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Draft Prospect Watch: Kyle Cody Throws Seven No-Hit Innings

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Today we take a look at the first two days of week two from the best draft-eligible hitters in college. You can read more on each of these players in our college hitters preview. Yesterday, we covered the starts from the top college pitchers in this draft, though weather caused some starts to be pushed back to Saturday. The draft begins on June 8th and the Pittsburgh Pirates have the 19th and 32nd overall picks. It was announced on Thursday that the Pirates will have the 11th highest draft bonus pool.

Cincinnati outfielder Ian Happ has been the lead story two weeks in a row, hitting two homers during his first weekend, then following it up with ten hits over two days last week. On Friday, he went 1-for-2 with three walks, a run scored and his second stolen base. Happ went 1-for-2 on Saturday, walking twice, stealing another base and he hit a solo homer. Through nine games, he is hitting .559 with four doubles, three homers and eight walks. Despite his strong performance at the plate, his team has a 1-8 record.

Florida shortstop Richie Martin went 0-for-2 with walk and HBP on Friday against Stony Brook. On Saturday, he went 1-for-3 with a walk and two runs scored. He is hitting .306 through the first ten games.

Florida State outfielder D.J. Stewart went 1-for-2 on Friday against UNC Wilmington, connecting on his second homer of the year and drawing two walks. On Saturday, he went 0-for-3, walking two more times. Stewart has walked 17 times in his first ten games.

Boston College right fielder Chris Shaw went 1-for-3 with a single and sacrifice fly on Friday against Nebraska-Omaha. He drove in his team’s only run in a 5-1 loss. On Saturday against North Dakota State, he drove in two runs, going 2-for-4 with a double and run scored. The double was his first of the season, though he does have two homers already.

LSU shortstop Alex Bregman went 0-for-2 on Friday against Princeton. He walked once, stole two bases and scored a run. On Saturday, the two teams played a doubleheader. Bregman went 1-for-4 with a single, stolen base and run scored in game one. In the second game, he went 2-for-4, with a triple, homer and another stolen base. The homer was his second of the season. Bregman hit six home runs last year.

Vanderbilt shortstop Dansby Swanson was 1-for-3 on Saturday, with an RBI. He is hitting .350/.426/.550 in ten games. Vanderbilt has been playing Illinois State the last two days and their second baseman is Paul DeJong, who was drafted in the 38th round by the Pirates, but they failed to sign him. DeJong had a strong summer ball season, so the Pirates made a run at signing him. They couldn’t get the deal done, partly due to maxing out their draft pool when they signed Gage Hinsz. So far this season, DeJong is hitting .344/.432/.781 with four homers.

Pacific outfielder Gio Brusa had his Saturday game rained out against Nevada. On Friday, he went 1-for-2 with a double, run scored and two walks. Brusa is hitting .179/.303/.250 through eight games.

Tennessee left fielder Christin Stewart went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts in the first game of a doubleheader against UC Irvine on Friday. In game two, he went 1-for-4, hitting his first homer of the season in a 2-1 loss. On Saturday, he went 2-for-4, scoring three times and driving in three runs. He had a double and a sacrifice fly.

Not all the big starters went on Friday, some like Kyle Funkhouser were pushed back to Saturday due to weather issues. The righty from Louisville went seven innings in a loss to Xavier, allowing two runs(both unearned) on seven hits and two walks, with seven strikeouts. Funkhouser threw 123 pitches, 82 for strikes.

Houston starter Jake Lemoine went seven innings on Saturday against Columbia, allowing three runs on six hits. He didn’t walk anyone, but did hit two batters. He picked up three strikeouts. In his last start, Lemoine retired the first 12 batters of the game, only to allow the first six hitters in the fifth inning to reach base. He was unable to pick up any outs before being pulled from that game.

Kentucky’s Kyle Cody threw seven no-hit innings against Nebraksa-Omaha. He walked one batter, hit another and struck out nine while throwing 96 pitches. He retired the last 15 batters he faced. At 6’7″, 245 pounds, Cody has the frame to be a workhorse starter in the Majors, but might not have the secondary stuff to make it in that role.

According to Kiley McDaniel, Cal Poly Pomona righty Cody Ponce with miss a few weeks with shoulder fatigue. In his first two starts combined, he allowed one run over 8.1 innings, with 11 strikeouts and a .167 BAA.

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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