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 (Clay Holmes, Jacob Stallings, Kevin Newman and Bryan Reynolds), 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 (Travis MacGregor, Nick Burdi and Stephen Alemais), 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 our updated 2019 Prospect Guide, and links on each name go to their Pirates Prospects player pages.
1. Mitch Keller, RHP, Indianapolis – DNP
2. Ke’Bryan Hayes, 3B, Indianapolis – DNP
3. Cole Tucker, SS, Indianapolis – DNP
4. Oneil Cruz, SS, Bradenton – 1-for-4, 2B
5. Travis Swaggerty, CF, Bradenton – 0-for-3, BB
6. Kevin Kramer, 2B, Indianapolis – DNP
7. Will Craig, 1B, Indianapolis – DNP
8. Jason Martin, OF, Indianapolis – DNP
9. JT Brubaker, RHP, Indianapolis – DNP
10. Calvin Mitchell, OF, Bradenton – 3-for-4, HR (14), 2 RBI
11. Cody Bolton, RHP, Altoona – DNP
12. Tahnaj Thomas, RHP, Bristol – DNP
13. Braxton Ashcraft, RHP, Morgantown – DNP
14. Lolo Sanchez, CF, Bradenton – 0-for-1, 2 BB
15. Pablo Reyes, Util, Indianapolis – DNP
16. Braeden Ogle, LHP, Bradenton – DNP
17. Michael Burrows, RHP, Morgantown – DNP
18. Jared Oliva, CF, Altoona – 1-for-4
19. Ji-Hwan Bae, SS, Greensboro – DNP
20. Max Kranick, RHP, Bradenton – DNP
21. Luis Escobar, RHP, Pirates – In Majors
22. Osvaldo Bido, RHP, Greensboro – DNP
23. Eduardo Vera, RHP, Indianapolis – DNP
24. Gage Hinsz, RHP, Altoona – DNP
25. Aaron Shortridge, RHP, Bradenton – 6 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 8 SO
26. Blake Weiman, LHP, Indianapolis – DNP
27. Steven Jennings, RHP, Greensboro – DNP
28. Brandon Waddell, LHP, Altoona – 6 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 6 SO
29. Jesus Liranzo, RHP, Altoona – DNP
30. Rodolfo Castro, 2B, Bradenton – 1-for-2, BB
Indianapolis had off on Monday.
Here’s the boxscore.
You can view the season preview here.
Altoona won 4-1 over Erie. Brandon Waddell has basically had one bad inning with Altoona and it came in his last start when he was well past his previous pitch count high. He continued putting up strong performances now that he’s back in the starting role, throwing six shutout innings on Monday night. He gave up four hits, with no walks and six strikeouts. Waddell threw 65 of 100 pitches for strikes. He now has a 2.23 ERA in 36.1 innings. Blake Cederlind threw the seventh and allowed a run. Joel Cesar tossed a scoreless eighth and ninth for the save.
Mitchell Tolman had two hits, including his 13th double. He scored once and drove in two runs. Chris Sharpe had a single, double and two runs scored. Brett Pope had a single and his first triple. He scored a run and picked up an RBI. Jared Oliva went 1-for-4 with a single, which was good enough to extend his hit streak to ten games. He’s hitting .415 during that stretch.
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Bradenton won 7-3 over Clearwater. Calvin Mitchell had three hits, including his 14th home run of the season. He has homered four times in the last week. Mitchell drove in two runs. He was our Player of the Week earlier today, as well as the Florida State League Player of the Week. Mason Martin and Lucas Tancas each had a single and drove in two runs. Martin scored twice and added a walk. Oneil Cruz hit his fifth double.
Aaron Shortridge pitched a complete game, as the game was called after six innings. It was supposed to be the first game of a doubleheader, but rain has pushed game two back to tomorrow. Shortridge allowed three runs on five hits and three walks, while striking out eight batters. As noted in our top performers article linked above, he had just one strikeout in his last three starts combined.
You can view the season preview here.
Greensboro had off on Monday.
Here’s the boxscore.
You can view the season preview here.
Morgantown had their game rained out. They will make the game up as part of a doubleheader in late August.
Here’s the boxscore.
You can view the season preview here.
Bristol had their game postponed. They will make it up as part of a doubleheader in August. Tahnaj Thomas was suspended six games today for throwing at a batter who admired his home run last week. Today would have been day one of the suspension.
Here’s the boxscore.
You can view the season preview here.
The GCL Pirates played a doubleheader on Monday, losing game one 6-0 to the Twins. Quinn Priester made his fourth pro start and had some poor defense behind him, along with some minor control issues. In 3.2 innings, he allowed four runs, with just one of them being earned. He gave up four hits, with three walks and five strikeouts. Priester now has a 1.80 ERA, with 19 strikeouts in 15 innings. Angel Suero followed and allowed one run in 1.1 innings. Elvis Escobar pitched the final inning, making his first appearance of the 2019 season. He had no hits, one walk and one strikeout.
Wilger Camacho pitched in the sixth inning and walked three batters before being removed with two outs. He suffered a lat injury last month in Bristol and has been at Pirate City doing rehab work before getting into his first game today. The boxscore still listed outfielder Carlos Canache when I wrote this up, but it might be fixed by now. Canache did not pitch.
The Pirates were facing Dakota Chalmers, who is rehabbing from Tommy John surgery. He debuted in full-season ball in 2017, and has already stretched out to five innings, so it was a bit of a mismatch on paper. It went accordingly. He held them to one hit over five innings, a ground ball single up the middle by Jasiah Dixon. The Pirates drew a walk in each of the first five innings, but couldn’t put together any type of rally. Over the final two innings against a reliever, Norkis Marcos was the only base runner, collecting a two-out triple in the seventh.
In game two, things did not go well for two of the better pitchers from the 2018 DSL Pirates. Estalin Ortiz started and went 1.1 innings, giving up five runs (four earned). Bryan Torres followed and allowed two inherited runs to score, along with four of his own runs in 2.1 innings. Jake Sweeney came on and really settled things down in a hurry, tossing 2.1 scoreless innings on no hits and two walks, with one strikeout. Yandy Vega threw a scoreless seventh, but that early damage led to a 9-4 loss. Third baseman Emilson Rosado, who had one error prior to today, committed three in this game.
The Pirates had a little more offense in this game. Angel Basabe batted lead-off and went 2-for-3 with a walk and a run scored. Andres Alvarez hit second and had a single and his first double. He scored one run and drove in three others. Edgar Barrios had a walk, run scored and an RBI on a sacrifice fly.
In other news that people keep asking about, Pirates 17th round pick Ryan Harbin ($397,500 bonus) is scheduled to make his pro debut on Thursday.
You can view the season preview here.
The DSL Pirates1 lost 6-0 to the Dodgers. Listher Sosa started and gave up one earned run over five innings to lower his ERA to 3.71 through seven starts. He had five strikeouts and a 5:2 GO/AO ratio. Carlos Campos allowed three runs (two earned) in 2.2 innings and Wilkin Valdez recorded the final out.
The offense had six hits (all singles) and no walks. Two of those runners were erased on stolen base attempts and another was lost on a double play. No one reached base more then once, so there were no games of note.
The DSL Pirates2 were losing 7-0 before they got to bat in the first inning, but they rallied for a 14-13 win in 11 innings. Adrian Mendez started and made it through two outs before being removed. All seven runs were charged to him in the first inning, six were earned, and one scored after he was removed. Oscar Echarry followed with 1.1 scoreless innings. Luis Gonzalez allowed one run over three innings, followed by one run over two innings against Johan Montero. Wandi Montout gave up one earned run in two innings to send it to extra innings. Miguel Diaz got the win, giving up two runs, which were both unearned (free runners at second base to start extra innings).
This game saw a lot of batters put on first base by the Pirates. They had 14 singles, ten walks and two hit batters. Only two of their hits went for extra bases, doubles by Jauri Custodio and Alexander Mojica. Custodio drove in two runs, though that was his only hit during a 1-for-6 day. Mojica had just one hit as well, but he added two walks. The big game was Randy Romero, who reached in all seven plate appearances. He had five hits, two walks, three runs scored and an RBI. Jommer Hernandez had four hits, a walk, two runs scored and an RBI. Mario Jerez had two hits, two runs scored and two RBIs. Bladimir Susana had two hits, two runs, a HBP and three RBIs.
You can view the season preview here.
