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Prospect Highlights: Homer From Gift Ngoepe, Hits From Polanco and Lambo

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In yesterday’s Prospect Highlights, the focus was the season that Gift Ngoepe is having at the plate. His defense is already Major League ready and his speed will be an asset, but coming into the 2014 season, it looked like his bat could keep him from reaching his big league dreams. He had a tough time in AA last year, then really struggled in the Arizona Fall League. The results are good early on, with Ngoepe drawing 17 walks in 21 games, which helps push his OPS to the .824 mark, third best behind Stetson Allie and Elias Diaz on the Altoona roster.

We also have a couple highlights from the Indianapolis game, starting with the guy leading the International League in two Triple Crown categories. Gregory Polanco has a .400 average and on this infield hit, he drove in his 24th run of the season. Polanco easily beats out this soft grounder to second base.

The other RBI in the 2-1 Indianapolis win on Sunday came off the bat of Andrew Lambo. He has driven in runs in four straight games. Not much here, a soft grounder just like Polanco hit, although Lambo’s wasn’t fielded cleanly, so there was no play. It gives us a chance to highlight the season that Lambo is having. In 70 at-bats, he is hitting .343 with a .939 OPS. On a team filled with players that have major league experience, Lambo only trails Polanco in OPS. Lambo is 102 points ahead of the next best Indianapolis player (Chris Dickerson) in OPS.

John Dreker
John Dreker
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball. When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.

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