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Prospect Watch: Tarpley, Keller and Worley Headline Monday Night

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P2 Top 30

A look at how the current top 30 prospects did today.  Note that this list doesn’t include players currently in the majors. If a player is in the majors, he will be removed, 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 (Nick Kingham, Jacob Taylor), 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 30 active prospects on the list. Rankings are from the mid-season update, and links on each name go to their Pirates Prospects player pages.

1. Tyler Glasnow, RHP, Indianapolis -[insert_php]
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2. Jameson Taillon, RHP, Indianapolis – Disabled List

3. Austin Meadows, CF, Bradenton -[insert_php]
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4. Josh Bell, 1B, Indianapolis -[insert_php]
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5. Alen Hanson, 2B, Indianapolis -[insert_php]
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6. Reese McGuire, C, Bradenton -[insert_php]
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7. Elias Diaz, C, Indianapolis -[insert_php]
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8. Harold Ramirez, OF, Bradenton -[insert_php]
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9. Cole Tucker, SS, West Virginia – Disabled List

10. Kevin Newman, SS, West Virginia -[insert_php]
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11. Ke’Bryan Hayes, 3B, Morgantown -[insert_php]
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12. Mitch Keller, RHP, Bristol -[insert_php]
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13. Clay Holmes, RHP, Bradenton – Disabled List

14. Stephen Tarpley, LHP, West Virginia -[insert_php]
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15. Max Moroff, 2B, Altoona -[insert_php]
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16. Barrett Barnes, OF, Altoona -[insert_php]
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17. Yeudy Garcia, RHP, West Virginia -[insert_php]
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18. Trey Supak, RHP, Bristol -[insert_php]
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19. Gage Hinsz, RHP, Bristol -[insert_php]
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20. Adam Frazier, SS, Altoona -[insert_php]
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21. Willy Garcia, OF, Indianapolis -[insert_php]
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22. Steven Brault, LHP, Altoona -[insert_php]
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23. Kevin Kramer, 2B, West Virginia -[insert_php]
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24. Tyler Eppler, RHP, Bradenton -[insert_php]
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25. Adrian Valerio, SS, GCL -[insert_php]
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26. Connor Joe, 1B, West Virginia -[insert_php]
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27. John Holdzkom, RHP, Indianapolis – Disabled List

28. Jordan Luplow, 3B, West Virginia – Disabled List

29. Casey Hughston, OF, Morgantown -[insert_php]
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30. Billy Roth, RHP, Bristol -[insert_php]
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P2 Top Performers

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Indianapolis Indians Prospect Watch

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P2 Game Notes

Vance Worley wasn’t dominating by any means on Monday, but he was throwing a lot of strikes and put in eight solid innings. He allowed a run in the second inning, then gave up a solo homer in the eighth, which accounted for all the scoring from Columbus against him. Worley gave up eight hits and hit a batter, striking out two and walking none. He threw 96 pitches, with 65 going for strikes. In four starts, he has a 2.42 ERA in 26 innings. He has surrendered 17 hits combined in his last two starts.

Indianapolis defeated Columbus 6-3 in 12 innings, in a match-up between the top two teams in the division. The Indians now have a two game lead with seven games left in the season. They had 20 base runners in this game, with Keon Broxton and Alen Hanson each reaching base three times. Both players picked up an RBI and Hanson stole two bases, giving him 35 steals on the season. Broxton scored two runs.

Josh Bell went 1-for-5, also reaching via hit-by-pitch. He has a .340 average through 28 games with Indianapolis and he has now reached base in 15 straight games and 23 of his last 24 games. Tony Sanchez and Willy Garcia each drove in two runs.

 

Altoona Curve Prospect Watch

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P2 Game Notes

BOWIE, Md. — A series of defensive lapses cost the Curve a 7-4 loss to Bowie. Starter Zack Dodson pitched effectively, allowing three runs, only two earned, in seven and two thirds innings. He gave up five hits and two walks, and struck out six. Dodson left in favor of John Kuchno, with a 4-3 lead, after retiring the first two batters in the 8th. The Curve’s infield then gave the game away.

Kuchno’s first batter hit a hard grounder right at third baseman Eric Wood, but Wood muffed it. The next batter hit a chopper up the middle that second baseman Erich Weiss fielded behind second, but shortstop Max Moroff for some reason stopped short of the second base bag and caught Weiss’ toss off the bag. Moroff then fumbled a grounder hit to his right to load the bases. Kuchno hit the next batter to force in the tying run, then gave up two singles to let in three more.

Despite getting eight hits, Altoona hit very few balls hard. The Curve got three runs in the 4th on five hits that included three swinging bunts and a chopper that just got by the second baseman. The Curve took the lead temporarily in the 8th when Weiss bounced a single past second, moved to third on a sacrifice and a stolen base, and scored on a Jacob Stallings’ sacrifice fly.

Dodson — If today was typical, Dodson has lost a good deal of velocity. His fastball used to sit in the low-90s, but today it was mostly 85-88, reaching 89 a handful of times and 91 once. He threw two breaking balls, a big breaking curve and a much tighter slider. The latter was generally in the low-80s and the former in the low-70s, getting down as low as 68 mph. Both pitches had very good break and Dodson commanded them well.

In the early going, he threw mostly fastballs gave up some hard-hit balls, including a long HR, but was reasonably effective. In his last two and two-thirds innings, though, he dominated as he went heavily with breaking balls. The pitches were very effective, generating a lot of swings and misses and most of his strikeouts. He threw the breaking balls at a wide variety of speeds, which probably helped overcome his below-average fastball.

Moroff — He obviously had a rough day at shortstop, failing to cover second promptly on a chopper up the middle that was fielded by the second baseman and then fumbling a grounder on the next play. He hit two long drives that were caught and grounded a single past the third baseman.

Jose Osuna — Osuna has looked good defensively, both last week and today. He had two situations where a grounder was hit right at the bag with a runner on first. Both times he correctly stepped on first and threw to second to try for the tag play. The first time he executed it perfectly. The second time he hit the runner in the helmet, eventually costing Altoona a run. It’s hard to blame Osuna, as he was probably expecting the runner to slide, which he didn’t do. – Wilbur Miller

Bradenton Marauders Prospect Watch

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P2 Game Notes

Led by Austin Meadows and Harold Ramirez, Bradenton kept their slim playoff hopes alive by defeating Palm Beach for a second straight night. Meadows and Ramirez each had three hits, with Meadows extending his league lead in base hits to 156, which also leads all Pirates’ minor league players. He scored once, drove in his 54th run and hit his 22nd double. Ramirez had three singles and scored twice. He now has a .339 average, which is ten points higher than the league leader, but Ramirez will fall well short of qualifying for the batting title.  Jin-De Jhang also had a nice game with two RBIs and two hits, including his 16th double.

Felipe Gonzalez started and didn’t allow his first hit until the sixth inning. That batter reached on an infield hit. Gonzalez retired the first 12 batters of the game before leading off the fifth with a hit batter. Montana DuRapau almost let this game get away in the ninth, giving up a two-run homer to make it 4-3, which is where it stayed.

West Virginia Power Prospect Watch

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P2 Game Notes

West Virginia lost 8-1 with Stephen Tarpley on the mound Monday night. That’s probably not something you expect to read from one of the best pitchers in the system. You can breathe a sigh of relief though, because he went six innings without an earned run. He gave up two runs in the first inning, but both were unearned due to errors by Connor Joe and Jerrick Suiter, plus a passed ball by Taylor Gushue.

Tarpley wasn’t fazed by the poor defense all around him to start the game and he ended up facing just two batters over the minimum during his last five innings, with no one reaching second base. He struck out five batters and lowered his ERA to 2.35 through 111 innings.

If you read the Morning Report on Monday, you’ll remember that I mentioned that Scott Blewett was starting this game for Lexington. He was a second round draft pick last year and someone you knew a lot about on draft day if you followed our coverage. Blewett basically dominated Power hitters through seven innings, allowing one run on five hits and a walk. The only player that didn’t have trouble was Kevin Newman, who collected three hits. He now has a .299 average in 18 games with West Virginia. Elvis Escobar drove in Michael Suchy with the only run for the Power.

West Virginia Black Bears Prospect Watch

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P2 Game Notes

Morgantown came into this game with a half game lead in the wild card chase and 12 teams behind them that all mathematically had a chance still, so this was a big game. Luis Paula started for the first time since early August and had trouble, giving up three runs in three innings. Two runs off Cesilio Pimentel in the seventh sealed the 5-4 loss.

Ke’Bryan Hayes played his fifth game for Morgantown and went 1-for-4 with two runs scored. He is 2-for-15 with three walks, five runs scored and he’s driven in three runs.

Casey Hughston went 0-for-3 with three strikeouts in this game. He was pinch-hit for in the ninth with Morgantown down by one run, which is unusual to see with a prospect. Carlos Munoz came on and he struck out, which is also what he did with a chance to tie it in the ninth during his first game. Hughston now has 64 strikeouts in 192 at-bats, which is exactly one strikeout per three at-bats. Danny Arribas extended his hitting streak to eight games, going 2-for-4 with his ninth double. He also drove in two runs.

Mitchell Tolman collected his 13th double as part of a two-hit game, but he also committed two errors, giving him 17 on the season. He’s playing second base full-time with Ke’Bryan Hayes now on the team. Tolman was also playing there earlier in August when Kevin Kramer was injured. Six of his errors have come during his 11 games there, while he’s also committed 11 errors in 43 games at his normal third base position.

Bristol Pirates Prospect Watch1

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P2 Game Notes

Mitch Keller made his final start of the season on Monday night. In his previous three games, he displayed control issues, which limited each game. He allowed just one run and one hit in his last start, but walked four and couldn’t get through five inning. Keller started off the first inning on Monday with those same issues, walking one and allowing one hit, though he kept runs off the board. With two out and two on, he struck out the fifth place hitter on three pitches.

The second inning started with a slow grounder to third base, which resulted in a throwing error from Carlos Ozuna.  He also got a double play ball that wasn’t turned quick, so they only got one out. That ended up costing Keller a lot of pitches in the inning. He allowed two hits and a walk, which resulted in an unearned run. He ended up throwing 34 pitches in the inning, finishing with a bases loaded strikeout. That gave Keller 51 pitches through two innings.

In the third, Keller got a hard liner to right field for the first out. He struck out the next batter, then issued his third walk. He got through this inning quicker, picking up his fifth strikeout for the third out. Keller started the fourth with his sixth strikeout, tying his career-high, which he reached twice in the GCL last year. He gave up a single, then got another possible double play ball that resulted in one out. That ended his night with nearly 90 pitches, which is something you don’t normally see, as second-year HS players are usually capped at 75 pitches.

Mike Wallace came in and allowed the inherited runner to score, so Keller ended up allowing one earned run. His control was bad, but he only gave up four hits and they were all ground ball singles that found holes in the infield.

Bristol lost 6-5 in ten innings. Raul Siri hit a three-run homer in the second inning, his first since joining Bristol last week. The boxscore might be updated before you read this, but I can assure you that Mervin Del Rosario didn’t play left field late in the game. He’s a pitcher and it was Henrry Rosario, an outfielder. An honest mix-up by MiLB. Bristol struck out 14 times in the game. Nick Buckner, Erik Lunde and Carlos Ozuna each had two hits.

 

GCL Pirates Prospect Watch

The GCL Pirates have completed their season.

 

DSL Pirates Prospect Watch

The DSL Pirates have completed their season. You can read our full season recap here, with reports on 41 different players. There is also a list of 12 players to watch, which can be found here.

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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