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First Pitch: International Signing Recap, McCutchen, Kingham, Meadows

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The Pirates were busy today with the opening of the 2014-15 International Signing Period. They signed five players to six-figure deals, with the biggest deal going to outfielder Yondry Contreras. The International Signing Tracker can be found here, and keeps track of the players signed and the bonus pool spent. Here is a link to information on each player signed.

 

 

**Andrew McCutchen was named the NL Player of the Month, which is no surprise if you looked at his numbers. Two years ago, McCutchen had a .953 OPS, and everyone wondered how the Pirates could compete going forward, figuring he wouldn’t be able to repeat that. He hasn’t touched that number, but he’s been above a .900 OPS ever since. Not only is he continuing to look like one of the best hitters in the league, but the Pirates have a lot of strong hitters surrounding him now, which wasn’t the case two years ago. They finished with one of the best offenses in baseball in June, and McCutchen was a big part of that. Now that Polanco has joined McCutchen and Marte at the top of the order, it’s going to be scary watching what the Pirates offense can do going forward.

**Nick Kingham Has His Season Back in Control. Ryan Palencer writes about Nick Kingham’s control problems early in the season, and how he has overcome that to dominate in his debut in Triple-A.

**Four Indianapolis Indians Selected to the Triple-A All-Star Game. Several depth options here for the Pirates later in the season.

**Prospect Watch: Alen Hanson Homers; Austin Meadows Shines in Rehab. I’d expect Meadows to be in West Virginia by this time next week.

**Pirates Sign Catcher Chris Harvey. A non-drafted free agent.

**Prospect Highlights: Cole Tucker Hitting and Fielding

**Minor League Schedule: John Kuchno Has Been Strong at Home This Year

Tim Williams
Tim Williams
Tim is the owner, producer, editor, and lead writer of PiratesProspects.com. He has been running Pirates Prospects since 2009, becoming the first new media reporter and outlet covering the Pirates at the MLB level in 2011 and 2012. His work can also be found in Baseball America, where he has been a contributor since 2014 and the Pirates' correspondent since 2019.

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