI. A walk to Portorreal in the seventh, led to singles by Victor Ngoepe and Eddy Vizcaino for the go-ahead run. Ngoepe and Vizcaino each had two hits, which along with the Portorreal homer and Castro RBI single, represented all of the hits for the Pirates.
Max Kranick made his third start of the season and worked around a tough first inning to go five innings without an earned run, giving him an 0.00 ERA in 12.2 innings. An error by Ngoepe led to the three unearned runs, but Kranick was also hurt by a slow dribbler with two outs, which was placed just right between first base and the mound. Over the final four innings, he allowed three singles and hit a batter, while picking up four strikeouts.
Kranick raised his pitch count again, this time throwing 74 pitches, which should be enough to get him to Bristol for his final three starts. While this was his third start on paper, twice he pitched sim games as he built up his pitch count. Reports said that he threw some really great changeups during the course of the game.
Vince Deyzel followed Kranick and threw 3.2 shutout innings, which followed up three scoreless frames in his last appearance. He picked up his first win as a pro.
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The DSL Pirates had a chance to make up ground on the first place Rangers1 and things went bad from the start in their 14-0 loss to the first place team. With just nine games to go in the season, they now trail by 4.5 games, while a sweep in the two-game series would have put them 1.5 back.
Jose Marcano started and he has been pitching well lately, but he didn’t have it on this day. He went three innings, allowing seven earned runs on seven hits, including two homers. The bullpen combined to give up another seven runs over the next five innings. The boxscore currently has outfielder Rayvi Rodriguez pitching 1.1 innings, which wouldn’t be odd in a blowout, but it was actually Luis Diaz, who was signed in 2015 and was making just his second pro appearance. His first was cut short after one batter last week due to rain.
The Pirates had just three hits, though they also walked five times and had eight at-bats with runners in scoring position, all of them coming up empty. Pedro Castillo hit two singles. Emison Soto singled and walked.
