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, Indianapolis – [insert_php]
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Indianapolis lost 4-3, as Clay Holmes struggled to throw strikes and Austin Meadows drove in all three runs. Holmes couldn’t make it out of the first inning, running his pitch count up to the maximum of 35 pitches, with 17 going for strikes. He issued three walks and allowed two of Toledo’s runs. Brett McKinney followed and stranded three runners by recording the last out of the first inning. He went another two innings, giving up one run. He was followed by a trio of interesting relievers.
Angel Sanchez followed McKinney and retired all six batters he faced, three by strikeout. Next up was Dovydas Neverauskas, who allowed an unearned run in his two innings. He has thrown six innings without an earned run this season. Edgar Santana finished things up with a scoreless eighth inning. He has allowed one earned run in 5.2 innings.
Austin Meadows supplied all of the offense in this one. Max Moroff walked to start the game. He then stole second base and moved to third on an errant throw. Meadows brought him home with a sacrifice fly. Indianapolis didn’t score again until the eighth. Moroff reached on a single, then was forced out on a grounder by Gift Ngoepe. That was followed by a two-run homer from Meadows, his first of the season. Replays of the home run show that Meadows should have been credited with a double. See video here:
Jose Osuna was 1-for-3 with a single and a walk. He’s hitting .207 now. Elias Diaz went 0-for-4, dropping him to a .286 average. Eric Wood was 1-for-4 with his fourth double.
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ALTOONA, Pa. – Kevin Kramer continued his hot stretch again tonight in Altoona, leading the Curve with two doubles and two walks, while he extended his hitting streak to begin the 2017 campaign.
Kramer got the Curve on the board early, with an opposite field grounder down the left field line that scored Michael Suchy from second base. It was almost like an “excuse me”, inside-out swing, but he was able to fight the pitch off and take it the other way on the ground. After coming around to score on an Edwin Espinal double in the third, Kramer ripped a line drive double into right-center field in the fifth, chasing the Rubberducks’ starter Nick Pasquale.
Kramer has easily been Altoona’s best player to begin the season, with 13 hits in 28 at-bats, including four doubles and three homers. His .464 batting average and 1.51 OPS in eight games played so far this young season gives credence to Tim Williams’ pick of Kramer as Altoona’s big breakout player.
JT Brubaker started the game for the Curve, going six innings and allowing two earned runs on six hits. He struck out six batters, walked one, and allowed a short home run to the right field corner.
Brubaker’s fastball was regularly hitting 94 MPH tonight (and hit 95 on a few occasions), and he attacked hitters with his fastball often the first time through the lineup. He told me that his fastball has normally been around 93 MPH so far this spring, so he definitely had a tick extra tonight.
As the night wore on, he turned to his changeup often, saying that he was able to get some swings-and-misses with the pitch.
“Every start, the intent is to attack hitters with the fastball early,” Brubaker said. “After what the hitter shows you, you make changes and go after them differently. The changeup helped a lot tonight. I was able to throw it for strikes and get them to swing and miss.”
Brubaker has been known as a fly ball and strikeout pitcher, and tonight was more of the same. Akron lifted a number of fly balls off of him, and they hit the ball hard when making contact. The home run was by a right handed batter on what seemed to be a late swing on a 95 MPH fastball.
“There are situations where he needs to put it on the ground,” Manager Michael Ryan said. “The higher the level you get to, the further those fly balls will go when you’re facing some stronger hitters.”
Although there were some situations that Ryan said he wished Brubaker would’ve been able to shut things down better after the Curve scored runs the inning before, he was impressed by Brubaker getting through six innings even with a high pitch count.
“He’s a true grinder and he has a lot of potential in him,” Ryan said. “I thought he threw well tonight.”
Buddy Borden, coming out of the bullpen this season after starting in Bradenton last year, allowed one hit in two scoreless innings of relief. Borden has yet to allow a run in six innings (three appearances) so far this season.
“He’s been lights out,” Ryan said. “He’s attacking hitters and getting ahead. He came into some big situations already this year and got out of them. I’m really proud of him.”
Jared Lakind closed out the game and allowed one hit before picking up the save.
In the field, Connor Joe played a very good first base tonight. Most impressively, Joe made a great play in the third inning to turn a double play. He was covering the bag when the batter lined a shot towards first. Joe made a nice scoop on the play and turned back towards the base to get the force out. He then made a wonderful throw to second – right on the money in front of the bag – to get the lead runner out.
“To know to go to the bag first then make a throw across on the bag,” Ryan said of Joe’s double play, “that’s some kind of play. He just missed the runner going into second, so the accuracy was very impressive.”
Joe’s athleticism seems to be what separates him from others with making a position switch again this season.
“He’s a very good athlete,” Ryan said. “When you can take a year off from a position and go back, he doesn’t have any issues because he is so athletic. If you watch him work throughout the day, he’s constantly working on his defense and trying to get better. You don’t ever say someone works too much, but sometimes you need to calm him down and tell him that’s enough. Save some for 6 o’clock.”
Joe has looked extremely athletic in the field so far this season, but the bat has been a little behind, as he went 0-for-4 tonight to take his average to .208 on the season. He hit a rocket to right field in the sixth inning, but it was right at the fielder.
On an odd note, Curve runners were picked off at first base three times tonight by Akron catcher – and Indians top prospect – Francisco Mejia. Wyatt Mathisen in the second, Zane Chavez in the fourth, and Pablo Reyes in the sixth were all thrown out leaning at first base.
* Kevin Newman had a night off.
* After barely missing foul on another home run last night, Jordan Luplow drilled a double to deep right-center field to lead off the bottom of the sixth. Luplow finished the night 1-for-3 with a walk. -Sean McCool
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After eight straight wins to begin the season, Bradenton lost their second in a row to Tampa. Taylor Hearn made his second start and tried to build off of 5.2 shutout innings in his debut. The final line looks like an average outing, with three runs on six hits over six innings. He threw four scoreless innings to start the game, then allowed a run in the fifth on two singles, a stolen base and an RBI ground out. In the sixth, he gave up a single, followed by a two-run homer. Hearn was throwing strikes in this game, resulting in no walks and seven strikeouts. He also put up an impressive 8:2 GO/AO ratio. This is his longest career outing, and just the second career start in which he didn’t walk a batter (not including a start last year in which he faced one batter).
Jake Brentz pitched a scoreless inning and recorded two strikeouts, giving him ten strikeouts in four innings this season. Julio Eusebio made his season debut and pitched a scoreless eighth.
The offense had just four hits, two by Danny Arribas and one each from Cole Tucker and Mitchell Tolman. Tucker’s RBI double scored Arribas with the only Bradenton run. The double was the first of season for Tucker and he also added his eighth stolen base in eight attempts. Tolman added a walk and has now reached base in all nine games he has played this season. Ke’Bryan Hayes went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts and his second error. Will Craig had the night off.
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West Virginia won their second game of the season and Luis Escobar had his second big strikeout game, as the Power topped Lexington by a 5-1 score. Escobar had 12 strikeouts in his debut, allowing one run on one hit over five innings. That would have been a tough line for anyone to match and he nearly did it. Escobar gave up one run on five hits over six innings, striking out 11 batters. There were a few balls hit hard off of him, but Lexington was otherwise having trouble making contact.
The line score reads that Escobar threw 62 of his 89 pitches for strikes, but that’s a misleading stat for him because he doesn’t fill up the strike zone. Escobar gets a lot of chases on pitches out of the zone. If I had to estimate, I’d say he only threw about 40 pitches that were in the strike zone on Friday night. That is typical of his success though. When his curveball is on, it’s hard for the batters to pick up. It starts in the zone, but by the time batters swing, the ball is in the dirt. He rarely gets strikeouts on actual strikes.
Escobar keeps his catchers busy behind the plate, between the curves and the fact he spikes a lot of 55 foot fastballs, which also occasionally gets him chases. His changeup has late movement and is deceptive enough that it gives him three strikeout pitches, and all are offerings that he can use in any count. He’s going to need to throw more strikes in the future, or at least get closer to the zone because advanced hitters won’t chase as much, but it seems like Low-A hitters have no answer for him early on.
Everyone in the Power lineup had at least one hit. Ty Moore had three hits, falling a triple short of the cycle. Stephen Alemais went 1-for-3 with a walk, two runs score and two stolen bases. He is 3-for-17 in five games this season. The Power went the entire game without striking out. After a very poorly fielded game on Thursday night, the Power put out a much better defensive alignment in this game and they played very well as a group.
