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Austin Meadows Promoted to Indianapolis

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Pirates Prospects has learned that Austin Meadows has been promoted to Triple-A Indianapolis from Altoona after tonight’s game.

He came up from Bradenton for six regular season games at the end of 2015, and Meadows set expectations extremely high. Meadows missed the first 2 1/2 weeks of this season because of an orbital bone fracture that occurred in Spring Training. In total, he will conclude his time at Double-A with an even OPS of 1.00.

Meadows - Double-A stats

Curve Manager Joey Cora had extremely high praise for Meadows, saying that he’s been unstoppable for the last month, and it was time to move on to better competition.

“Some people crawl and then walk and then run, and some people simply don’t need that,” Cora said about Meadows. “Some people go straight to running, and he has. He did everything he needed to do in this league, and now it’s time to grow up and face some different situations – some better pitching and better players – and we’ll see where he’s at. He’s been the best player by far in this league.”

Cora even went on to mention that this wasn’t quite like the “Pirate Way” to promote a guy this quickly, but Meadows has been too good to ignore.

“It’s very rare for this organization to do that,” Cora said about promoting Meadows so quickly. “Usually, they stay at the level most of the year, but he was the best player in the league from what I’ve seen, at least against the teams that we’ve played.”

Cora has been suggesting for the last week or so that a promotion for Meadows would greatly benefit the player.

“He’s dominated this league for the last month,” Cora said. “The good thing was that in the beginning he struggled, and then he came out of it. After that, he was unstoppable. He’s doing everything that they want him to do in this league.”

Austin Meadows ends his time in Double-A on a 24-game hitting streak and 29-game on-base streak. It took him a few weeks at the beginning of the season to get his legs under him, but he has performed well above expectations for about a month now. On May 12th, Meadows had a triple slash of .148/.213/.185 for an OPS of .398; he ends his season with a .311/.365/.611 triple slash and a .976 OPS.

Currently, he is second in the Eastern League in batting, first in slugging, first in triples, and fifth in extra base hits.

During his 29-game on-base streak, he has hit 13 doubles, eight triples, and six home runs. He isn’t just hitting the ball for singles, he is hitting the ball hard and for extra base hits. During the 24-game hitting streak, he has at least one extra base hit in 19 of those.

He attributes some minor tweaks in his stance and approach for his recent hot stretch, saying that he has been able to remain back on his legs more and not lung after pitches. That has allowed him to be more aggressive at pitches within the strike zone.

“Early in the season, my main concern was staying back and not trying to go get the pitch and letting the pitch come to me,” Meadows said on Tuesday night in Altoona. “The approach has given me more time to see the ball and what it is doing.”

He played his last two games in Altoona in left field to prepare him “when an opportunity opens at the next two levels”, as Curve Manager Joey Cora said this week. The Indians plan on using Meadows in center field and left field.


UPDATE 11:13 PM: I caught up with Meadows after the Curve game on Friday night as he was saying his goodbyes to fellow coaches and teammates. Obviously, his phone was blowing up while we were talking from all of the Twitter mentions, but he took a few moments to chat about the promotion. We only had a minute, so I figured I’d post our complete interview.

How did you find out about the promotion?
“I was in the office with [Curve Manager] Joey [Cora]  and [Hitting Coach Kevin [Riggs], and they broke it to me in a funny way. They asked me why I tried to bunt last night with the third baseman back after I hit a home run, and he (Riggs) said:

‘That’s not gonna fly in Indy, because that’s where you’re going.’

It was pretty cool the way that he said it. It’s been a great time with these guys. I look forward to moving up with some more great guys, as well.”

When did they tell you?
“They told me today right before BP – before our workday.”

You went through a lot this year so far with the injury and early slump. What have you learned from your time at Double-A?
“Being at the plate and being aggressive. I’m really trying to get ahead in counts and be in hitters’ counts. That’s been huge for me. These pitchers throw a lot of strikes and being more aggressive early in the count kind of gets you to your hitter’s count, and that’s important. It’s really been a great time with these guys. I’ve been really close with a lot of them, and I’m looking forward to seeing them soon.”

What is the next step for you developmentally in Triple-A?
“Just staying consistent as I am right now. Just working on my cages and working on the same stuff I’ve been doing. I don’t want to get too ahead of myself. Just working on what I’ve been doing here and continue to be consistent.”


UPDATED 11:52 PM: Meadows will travel to Charlotte to meet with the Indians tomorrow. He also noted that Indianapolis plays at Gwinnett next week, which is about 15 minutes from his hometown and high school. He had a pretty big smile on his face talking about it, saying how excited he was to get a chance to play so close to home.

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