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Prospect Watch: Taillon Rebounds from Tough First Inning, Hinsz Shines in Debut

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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, 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 2016 prospect guide, and links on each name go to their Pirates Prospects player pages.

We’re working on a solution for the PHP stat codes not working in the app.

1. Tyler Glasnow, RHP, Indianapolis -[insert_php]
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2. Austin Meadows, CF, Altoona – [insert_php]
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3. Josh Bell, 1B, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
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4. Jameson Taillon, RHP, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
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5. Alen Hanson, 2B, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
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6. Harold Ramirez, OF, Altoona -[insert_php]
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7. Reese McGuire, C, Altoona -[insert_php]
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8. Elias Diaz, C, Pirates – Disabled List.

9. Nick Kingham, RHP, Indianapolis – Disabled List

10. Ke’Bryan Hayes, 3B, West Virginia -[insert_php]
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11. Kevin Newman, SS, Bradenton – Disabled List

12. Yeudy Garcia, RHP, Bradenton -[insert_php]
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13. Steven Brault, LHP, Indianapolis – Disabled List

 14. Stephen Tarpley, LHP, Bradenton – [insert_php]
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15.Cole Tucker, SS, Bradenton – [insert_php]
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16. Chad Kuhl, RHP, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
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17. Max Moroff, 2B, Indianapolis -[insert_php]
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18. Mitch Keller, RHP, West Virginia -[insert_php]
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19. Clay Holmes, RHP, Altoona – [insert_php]
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20. Willy Garcia, OF, Indianapolis -[insert_php]
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21. Brandon Waddell, LHP, Altoona – [insert_php]
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22. Tyler Eppler, RHP, Altoona -[insert_php]
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23. Barrett Barnes, OF, Altoona -[insert_php]
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24. Trevor Williams, RHP, Indianapolis -[insert_php]
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25. Gage Hinsz, RHP  – [insert_php]
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26. Adrian Valerio, SS – Extended Spring Training

27. Adam Frazier, INF/OF, Indianapolis -[insert_php]
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28. Kevin Kramer, 2B, Bradenton -[insert_php]
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29. Jordan Luplow, OF/3B, Bradenton – [insert_php]
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30. JT Brubaker, RHP, West Virginia -[insert_php]
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P2 Top Performers

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Prospect-Watch-Indy

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Jameson Taillon made his tenth start of the season on Friday night, coming into the game ranking first in the International League in WHIP, fifth in ERA and eighth in strikeouts. With the Super Two deadline likely to have passed already, this could be his last Triple-A start.

Taillon began the bottom of the first by giving up a line drive single to right field on the first pitch. One pitch later, a sacrifice bunt moved the runner to second. One pitch after that, the third hitter tripled off the wall, making it 1-0. Taillon went heavy with curves to the next batter, who flew out to the wall in center field for a sacrifice fly. Taillon ended the inning by getting the batter looking on a changeup on the outside corner. Toledo was all over three fastballs in this inning, and that’s about as much hard contact as you will see in a normal game off Taillon. He only threw 13 pitches, nine for strikes.

In the second, Taillon came out with a 3-2 lead. He battled Casey McGehee for eight pitches, getting him to fly out to center field. The next batter went down swinging, and that was followed by a pop up behind home plate for the third out. It was an 18-pitch inning due to the long at-bat with McGehee.

The third started with a strikeout swinging on a curve, one pitch after a curve just missed the outside corner. That was followed by a slow grounder to shortstop. The inning ended on a fly out to shallow right field and Taillon had set down eight in a row. He threw 14 pitches, putting him at 45 through three frames, 30 for strikes.

Taillon started the fourth with a nice strikeout on a curve in the dirt. The next batter battled Taillon for seven pitches before sending a double to the right-center gap. The next pitch resulted in a soft liner into center field for a single that put runners on the corners. Taillon then got McGehee swinging on a curve for his fifth strikeout. The next batter flied out to the warning track in center field. There was some good contact in this inning, but no damage, other than the 23 pitches added to his pitch count. Taillon hit 95 with his fastball and 79 with the curve this inning, the only pitch speeds announced to this point.

Taillon sat for awhile before coming out for the fifth, as Indianapolis scored seven runs and Toledo made a mid-inning pitching change. The first batter hit a hard grounder to Jason Rogers at third base, who knocked it down and had time to make the play. One pitch later, Taillon got the second out on a routine fly to left field. The next batter lined one just over Taillon’s head, but Gift Ngoepe was standing right there on the shift for the out. A couple balls hit right on the nose, but it was a quick inning on nine pitches.

In the sixth, Taillon started with a strikeout swinging on a curve, using all three of his pitches to get strikes. The next batter hit a hard grounder into the shift for the second out. That was followed on a three-pitch strikeout, the last one got the batter swinging on an outside fastball. This inning is what Taillon looks like at his best (at least the first and third batters). He used all three pitches with strong results and ran his strikeout total up to seven in the game, throwing only eight pitches.

The first batter of the seventh doubled to the left-center gap. The next pitch was grounded to second base for the first out, moving the runner to third base. The next batter walked on a long battle. That was followed by a soft grounder back to Taillon, who couldn’t make the catch, then fell reaching for it, before dropping the ball as he picked it up. It made the game 10-3 and ended his night with 99 pitches, 66 for strikes.

I mentioned after his last start (then again this morning) that the only thing that should hold Taillon back would be if he couldn’t get through 95-100 pitches strong tonight. He did that in this game and with the Super Two deadline likely crossed already, I’d expect his next start to be for the Pirates. His fastball looked strong in this game, he got terrific results with the curve, the changeup was good as usual and his command was on. There were some hard hit outs and the first inning wasn’t pretty, but you can’t ask for anything more from this outing. He looked ready weeks ago and now that he has his pitch count up to that magic mark, there isn’t much more to accomplish in Triple-A.

Indianapolis lost a 10-2 lead after six innings to send this game into extra innings. They also had an 11-10 lead in the 11th before Toledo tied it again. Finally in the 13th inning, Indianapolis put this one away for a 16-11 victory.

After Taillon left, John Kuchno allowed three runs in the eighth inning. He was followed by Arquimedes Caminero, making his rehab debut. Caminero walked three batters, before allowing a two-out grand slam to tie the score in the bottom of the ninth. Jorge Rondon allowed the tying run in the 11th, then Trey Haley pitched the final two innings for the win.

Alen Hanson had the big hit in this game, belting a three-run homer in the 13th inning. He also had an RBI single early in the game, stole his 12th base, and hit his fourth triple of the season. Danny Ortiz hit his team-leading seventh homer, while driving in a total of four runs on the day. He also tripled and scored three runs.

Indianapolis collected four doubles in the game. Josh Bell hit his 12th. Adam Frazier hit his 11th, just missing his first home run on a drive down the right field line. Willy Garcia hit his tenth, while Jacob Stallings hit his sixth of the season. Bell and Garcia each drove in two runs. Indianapolis went 10-for-17 with runners in scoring position.

Prospect-Watch-Altoona-Curve

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ALTOONA, PA – The birthday boy Brandon Waddell (who turned 22 today) went five innings for the Curve, throwing 92 pitches total, 61 of those for strikes. His outing was shortened because of a very erratic second inning, which saw him throw 30 pitches and allowing five hits – all of them fairly hard hit balls. Other than the second, Waddell faced only one batter over the minimum in the other four innings combined.

In that second inning, Waddell was missing his spots, more specifically missing up into the heart of the strike zone, and leaving pitches out for hitters to handle. Pitching Coach Justin Meccage said after the game that Waddell has struggled out of the stretch, and he was forced to work out of the stretch that entire inning because of a lead-off line drive single.

If you take away that second inning where it seemed like nothing was working for Waddell, he actually looked pretty good tonight. In those other inning, he worked extremely well low and inside to the heavily loaded right-handed hitting lineup (eight out of nine righties). He had six strikeouts total in the outing, and he used his breaking stuff – both the curve ball and slider – to strike out batters.

Waddell’s velocity on his fastball had been slightly down over his last few outing, but he was back to normal tonight with it sitting between 91-93 MPH. His strength is to pitch inside to right-handed hitters, and he used that all night long to his advantage against the B-Mets. Meccage said that he would like to see Waddell be able to come back with the changeup low and away more often, coupled with the inside command, in the future.

By my count, Waddell finished with a 9:6 groundball-to-flyball ratio, inflated greatly by his second inning; otherwise, he recorded seven ground outs to only one fly out.

Montana DuRapau dominated to record a six-out save, with five of those being strikeouts. He struck out the side in the ninth inning. His fastball velocity hit 94 MPH, and he commanded the fastball extremely well early in counts to set batters up for the cutter or curveball. In one at-bat in particular DuRapau threw ten pitches to a batter to finally record a strikeout. He showed a great amount of poise, and he stuck to his plan throughout the entire at-bat. It was his 11th save of the season.

Offensively, Austin Meadows hit back-to-back triples in the first and third innings, hustling hard around second on both hits to be sure of a triple. Those two triples gives him four in three games, as he tripled once in both games in June before tonight. That gives Meadows a 12-game hitting streak where his batting average is .467, and his OPS is well over 1.300. He also showed good range on a deep fly ball to center field that he tracked down and made the catch.

Anderson Feliz led off the game with a double to the right field wall and later came around to score on Meadows’ triple in the first. Barrett Barnes joined Feliz, Meadows, and Eric Wood with two hits for the Curve tonight, and he crushed a ball to deep left-center field off of the wall in the fourth inning for a triple. The ball looked like it was gone off of the bat, but it went off of the top of the wall.

Altoona defeated Binghamton by a score of 7-4 with Waddell notching the win. – Sean McCool

Prospect-Watch-Bradenton

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When a team scores 17 runs on only 13 hits, they probably drew a lot of walks and/or hit well with runners in scoring position. Bradenton did both of those things on Friday night, putting up seven runs in the second inning and eight in the seventh frame for a 17-7 win. The Marauders went 7-for-13 with runners in scoring position and drew ten walks.

The big hit in the game was a Chase Simpson grand slam in the second inning. Everyone helped out on offense though, with all nine starters and even Trace Tam Sing off the bench, scoring at least one run. Six different players drove in at least two runs. Connor Joe hit his third homer of the season and also collected his tenth double. He drove in three runs and scored three times. Jerrick Suiter had two doubles and drove in two runs. Michael Suchy had a nice game, with two runs, two RBIs, two hits and two walks. Elvis Escobar drove in a pair and hit his seventh double. Jordan Luplow had a single, three walks and scored three runs.

Lost in the big offensive output was a tough game from Austin Coley, who has pitched very well lately. He gave up four runs (three earned) on five hits and five walks, plus a hit batter, in five innings of work. The five walks is the most he has ever allowed in a game. The last time he allowed three earned runs in a game was over a month ago.

Lakeland had four pitchers all allow at least three earned runs, then they went to a pair of position players for the last two innings and they threw shutout ball. One was Ben Verlander, who probably learned a little something from his older brother Justin.

Prospect-Watch-WV-Power

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Gage Hinsz made his season debut on Friday night and threw five shutout innings in a 3-2 loss to Augusta. He allowed three hits, two walks and struck out six batters, posting a 4:0 GO/AO ratio. Hinsz had been down in Extended Spring Training, where he got stretched out to five innings recently. That allowed him to go five in this game despite throwing 84 pitches (47 for strikes). He was recently displaying improved command, to go along with a fastball that was hitting 95 MPH (up from 93 last year) as well as a plus curve. That led to the Pirates promoting him to full-season ball and it appears he was ready for the task. West Virginia will go to a six-man rotation of sorts (see article just linked for details) to help limit the innings for Hinsz and Mitch Keller, the other high upside 20-year-old righty in the rotation.

The three runs scored off reliever Jess Amedee, who gave up five hits and a walk in his two innings of work. The Power put their runs on the board in the fourth and ninth innings. Carlos Munoz had a single and a double, scoring both runs. He has two hits or more in each of his last five games. He scored on a wild pitch in the fourth inning, then after reaching on an error in the ninth, he scored on a bases loaded walk to Alfredo Reyes. Logan Ratledge had a chance to tie the game up with two out, but he flew out to left field to end the game. After an 0-for-4 tonight, Ke’Bryan Hayes is 8-for-43 with 13 strikeouts in his last 11 games.

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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