This week, I will be heading to Indianapolis, making the final stop of my first half tour of the minor league affiliates. I started the year with Altoona, then went to West Virginia, with coverage of Bradenton and Extended Spring Training in between. Now I will wrap up the first half travel with the best prospect team of all.
I’ll have plenty of reports to come out of Triple-A, and am looking forward to the trip. That’s not just because of the quality of the players, but because I’ve never been to Indianapolis. In the past, I always covered the Indians on the road. It’s kind of strange that I’ve never been to the Triple-A stadium, but I’ve been to Bristol and the Dominican Academy. So this year, that had to change.
As usual, I’ve got some leftover features from Bradenton that will start the week, before I begin rolling out the Indianapolis coverage. As for last week, here are the ten biggest stories on the site that you might have missed.
10. Stetson Allie was once one of the top prospects in the system…as a pitching prospect. That was quickly abandoned, and he switched to a power hitting first baseman with strikeout issues. He showed potential, with the best raw power in the system, but after a switch to the outfield in Altoona last year, everything started going downhill. He’s back with Altoona this year, and having much better results. Sean McCool wrote about what he learned in 2015, and why he’s having success.
9. Casey Hughston was drafted in the third round of the 2015 draft, and was given an over-slot bonus of $700,000. He’s got a lot of tools, and unlike most of the players drafted by the Pirates in recent years, he has a lot of power potential. However, he also has had some horrible strikeout numbers. Abigail Miskowiec broke down what has been leading to those strikeout issues this year in West Virginia.
8. Chad Kuhl is off to a great start with Indianapolis, and is starting to get lumped into conversations about players who could come up and help the team sooner this year, rather than later. However, to this point Kuhl has been restricted in his innings, due to being behind everyone else after starting the year late out of Spring Training. Ryan Palencer writes that Kuhl is about to be free of limitations in his starts, which is definitely a good thing for his ability to be of help for the Pirates in the short-term.
7. I’ve been saying this for a few years now: Starling Marte has been one of the most underrated players in baseball. He has ranked among the best players in WAR since entering the league, yet doesn’t get lumped in with those players. Ed Giles did a great job breaking down how Marte is underrated, not just looking at the WAR numbers, but digging into the Baseball Reference Play Index to find out just how special Marte has been.
6. Speaking of the best players in baseball, Andrew McCutchen has been one of the best players in baseball over the last few years as well, but in this case, you can count on one hand how many players have been better, while still having enough fingers left over to throw a two-seam fastball. McCutchen had another slow start in April, but looks like he is heating back up. Ed Giles looked at how McCutchen is heating up, and starting to look like Andrew McCutchen again.
5. Typically, every number here is reserved for one story or one player. But earlier this week, I wrote about seven prospects below the Triple-A level who could make a long-term impact for the Pirates. Check that article for a breakdown of some of the biggest prospects who will be replacements beyond 2016 for some of the current starters in Pittsburgh.
4. You’re going to be hearing a lot about Super Two. Well, you’ve probably already heard a lot about Super Two, but it’s only going to gain steam with less than a month to go before the point when prospects usually get called up. If you’re unfamiliar with the whole Super Two process, I broke it all down this week, including the potential cost impact for calling up a prospect early.
3. We’re seeing some great numbers from Josh Bell this year, as he gets more comfortable with his swing from each side, after continued refinements to his leg kick. Ryan Palencer wrote about the latest work from Bell, along with what he has to work on going forward.
2. Tomorrow, Alen Hanson will get the call to Pittsburgh, serving as a short-term replacement while Starling Marte is on paternity leave. Earlier this week, Ryan Palencer wrote about the work Hanson has done with his swing this year, along with his move to left field recently, which we now know was planned to replace Marte.
1. The player we wrote about the most this week was Tyler Glasnow, who showed some of his flaws. After his worst start of the year, I wrote about what he needs to work on before he’s ready to arrive in the Majors. John Dreker also broke down some of the best stretches of command in Glasnow’s career.
If you aren’t a subscriber, then that means you missed all of these articles. Fix that now by subscribing to the site, and read up on all of the great analysis from last week. Plus, you’ll get all of my live coverage from Indianapolis, and all of our live coverage from throughout the system.
