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Prospect Highlights: Walk-Off In Indianapolis, Gift Ngoepe Showing Improvements

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Today’s prospect highlights include a few things from last night’s Indianapolis game. The video is the highlights of the entire game, so there are some lowlights here as well, such as Jeff Locke giving up some early runs and Daniel Schlereth allowing the go-ahead runs in the seventh inning.

The game ends happy for Indianapolis, as Michael Martinez wins it with a walk-off single. Of note with prospects, Gregory Polanco unleashes a strong throw from deep right field on a sacrifice fly. He didn’t get the runner, but he made the play close and you’ll see it was a long throw on target. There are also doubles from Andrew Lambo and Jaff Decker, the latter tied the game in the ninth. Lambo is now hitting .348 with nine doubles this year. While he is still looking for that first homer since September, and that includes Winter ball and Spring Training, he is obviously hitting the ball well at this time.

Not much was going on in the Altoona game, where they dropped Saturday night’s contest by a 2-1 score. The lone highlight was a double from Gift Ngoepe. He has his average up to .254 to go along with an .805 OPS. Perhaps more impressive is his 17 walks and 17 strikeouts. Throughout his career he has always struck out at least twice as much as he has walked. If he keeps up this pace, he could very well be a legit prospect because his outstanding defense and speed already give him value as a Major League bench player. His bat is what many feel will keep him from attaining that goal. Early on things are looking good and the fact he is a switch-hitter could help his case if he production continues.

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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