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Prospect Watch: Shane Baz Makes His Pro Debut

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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 (Jose Osuna), 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, Indianapolis – [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, Bristol – [insert_php]
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13. Max Kranick, RHP, GCL Pirates – [insert_php]
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14. Elias Diaz, C, Pirates – [insert_php]
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15. Edgar Santana, RHP, Pirates – [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, Bristol – [insert_php]
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24. Barrett Barnes, LF, Indianapolis -[insert_php]
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25. Max Moroff, 2B, Pirates -[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. Jin-De Jhang, C, Altoona – [insert_php]
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P2 Top Performers

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Prospect-Watch-Indy

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INDIANAPOLIS — The draft class of 2014 fared pretty well, with a nice assist defensively from a member of the previous draft class.

Jordan Luplow hit his first Triple-A homer and Tyler Eppler put together a solid performance after two rough lines in his previous two starts.

Their hitting and pitching helped Indianapolis to a 5-4 win over Louisville, which was capped by a spectacular catch from Indianapolis right fielder Justin Maffei.

Indianapolis reliever Johnny Barbato walked two batters in the ninth inning, while clinging to a one-run lead in front of a near sellout crowd that was into the outcome late in the game.

Louisville’s Darnell Sweeney hit a shot that Maffei tracked down and caught while leaping into the right field wall for the final out.

Indianapolis manager Andy Barkett called the catch “outstanding,” and Maffei was just helping out his roommate.

“With the crowd we had tonight, the adrenaline was running pretty high,” Maffei said. “To win the game on that catch and Johnny (Barbato) is my roommate, so I have to help out my roommate as much as I can. It’s just as satisfying for me to get him out of that jam and get the win for the team.”

Luplow is the first position player from the 2014 Draft to reach the Triple-A level, and Eppler is the second pitcher to reach Indianapolis after Frank Duncan did so last season.

Eppler previously allowed five runs on eight hits in his last start; and seven runs on ten hits in the outing before that.

In that most recent start, Eppler allowed three runs in the first inning against this same Louisville lineup. So, when he had a lead-off walk to open the game it looked like he could be headed down that same path.

He only allowed three hits over the first four innings before running into some trouble in his fifth and final inning.

“I thought he needed that start to kind of get some confidence back after a rough go and then missing a start,” Barkett said. “It was good to see him get out and pitch like he had earlier in the year.”

Louisville catcher Chad Wallach, a .188 hitter, led off the fifth inning with a solo homer to right on the first pitch of the at-bat.

Zach Vincej singled and moved to second on pitcher Robert Stephenson’s sacrifice bunt. Jesse Winker, an International League All-Star, grounded out on Eppler’s 76th pitch of the game.

That prompted a visit from Barkett, who wanted to give his pitcher some time to rest after an eventful previous inning. Eppler was the last batter in the previous half-inning, and he had to run out to first base twice — once on a foul ball and once on a groundout.

“As far as conditioning goes I feel I’m pretty conditioned to do that,” Eppler said, “But it does kind of throw off the rhythm when you go into the dugout and your adrenaline is pumping and you’re trying to get a quick rest.”

Louisville’s Phillip Ervin tripled on a curve, which scored a run after Barkett’s mound visit, but Eppler was left in the game and he got Sebastian Elizalde to fly out to end the fifth.

“I wanted to give him a shot to finish it because I knew we were going to keep his pitch count low today on three days rest, It was good to see him get back on the bump and do his thing.”

Eppler cruised through the first four innings. He retired eight consecutive batters after allowing that lead-off walk to open the game.

“The fastball command was good,” Eppler said. “I through a couple of fastballs in and kept them off the plate a little bit. I was nailing the fastball away to the righties whenever I needed it and throwing those fastballs in kind of gave me some room over the plate to throw those fastballs away and I was executing them well.”

Luplow has batted third in the lineup in each of his first four games since being promoted to Indianapolis on Friday and has yet to get a day off.

His first home went well into the left field lawn seating area on an 0-2 fastball inside. He came close on two previous occasions to hitting his first Triple-A homer, but one shot bounced off the top of the wall and he settled for a double; while he also had an extra-base hit taken away on a leaping catch against the wall that was inches from being a homer.

“I just happened to catch the barrel on it,” Luplow said. “It definitely felt good to get the first one, but I’m out there putting together quality at-bats and helping the team win is what I’m trying to do.”

Luplow went 1-for-4 and is hitting .267.

** Jacob Stallings had a big play in the eighth inning. Indianapolis was clinging to a 5-3 lead with runners at first and second with nobody out. On a swinging miss, Stallings picked off Darnell Sweeney at second base for the first out of the inning.

**Luplow made a nice throw from left field on a single to keep a runner from advancing to third, charging the play and throwing a bullet to Eric Wood.

**Erich Weiss, one of the organization’s top hitters last week, began this week with a two-run homer in his first at-bat in the first inning of the first game this week. Weiss went 3-for-4 and has raised his average to .270.

**Joey Terdoslavich had a nice diving unassisted putout on a hard grounder in the first inning. – Brian Peloza

Prospect-Watch-Altoona-Curve

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Altoona won 4-1, as Austin Coley continued his recent stretch of strong pitching to lead them to victory. Coley wasn’t even supposed to start games this season, other than some possible spot starts throughout the year, but he crossed the 80 inning mark on Monday night. He went seven innings in this game, allowing one run on five hits and no walks. He threw 60 of his 98 pitches for strikes and picked up five strikeouts.

Coley lowered his ERA to 2.87 on the season and did something we haven’t seen much this season. He is a sinkerball pitcher, which usually results in a lot of grounders, but he wasn’t getting those results in many of his starts. Coley posted an 8:4 GO/AO ratio in this one, which is one of his better games this season.

Tate Scioneaux and Montana DuRapau each threw a scoreless inning to seal the victory. Both retired all three batters they faced, picking up one strikeout.

On offense, Edwin Espinal hit his ninth home run of the season as he continues to await his call to Indianapolis. His two-run shot in the fourth inning was all that the Curve would need. Kevin Newman went 1-for-4 with a triple, walk and two runs scored. Pablo Reyes drove in two runs with his 11th double of the season. In his third game with Altoona, Logan Hill went 1-for-4 with a single.

Prospect-Watch-Bradenton

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BRADENTON, Fla. – The Marauders were just half an inning away from winning on Sunday. They played an inning and a half in the rain, including half an inning in a downpour, which saw Taylor Hearn give up the game tying home run. Had they not played that, the game would have ended early with them winning. Instead, they resumed play today in the sixth inning, with Logan Sendelbach giving up the lead right away, and giving up one more run to seal up a 3-1 loss. All of the hitting in game one was done on Sunday, with the Marauders only getting one walk from Will Craig today, giving him three total in the game.

The second game looked like it was going to be robbed from them as well. Pedro Vasquez was looking great until the fifth inning, when he gave up four runs. One of those was very questionable. The opposing hitter hit one off the boardwalk in right field, with the ball landing right of the foul pole. The field umpire, who was standing on the line down the first base side, ruled the ball foul. The opposing manager came out to appeal the play, and the two umpires discussed it. Replay in the booth appeared to show the ball hooking, but passing in front of the foul pole before going foul. After discussing things with Bradenton manager Gera Alvarez, the umpires ruled the play a home run, giving Florida a 4-3 lead.

Vasquez had a strong outing before that, sitting 92-93, and touching 94, while displaying some nice off-speed stuff. His stuff was on today, getting nine strikeouts in six innings. He wasn’t the most efficient, running up to 95 pitches in the game, and that was helped by a quick sixth inning when he rebounded from the horrible fifth. Overall though, the outing was one of his better starts of the year.

Geoff Hartlieb came on and pitched two innings in relief, looking very good. Hartlieb was a 29th round pick last year, and didn’t look good when I saw him in Bristol. He was 88-91 MPH with his fastball, and had an upper 70s slider. This year he had an 0.83 ERA in 32.2 innings with West Virginia, and tonight he was looking like a much different pitcher. He was hitting 95-97 MPH, while showing off a slider that was 82-85 MPH with a lot of sharp break, including one that he spiked on home plate for a swinging strike.

The best sequence was when Hartlieb threw a 96 MPH fastball to Austin Riley for a swinging strike just off the outer half of the plate, then came inside with a 97 MPH fastball on the inside corner for a called third strike, ending his outing with his third strikeout.

It looked like the Marauders were going to lose 4-3 due to that home run call as they went to the bottom of the 9th. With one out, Jordan George changed that, hitting a solo homer to tie the score. The game remained tied thanks to solid relief work from Yunior Montero and Sam Street.

In the 11th inning, Ke’Bryan Hayes drew a leadoff walk, then moved to second on a high chopper by Will Craig. Hayes then attempted to steal third base, after easily and successfully stealing third earlier in the game. The throw from the catcher went wide of the bag, allowing Hayes to run in and score the winning run. – Tim Williams

Prospect-Watch-WV-Power

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CHARLESTON, WV – The Hickory Crawdads took advantage of the free-swinging West Virginia Power for the 5-2 win, and the Power beat themselves with three errors, two of which extended run-scoring innings. The Power split the series in front of a season-high crowd of 6,186.

Luis Escobar recorded his 100th strikeout on the final batter of his final inning but exhibited questionable command of his unquestionably impressive stuff prior to that. He lasted just four innings.

“I didn’t throw the amount innings I wanted to throw, but I felt good about the start,” Escobar said.

Escobar noted that he wasn’t saving himself for the Futures Game on Sunday. He had thrown 71 pitches and was losing command of his curveball so the switch to the bullpen with the score 2-1 made sense from a game-management perspective.

Things started to fall apart when Escobar walked the lead-off batter in the third inning. He shook his head disappointedly, faced the next batter, and fired the pick-off throw way past Albert Baur. The runner moved to second on the throw, advanced to third on a fly ball to right, and scored on a sacrifice fly to center.

“I got angry because then I had a fast runner on second,” Escobar admitted, “but I put it behind me and went after the next batter.”

A similar sequence occurred in the fourth inning. Escobar walked the second batter of the inning, who moved to second on a bunt single and swiped third base. He scored the go-ahead run on a sac fly.

Escobar had his typical nasty stuff. His fastball stayed around 95 all night, and his curveball produced some ugly swings. He lacked command, falling behind on seven of the 18 batters he faced and facing even counts on three others.

The Power offense failed to get any momentum against Hickory. Garrett Brown reached on a bunt single and came around to score on a two-base error. For the first seven innings, that was all the offense the team could muster.

Victor Fernandez ripped a single up the middle to lead off the eighth inning and scored on an Albert Baur RBI single. Baur has driven in a run in every game of the four-game series.

Dylan Prohoroff had a shaky inning of relief. Including a lead-off double, he allowed three hits and two runs. His command was really off until a visit from Brent Gibbs set him straight. He got a strikeout and a grounder to end the inning with runners on first and second.

Mike Wallace closed out the game with four innings on the mound. He pitched well for the first three innings and then ran into a spot of trouble in the ninth. He kept the ball on the ground, turning in a 7:1 GO:AO ratio. He collected three strikeouts as well.

In the ninth, Wallace gave up two singles and a run before shutting Hickory down with a double play ball to short.

Wallace is coming off a seven-inning shutout spot start, and his four-inning performance tonight helped his case to join the rotation should there be any call-ups in the future. He could even replace Blake Cederlind, currently the Power’s fifth starter who has a 6.95 ERA and has given up 23 runs in his last five appearances.

The Power threatened in the ninth, getting the first two batters aboard. Victor Fernandez continued the inning and loaded the bases with two outs with his second hit of the night. Adrian Valerio struck out, though, to end the game. It was Valerio’s third strikeout of the night. – Abigail Miskowiec

Prospect-Watch-Morgantown

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Morgantown had Scooter Hightower on the mound tonight and Yoandy Fernandez scheduled to follow him. Both pitchers came into the game with an 0.00 ERA and left with a 1.80 ERA. So the Black Bears didn’t get the results they are used to from those two players, but the offense more than made up for it in an 11-6 victory.

Morgantown trailed 5-2 going into the bottom of the seventh in this game, then exploded for five runs in the seventh and four more runs in the eighth. Tristan Gray, Jose Barraza and Sandy Santos each drove in three runs. Santos had two doubles, while Gray tripled and Barraza hit his first home run of the season.

The draft picks at the top of the order all contributed something as well. Jared Oliva hit lead-off and went 1-for-4 with a walk and a run scored. Bligh Madris had a walk and run scored in the second spot. Deon Stafford had two walks, a single and a run scored. Dylan Busby batted cleanup and picked up his first pro hit, a ground rule double to center field. He also walked and scored two runs.

Hightower allowed three runs over four innings of work. Fernandez followed and served up a two-run homer. He wasn’t as sharp as his first few games when he piled up strikeouts. Tenth round draft pick Beau Sulser threw a scoreless ninth.

Prospect-Watch-Bristol
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Bristol lost 10-4 to Bluefield to drop to 3-9 on the season. Travis MacGregor made his third start and it didn’t go well. He came into the game with one run allowed over his first nine innings. On Monday, he couldn’t make it out of the first inning due to reaching his single inning pitch count. He gave up two runs on two walks, a hit batter and a single, before leaving with two outs and 30 pitches (17 for strikes).

After Argenis Romano put in 4.1 innings, which included stranding two runners inherited from MacGregor, 11th round draft pick Alex Manasa came out for the sixth inning. In his only frame, he allowed three runs on two hits, a walk and a hit batter. Outfielder Henrry Rosario pitched a scoreless eighth in the blowout.

The offense was extremely quiet until late. Yondry Contreras played for the first time since Friday and drove in two runs late with a single, but he also struck out four times and committed his first error. Edison Lantigua drove in the other two runs with a double, so the Pirates got the production from the right players. Lantigua was the only Bristol player not to strikeout, with the rest of the team piling up 15 strikeouts on the night.

Prospect-Watch-GCL

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Pirates first round draft pick Shane Baz made his pro debut on the road on Monday against the GCL Blue Jays.  He began his pro career with two swinging strikeouts, although the runner on the second one reached on a wild pitch. Catcher Mikell Granberry threw that runner out attempting to steal, before Baz finished his first inning with a fly ball to center field.

During the top of the second, the Pirates took a 1-0 lead. The game then went into a rain delay, but he was only scheduled for one inning today. His fastball sat 95-96, his slider was 89-90 and he also threw some curveballs with a nice break, although he wasn’t throwing them in the strike zone. The strikeouts were on a slider and a curveball (the wild pitch) and he threw about 15 pitches total. We will have more on his outing tomorrow.

The Pirates ended up losing 2-1, resuming play after a 25 minute delay. Their only run scored on an RBI single from Cristopher Perez, who went 3-for-3 with a walk. Lolo Sanchez hit his third double of the season. Jeremias Portorreal had a tough day, going 0-for-4 with three strikeouts. Calvin Mitchell was 0-for-3 with a hit-by-pitch. Mikell Granberry, who was catching his first game of the season, went 1-for-3 with a single and a HBP.

The original scheduled starter was Yeudry Manzanillo, who ended up following Baz and still getting in his five innings. He allowed both Blue Jay runs, but they were both unearned due to a fourth inning error by Jesse Medrano. With two outs, Medrano booted a ground ball, then the next batter hit a two-run homer. Manzanillo allowed three hits, with no walks and five strikeouts.

Prospect-Watch-DSL

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The DSL Pirates had a nice comeback on Monday, trailing 7-5 in the ninth inning, they scored four runs, then held on for the 9-8 win. This game was a continuation of the breakout for Samuel Inoa, who collected two doubles and a walk, scoring three runs. He now has a .404 average and nine extra-base hits, after just six extra-base hits all of last season.

Larry Alcime continued his return from a hamstring injury, playing seven innings in the field for the second time. He said that he was sore after Saturday’s game, but felt fine after today’s game. The Pirates usually give players a day off when they return from injury between games as they build up, and with the DSL off on Sundays, he didn’t actually miss any games. Alcime went 1-for-3 and drove in two runs.

Top prospect Jean Eusebio is out after getting hit by a pitch on his shin early during Saturday’s game. He isn’t expected to miss much time after he felt better on Sunday, but still had swelling. Shortstop Francisco Acuna left today’s game a couple innings after being hit in the shin. It wasn’t as bad as the one that hit Eusebio.

Oliver Garcia started this game and had his first tough outing. He opened the season with  1.08 ERA in five starts, going the DSL Pirates limit of five innings each game. On Monday, he couldn’t make it to the fifth, going four innings with three runs (two earned) on five hits and two walks. Saul de la Cruz and Wilmer Contreras combined to allow five runs over the final five innings, but all five runs were unearned.

Emison Soto drove in three runs with a two-run double in the fifth and an RBI ground out during the four-run eighth inning.

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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