A look at how the current top 30 prospects did today. If a player is in the majors for an extended time (Tyler Glasnow, Trevor Williams, Alen Hanson), or loses his prospect eligibility, he will be removed from this list. 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 more active prospects on the list. Rankings are from the 2017 Prospect Guide, and links on each name go to their Pirates Prospects player pages.
1. Austin Meadows, CF, Indianapolis -[insert_php]
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2. Mitch Keller, RHP, Bradenton – [insert_php]
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3. Kevin Newman, SS, Altoona – [insert_php]
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4. Cole Tucker, SS, Bradenton – [insert_php]
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5. Ke’Bryan Hayes, 3B, Bradenton -[insert_php]
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6. Will Craig, 3B, Bradenton – [insert_php]
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7. Taylor Hearn, LHP, Bradenton – [insert_php]
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8. Gage Hinsz, RHP, Bradenton – [insert_php]
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9. Nick Kingham, RHP, Extended Spring Training – [insert_php]
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10. Steven Brault, LHP, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
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11. Clay Holmes, RHP, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
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12. Braeden Ogle, LHP, Extended Spring Training – [insert_php]
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13. Max Kranick, RHP, Extended Spring Training – [insert_php]
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14. Elias Diaz, C, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
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15. Edgar Santana, RHP, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
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16. Luis Escobar, RHP, West Virginia – [insert_php]
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17. Dovydas Neverauskas, RHP, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
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18. Yeudy Garcia, RHP, Altoona -[insert_php]
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19. Kevin Kramer, 2B, Altoona -[insert_php]
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20. Tyler Eppler, RHP, Indianapolis -[insert_php]
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21. Stephen Alemais, SS, West Virginia – [insert_php]
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22. Brandon Waddell, LHP, Altoona – [insert_php]
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23. Travis MacGregor, RHP, Extended Spring Training – [insert_php]
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24. Barrett Barnes, LF, Extended Spring Training -[insert_php]
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25. Max Moroff, 2B, Indianapolis -[insert_php]
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26. Eric Wood, 3B, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
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27. J.T. Brubaker, RHP, Altoona – [insert_php]
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28. Chris Bostick, INF/OF, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
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29. Connor Joe, 3B, Altoona – [insert_php]
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30. Jose Osuna, 1B, Pirates – [insert_php]
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INDIANAPOLIS — His hitting didn’t look rusty, but the same couldn’t be said for his sliding technique.
Joey Terdoslavich was a late addition to the starting lineup, a trickle down effect of Pittsburgh outfielder Starling Marte’s 80-game suspension for using a PED.
And he made the most of his first start of the season, going 2-for-5 with three RBI in the Indians’ 6-5 loss to Durham in 11 innings. Terdoslavich had a two-run single in the fourth inning and an RBI double in the sixth inning.
After his double, Terdoslavich advanced to third on a wild pitch. But his slide into third was a little rough, as he seemed to land awkwardly and had both of his legs lift backwards.
Still, it was a solid game for someone who didn’t know he would possibly be in the lineup until he arrived in the clubhouse around 12:30 p.m. Tuesday. Indianapolis first baseman/outfielder Jose Osuna was promoted to take Marte’s place on the roster, which opened a spot for Terdoslavich to come off the disabled list. He has been with Indianapolis since the beginning of the season, working out and waiting for an opportunity.
“He’s worked his tail off here,” Indianapolis manager Andy Barkett said. “He’s been the first guy here everyday. He’s been the first guy in cages, the first guy on the field for ground balls.”
Drew Hutchison made his third start of the season and was shaky at times with his command, but put together one of his better outings of the season.
But there’s still plenty of room for improvement in a start that resulted in a deceiving final pitching line.
The good part: Hutchison allowed one earned run and five hits over six innings, striking out one. The bad part: He allowed four of six lead-off runners to reach base, walking three batters, hitting another one and throwing 45 of his 84 pitches for a strike.
“I try to hunt the good stuff with him,” Barkett said. “Obviously those aren’t the exact numbers you want but he made pitches when he had to. He kept us in the game. It wasn’t a stellar outing, but I thought it was a step in the right direction.”
Hutchison nearly allowed a lead-off home run in his second consecutive outing. Durham third baseman Jake Hager, who entered the game hitting .182, crushed a double to the top of the wall in left-center field. A few feet to the right and it would had been a home run.
After allowing the lead-off double, Hutchison settled down, retiring the next three batters without a ball leaving the infield but Hager did come around to score. Jake Bauers grounded out to second base, Willy Adames grounded out to shortstop, and Casey Gillaspie hit a ball that landed a few feet in front of the home plate, which Elias Diaz cleanly fielded to throw out the runner.
Hutchison retired the first two batters of the second inning, which included a nice diving stop by Max Moroff on a grounder. But for the bad, Hutchison hit a batter, allowed a double to Cade Gotta, and despite getting ahead 0-2, he walked Kean Wong, the No. 9 hitter who entered the game with a .045 average. He finally got a flyout to end the inning, but not before throwing 23 pitches and loading the bases with two outs.
Eric Wood, playing in left field, made a nice sliding catch to help retire the side in the third inning, one of Hutchison’s more efficient innings.
McKenry doubled to the left-center gap to lead off the fourth inning. But Dayron Varona popped up a bunt attempt to Diaz in foul territory. And a pair of groundouts ended that threat. Wong led the fifth inning off with a bloop single over Moroff in shallow left field, but Hutchison induced a double play two pitches later and got Bauers to groundout on an 87 MPH breaking pitch.
Hutchison nearly didn’t make it through the sixth inning, walking two of the first three batters he faced, including a lead-off walk on four pitches. Wood saved a run from scoring, throwing out a Durham runner at home, trying to score from second on a single to left field. Hutchison got out of the inning with a groundout to third base.
Unlike some past outings, Hutchison did not allow any of his troubles to spiral out of control on Tuesday. But he also isn’t dominating the Triple-A level like you would expect from someone who was a candidate to begin the season in the Pirates’ starting rotation.
Fastball command is a recurring theme for Hutchison, who struggled with that in his previous start when he allowed a home run in each of the first two innings. And against Durham, his fastball command wasn’t great and he seemed to go away from the pitch later in the game.
“I thought his breaking ball was working tonight, he was just erratic with his fastball and didn’t seem to trust it very much,” Barkett said. “He has to establish his fastball and put it where he wants to be effective at this level or in the big leagues.”
Elias Diaz had an RBI double in the fourth inning, while Christopher Bostick had an RBI single in the sixth inning.
A.J. Schugel allowed three consecutive singles to begin the seventh inning and Durham scored a pair of runs on consecutive sacrifice flies.
Doyvdas Neverauskas was brought into the game and struck out Casey Gillaspie on four pitches, with velocities of 96, 96, 99, and 97 MPH. Neverauskas allowed a pair of runs in the eighth inning, in part because of a pair of errors, one of which was his own.
Indianapolis reliever Brett McKinney allowed an RBI single to center field in the 11th inning for the game-winning run.
Max Moroff was 2-for-4 with a walk, while Austin Meadows was 0-for-4 with a walk and three strikeouts. Diaz was 2-for-5 with two runs scored. – Brian Peloza
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ALTOONA, Pa. – Alex McRae didn’t allow a hit through his first four innings of work before tiring towards the end of his outing. He finished by allowing five hits and three earned runs in his final 1.2 innings pitched.
McRae started the game by getting a bunch of ground balls, getting all of his outs on the ground in the first two innings. In the third inning, he allowed a couple of long fly balls, but they were recorded as outs. After a HBP in the fourth, he induced an inning ending double play to keep a zero in the hit column.
“Two-seamer was working well,” McRae said of those first four innings. “I was able to locate it pretty well down, as well as in and out. I didn’t need much else besides that pitch for those first four innings.”
In the fifth and sixth innings, McRae began to elevate his pitches, and he seemed to struggle with control of his fastball. Nothing was really locating how he was earlier in the game, and Erie took advantage by hitting three extra base hits.
His fastball hit 94 MPH, and the two-seamer was sitting in the low 90s, which all has been pretty typical for McRae this season. He worked almost exclusively with his two-seamer tonight, as they game planned to go fastball heavy since Erie is a pretty free-swinging team. He wanted to attack two-seamer as to try to get a lot of groundouts, which worked well early. The problem came in not turning to his secondary pitches soon enough, and McRae said that he will take it as a lesson and learn from how this outing went.
“I got fastball heavy a little bit today,” McRae said. “I didn’t throw as many changeups and sliders as I normally do. I think at that point – once the fastball started to elevate – I need to be able to turn to something else to keep them off-balanced. I’ll learn from that.”
Following McRae, Tate Scioneaux, Jared Lakind, Austin Coley, and Montana DuRapau combined for 3.1 scoreless innings of relief. In the seventh, Scioneaux allowed three straight singles to load the bases; however, he (two outs) and Lakind (the final out) combined to get out of the bases-loaded, no outs situation unscathed.
“It shows that those guys are ready for any situation,” Manager Michael Ryan said. “The confidence that they have to get out of that is huge, and those two guys stepped up.”
Kevin Newman had his second multi-hit game in as many days, going 2-for-4 with a couple of line drive hits – one a double down the left field line in the sixth inning and an RBI single back up the middle in the fourth. Towards the end of last week, Newman had a tough stretch where he wasn’t hitting the ball very well. He broke out of that short slump quickly, with five hits in his last three games. He’s also hitting more line drives now, compared to easy ground outs. Obviously, it was just a few days last week, but Newman has looked much better this series so far.
“He’s trying to get back to the player that he is,” Ryan said about Newman. “I think maybe he was a little stagnant there to start things off, but he’s back to himself. He’s fine.”
Edwin Espinal stayed hot tonight, going 2-for-5 with two RBIs and a double. He has 13 hits in his last seven games – including three doubles and a home run – and he has easily been one of two of the Curve’s best hitters so far in the young season (Kramer the other). Something that is noticeable about his approach is the ability to go the other way with a pitch, hitting the ball to right field often. His home run (last week) was over the right field wall, and his double tonight was on the ground down the right field line.
*In the second inning, Chase Simpson made an above average play at third base to grab a slow ground ball towards the line and make a strong throw to first base for the final out. Simpson followed that up in the bottom half by ripping a long line drive double to the left center field gap, bringing in the team’s first run of the night. It was only his second hit of the young season.
*Jordan Luplow has hit a ton of fly balls this home stand. I haven’t been able to see much of him before this past week, but it almost seems staggering how often the ball is lifted in the air by him.
*Connor Joe went 1-for-3, an infield single in the second inning, and a walk. The hits aren’t really coming in bunches yet for Joe, but he looks to be one of the most athletic first basemen I’ve seen in Altoona in a while.
*Kevin Kramer’s ten game hitting streak came to an end tonight, but almost not to his fault. He was hit by a pitch THREE times tonight, and he walked once. He only had one true at-bat, and it was a deep fly out to center field. So, even though his streak ended, he was on base four out of five times. – Sean McCool
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BRADENTON, Fla. – The Pirates traded Arquimedes Caminero last year and got right-hander Pedro Vasquez and left-hander Jake Brentz in return. Both guys were wild card pitchers in the lower levels at the time, and both have seen some improvements since the time of the deal. Tonight, I got a chance to see them both for the first time outside of an exhibition game, having only previously seen them during instructs and Spring Training.
Vasquez got the start and had a good outing, giving up two runs on four hits in five innings, with a walk and three strikeouts. His damage came on a pair of solo homers, with one in the second and one in the fifth. He was pulled after five innings with just 65 pitches as the Marauders work slowly to build up his workload. He was very efficient tonight, getting a lot of quick outs and pounding the strike zone.
The Phillies’ High-A team featured a lot of left-handed hitters, but Vasquez showed off a nice changeup that kept the opposing lineup in check. After the game, Bradenton manager Gera Alvarez said that a big focus for Vasquez this year will be on the offspeed stuff. That makes sense for any pitcher, but is especially important for Vasquez. He’s got a fastball that gets up to the 90-93 MPH range with a bit of sink, but doesn’t have the best stuff. He will need to be a guy who relies on a mixture of average or better pitches, rather than a guy with lacking secondary stuff. The changeup showed some promise tonight.
The other player in the Caminero deal, Jake Brentz, entered tonight’s game with some impressive numbers. He had ten strikeouts in four innings of work, using his lively fastball to blow hitters away. The appearance tonight was a bit disappointing when you compare it to the other outings this year, and by that I mean he actually allowed someone to make contact.
Brentz struck out the first batter with a 98 MPH heater, after starting off the at-bat with a 97 MPH fastball inside to a lefty to induce a broken bat foul ball. He was hitting 98 pretty consistently in the next few at-bats, giving up an opposite field single to a right-hander on a good piece of hitting, but getting the other two outs of the inning with ease.
It’s hard to ignore a lefty who can sit 96-100 MPH on a consistent basis. Brentz has had some control problems, and showed that a bit in the first few at-bats, before settling down and getting some quick outs. He’s got a Major League arm and could move quickly to Altoona if he continues showing this control and looking absolutely unhittable out of the bullpen.
Vasquez and Brentz are still looking like wild cards, but they’re looking closer to being prospects than they were when they were added for Caminero, with Brentz seeing a big boost in his stock, and looking like he could have a shot at being the left-handed version of Caminero.
**Cole Tucker stole a base tonight to extend his stolen base streak to ten attempts. He was then caught stealing trying to steal third, although the play was close.
**Daniel Zamora is a lefty who tops out at 90 MPH and has a devastating slider for lefties. He’s got a chance to be a LOOGY in the majors in the future. He didn’t have the best command tonight, although it should be noted that a light rain started at the top of his inning, which may have impacted things.
**Will Craig looked good at first base today. There were two plays in a row where he made a pick on a hard hit ball and fired to second with a good throw, not going wide of the bag. The second one led to a 3-6-1 double play to get Bret Helton out of a jam. Craig also hit a double down the left field line and drew a walk.
**I talked with a scout last week who felt Alfredo Reyes could make it as a pitcher if he doesn’t work out as a position player. He was playing right field tonight for the Marauders, and made the final out in the top of the ninth by throwing out a runner at the plate. Reyes showed off a strong arm all night, and that’s not new. We’ve seen that a lot from him in the infield, making throws from deep shortstop. He’s a strong defender with a plus arm, which is why he’s still a position player. But I could see the future as a pitcher if he never learns how to hit. – Tim Williams
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West Virginia continues to score plenty of runs and pick up wins, as they beat Hickory by an 8-3 score. The Power started the season 0-6, but they have now gone 6-1 in their last seven games.
Oddy Nunez got the start and was coming off a game in which the defense behind him was one of the worst displays I’ve seen in pro ball. After the game, I wrote about the 20-year-old lefty’s pitching line, which included six runs on nine hits in three innings, and how it was very misleading because he actually pitched well. On Tuesday night, he didn’t have any issues with the defense and that led to four no-hit innings. The only base runner was a walk, otherwise he faced the minimum, recording two strikeouts and a 7:2 GO/AO ratio. In his last start, almost everything was slowly hit on the ground, so this was a similar outing in that regard. Nunez is on a limited pitch count (44 in this game) because he’s only pitched as a short-season reliever prior to this year, so his innings will need to be limited all season.
The defense wasn’t so kind to Nunez’s relievers, as both third baseman Hunter Owen and second baseman Trae Arbet committed two errors after the fourth inning. That led to two unearned runs off Blake Cederlind, who allowed one hit, one walk and struck out three batters in his two innings. Dylan Prohoroff gave up a run on two hits and two walks in his two innings, then Matt Frawley closed it out with a scoreless ninth. Frawley has thrown six shutout innings this season.
The Power had eight runs and ten hits on Tuesday, giving them 40 runs and 50 hits in the last three games. Trae Arbet was the only player not to reach base in this game, after every player had at least one hit in each of the previous two games. Ty Moore has been on fire since joining the Power out of Extended Spring Training. He had two doubles and a walk in this game, giving him a .447 average and six extra-base hits in eight games. Carlos Munoz hit his second homer and drove in three runs. Hunter Owen reached base all five times with a single, two walks and two HBP, though he left the game after the second time he was hit by a pitch. Stephen Alemais was 1-for-5 with a run scored and his second triple of the season.
