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Prospect Watch: Mitch Keller and Luis Escobar Don’t Have Their Best Stuff

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P2 Top 30

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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P2 Top Performers

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Prospect-Watch-Indy

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INDIANAPOLIS — Not much seems to rattle him.

Tyler Eppler put together his third quality start in as many outings as the Triple-A level, allowing two runs over six innings against a prospect-laden Durham team.

He did allow a two-run home run, the first and only two runs he’s allowed this season. There were also a handful of other hard-hit balls, some for hits and others that went down as sharp lineouts.

But Eppler never strayed from his game plan and worked around trouble a few times, allowing six hits in six innings of work. He struck out three and walked none, throwing 59 of his 86 pitches for a strike.

In three Triple-A starts this season, Eppler has allowed ten hits and just one walk in 17 innings.

“What surprises me is how calm, cool and collected the kid is,” Indianapolis manager Andy Barkett said. “It’s his first year in Triple-A and he looks like he’s been here before. He looks like he’s been in the big leagues before. His demeanor, his pace, his composure. Obviously his stuff is good. He has that cutter-slider slutter thing that is a swing-and-miss pitch that rolls off the barrel.”

The organization does a good job of developing the mental approach of hitters and pitchers, Barkett said, but added Eppler is unique.

“I think the kid is just a gifted kid in that sense,” Barkett said. “He’s mature and knows himself. And he doesn’t try to do too much. Usually hitters and pitchers get in trouble when they try to do too much, but he doesn’t do that.”

The biggest trouble Eppler had to fight through came in the second inning. He allowed a soft leadoff single which scored on Michael McKenry’s two-run home run to right-center field. He left a “slutter” — his slider-cutter pitch — slightly elevated.

Eppler thought all of his pitches — fastball, slider, slider-cutter, and even his changeup, were elevated early in the game.

“I had some hard contact early, the hard line drives and the home run of course,” Eppler said. “But I thought I did a good job of getting (my pitches) down later in the game.”

But Eppler got McKenry to popout in his next at-bat on a 78 MPH curveball, set up by a 94 MPH fastball.

“There’s nothing you can do to change those moments, so you have to get past it,” Eppler said. “I try to stay as balanced as I can.”

In the third inning, Eppler used a 93 MPH fastball to get Gotta to hit an infield flyout that was set up by his slider one pitch earlier. But then Eppler started to get hit a little bit. Bauers lined out sharply to right field and Willy Adames, also one of the Rays’ top prospects, doubled on a deep shot that hit off the 418 label of the left-center field wall.

Casey Gillaspie singled to right field, but Adames did not get a good jump and was held at third base. Eppler got out of the inning by getting Pat Leonard to fly out to deep right field.

Eppler worked around a two-out error in the first inning. Erich Weiss dropped a hard-hit line drive at third base, bobbling the ball on the ground. Gillaspie grounded out softly to second base as Christopher Bostick made a nice play ranging to his left.

Weiss made his first regular season start at third base since 2013, playing only second base during the last three years. He made several nice plays after that first-inning error.

He had a nice diving stop on a grounder to his left, and made a solid throw to second base for a force out that was nearly a 5-4-3 double play.

Max Moroff led the bottom of the first inning off with a home run off Durham’s Brent Honeywell, who is the top-ranked pitching prospect in the Tampa Bay Rays organization according to some outlets.

Jason Rogers hit a two-run home run in the fourth inning off Honeywell. Moroff added an RBI groundout in the seventh inning, which was followed by RBI singles from Rogers and Joey Terdoslavich.

Indianapolis reliever Dan Runzler nearly gave away a four-run lead, allowing three runs in just ⅔ of an inning in the eighth. Runzler gave up a no-doubt three-run home run to Granden Goetzman that might have cleared the outfield concourse if it didn’t go sideways after hitting a light pole.

Edgar Santana came on in relief to strike out the final batter of the eighth and retire the side in order in the ninth.

Christopher Bostick was 2-for-5 with 2 RBI and two runs scored. Austin Meadows was 1-for-4, while Danny Ortiz was 3-for-4 with two runs scored. – Brian Peloza

Prospect-Watch-Altoona-Curve

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Altoona moved to 8-4 on the season with an 8-3 win over Erie, as everyone contributed on offense for the Curve. JT Brubaker made his third start of the season and allowed three runs on seven hits and two walks in 5.2 innings. He had four strikeouts and a 9:4 GO/AO ratio, while throwing 52 of his 86 pitches for strikes. He maintained the 4.76 ERA that he had when he came into the game because he averaged three runs over 5.2 innings during his first two starts. Sean Keselica followed Brubaker and stranded two runners in the sixth, then threw a scoreless seventh, doing that despite throwing just ten of his 25 pitches for strikes. Buddy Borden got the save with two shutout innings.

On offense, all nine players in the lineup had at least one hit. Each of the first six batters scored at least one run. The seventh and eighth hitters, Wyatt Mathisen and Tomas Morales, combined to drive in five runs. Kevin Newman was 1-for-4 with a single and a walk. Jordan Luplow went 2-for-4 with his fourth double and an RBI. Edwin Espinal was 2-for-4 with his fourth double. He scored three times and drove in a run. Espinal is hitting .415 through 11 games and he has an eight-game hitting streak. He also has just three strikeouts in 46 plate appearances.

Both Connor Joe and Kevin Kramer had the night off. Altoona has off tomorrow.

Prospect-Watch-Bradenton

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BRADENTON, Fla. – Mitch Keller didn’t have his best fastball command tonight, and wasn’t commanding his changeup. However, his stuff was still good enough to work six innings with two runs allowed, no walks, and four strikeouts.

Keller was working a fastball heavy approach tonight, with his first 30 pitches being fastballs, throwing the pitch exclusively the first two innings. He wasn’t commanding it well, and was constantly getting behind hitters and going deep into counts. To his credit, he battled back and didn’t allow a single walk, while limiting the damage.

A big reason for the limited damage was that Keller’s fastball was consistently in the 96-98 MPH range early, hitting 99 a few times on the night. He dropped down in later innings to where he was mostly topping out at 96, although he had a few still touching 98. That velocity, plus his command when it was on, led to him getting out of a lot of jams.

In the third inning, the Clearwater offense started cheating on his pitches by sitting fastball, knowing what was coming. The first batter sat fastball and crushed a home run to left field. The next batter sat fastball and hit a long fly out to right field with the wind blowing in. Keller got out of the inning with no further damage.

The fourth inning saw Keller change his approach, mixing in more breaking pitches, and using the curveball, which was the one pitch working for him all night. He mixed in a few changeups, but was wild with the pitch, not having the feel for it tonight, and jerking the pitch wild outside of the strike zone. Pitching coordinator Justin Meccage was watching tonight, and said that the changeup looked like a ball out of the hand in a lot of cases tonight, making it so the batter didn’t have to worry about the pitch.

The curveball bailed Keller out. Right after the Clearwater offense started sitting on fastballs, Keller started mixing in more curves, including three straight on a three pitch strikeout to Jose Pujols. That got him back on track for a brief moment, although he struggled with control again in the fifth inning. Keller got into a jam with the bases loaded and no outs, but pitched his way out of it with only one run allowed. He pitched a scoreless sixth inning, once again dealing with some command issues and falling behind, but working his way out of it again.

After the game, Keller said that it just wasn’t his night. I’ve seen him a lot in the last year, including two starts at this level. His fastball command is usually much better, and tonight seemed like an off night indeed. The changeup is still a work in progress, but has gotten good reviews in the two starts prior to this. The curveball can be inconsistent from start to start, but wasn’t an issue tonight. That’s going to be the case with Keller as he works to develop the secondary stuff to match the normal consistency of his fastball.

A lot of the scouting reports I’ve gotten on Keller have matched tonight’s outing in one regard: Hitters are catching on that he’s only throwing fastballs early in games. That worked for him so well last year, even after he was promoted to Bradenton. However, it appears teams are adjusting to him, and now Keller will have to adjust back by learning when to use the secondary stuff, and mixing those pitches in earlier to keep hitters honest. I’ll have a lot more about that from Keller and Meccage tomorrow.

The Marauders ended up losing 3-2, making it close in the end. Mitchell Tolman hit an opposite field single to make the score 3-2 with two outs. Cole Tucker then came up and worked a walk, getting the free pass on a wild pitch. Alfredo Reyes — who went 4-for-4 in the game — broke for home. Unfortunately, the ball took a hard bounce off the backstop and bounced to the catcher, who made an easy play to tag Reyes out and end the game. – Tim Williams

Prospect-Watch-WV-Power

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West Virginia beat Hickory 8-5 on Wednesday night, moving them to 7-7 on the season after starting the year with six straight losses. Luis Escobar started this game and it was very different from his last two games due to one bad inning. Coming into the game, he had a 1.64 ERA over 11 innings, giving up one run in each of his first two starts. After a scoreless first, Escobar allowed four earned runs in the second inning, while serving up his first home run of the season. He would throw 5.2 innings total and didn’t give up another run. His first two games also included just six hits and a walk, but he allowed seven hits and a walk on Wednesday.

On the plus side, Escobar picked up nine more strikeouts, giving him 32 strikeouts this season in 16.2 innings. The other silver lining was a 6:3 GO/AO ratio, after allowing more fly balls than grounders in his first two games. He threw 60 of his 89 pitches for strikes.

The offense was led by shortstop Stephen Alemais, who hit two solo homers. They were his first two homers of this season and he had just one home run last year after being drafted in the third round. We have seen Alemais hit two homers in a game before, but that was during a Fall Instructional League game last September when he homered three times in his first week there.

Logan Ratledge had two hits, helping him extend his hit streak to eight games. Trae Arbet and Arden Pabst each had two hits, while Kevin Mahala collected his fifth double. The Power have scored 48 runs over their last four 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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