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Prospect Highlights: Homers From Gregory Polanco and Mel Rojas Jr.

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Gregory Polanco had only one hit last night during a 15 run outburst by Indianapolis, but that hit was a big one. With his team down 6-3 in the fourth inning, he came up with two outs and two men on and delivered this three-run homer that got out of the ballpark in a hurry. It’s a dangerous spot for a pitcher, facing Polanco with runners in scoring position. In 54 at-bats, he has a .481/.533/.778 slash line, with 36 RBIs. For comparison sake, the Pirates RBI leader this season is 27 from Pedro Alvarez. While Polanco leads the International League with 43 RBIs, the second highest total in the league is 34, or two less than Polanco has in just those 54 at-bats with RISP. He isn’t just an RBI machine either, he also leads the IL in runs, hits, triples, total bases, extra-base hits, OBP, slugging percentage, batting average and OPS. Basically, he’s good.

The second highlight from last night is this two-run homer by Mel Rojas Jr. from Altoona’s 11-6 win over Erie. Rojas is having a solid season this year, hitting .302 with an .807 OPS in 45 games. He has been great in the month of May, hitting .337 with a .904 OPS. The switch-hitting center fielder has also excelled from both sides of the plate, though the right side seems to be more of a slap hitter that gets on base, while he has shown some power from the left side. He is hitting .310 as a righty, but has just one extra-base hit(a homer) in 42 at-bats. As a lefty, he has nine doubles, a triple and three homers, leading to a higher OPS from that side.

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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