A look at how the current top 30 prospects did today. Note that this list doesn’t include players currently in the majors. If a player is in the majors, he will be removed, 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 (Nick Kingham), 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 30 active prospects on the list. Rankings are from the mid-season update, and links on each name go to their Pirates Prospects player pages.
1. Tyler Glasnow, RHP, Altoona – DNP
2. Jameson Taillon, RHP, Indianapolis – Disabled List
3. Austin Meadows, CF, Bradenton – DNP
4. Josh Bell, 1B, Altoona – 0-for-4
5. Alen Hanson, 2B, Indianapolis – 0-for-4, BB
6. Reese McGuire, C, Bradenton – DNP
7. Elias Diaz, C, Indianapolis – 1-for-4, BB
8. Harold Ramirez, OF, Bradenton – DNP
9. Cole Tucker, SS, West Virginia – 1-for-5, R, SB
10. Kevin Newman, SS, Morgantown – DNP
11. Ke’Bryan Hayes, 3B, GCL – DNP
12. Mitch Keller, RHP, Bristol – DNP
13. Clay Holmes, RHP, Bradenton – DNP
14. Stephen Tarpley, LHP, West Virginia – DNP
15. Adrian Sampson, RHP, Indianapolis – DNP
16. Max Moroff, 2B, Altoona – 0-for-5
17. Barrett Barnes, OF, Altoona – 2-for-4
18. JaCoby Jones, SS, Bradenton – DNP
19. Yeudy Garcia, RHP, West Virginia – 5.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 0 HR
20. Trey Supak, RHP, Bristol – DNP
21. Gage Hinsz, RHP, Bristol – 3.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 3 K, 0 HR
22. Adam Frazier, SS, Altoona – 2-for-5, 2B, R
23. Willy Garcia, OF, Indianapolis – 2-for-4, R
24. Steven Brault, LHP, Altoona – DNP
25. Kevin Kramer, 2B, Morgantown – 1-for-4
26. Tyler Eppler, RHP, Bradenton – DNP
27. Adrian Valerio, SS, GCL – DNP
28. Connor Joe, 1B, West Virginia – DNP
29. Jacob Taylor, RHP, GCL – DNP
30. John Holdzkom, RHP, Indianapolis – 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 0 HR
Top Pitcher: Jonathan Brubaker, RHP – 6.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 0 HR
Top Hitter: Carlos Munoz, 1B – 3-for-4, 3 HR, 5 RBI, 4 R, BB
Home Runs: Carlos Munoz 3(6), Elvis Escobar (4), Erik Lunde (2)
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The cold stretch for Alen Hanson continued on Saturday night. Despite hitting .279 for the season, and being basically a model of consistency after a slow start, Hanson is 2-for-16 in his last four games. He did walk in the bottom of the 10th, but was eliminated on a double play with the next hitter.
John Bowker, Gustavo Nunez, and Willy Garcia each added two hits each in the contest. For Garcia, the impressive July continued after a slow start to his Triple-A career. Garcia already has 21 hits for the month, which already triples his total from June at the level in five extra games.
After jumping up and down with the over work of the Pirates bullpen, Wilfredo Boscan saw his first game action since July 16. Boscan was expected to get around 75 pitches, due to the time off. He was able to do this and allowed three hits and two runs over five innings.
A.J. Morris relieved Boscan and worked a pair of perfect innings, striking out a pair. Bobby LaFromboise extended his scoreless inning streak to five and 14 of the last 15 appearances with his inning of work. Josh Wall also extended his scoreless streak in his first inning of work, but ran into trouble in the top of the 10th, allowing a pair to cross the plate and taking the loss.- Ryan Palencer
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Jason Creasy was having a good enough season that he earned a place in the Eastern League All-Star game, but the wheels have fallen off since the calendar turned to July. He came into the game with a 10.13 ERA this month and that obviously didn’t include the three runs in one inning he allowed during the All-Star game. With all that has gone wrong already this month, this was his worst outing. He allowed seven earned runs over three innings, with six hits, three walks and he hit three batters. Creasy was the player that showed the best control in the system last year, walking 22 batters in 148.2 innings. This season, he is now at 38 walks and 11 hit batters in 45 less innings.
Max Moroff is 2-for-14 since being pulled from a game earlier this week due to manager’s decision. He also sat out the day after being lifted mid-game. Josh Bell saw his 17-game on base streak snapped. He had not struck out twice in a game since July 1st. Barrett Barnes had two hit in his third game since being promoted to Altoona. Dan Gamache is still a few plate appearances short of qualifying for the batting title, but his .339 average is 13 points higher than the league leader.
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Saturday’s Bradenton game was canceled due to rain. The boxscore above is from Friday’s game, which has been officially declared a draw and all stats will count towards the season totals. Felipe Gonzalez got a spot start in place of Jayson Aquino, who was designated for assignment earlier this week. Gonzalez allowed one run over five innings. Austin Meadows went 1-for-3, which gives him a .304 average. That ranked him fourth in the FSL going into Saturday. Jin-De Jhang is one spot behind Meadows with a .300 average after going 2-for-3 on Friday.
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This morning I wrote about Yeudy Garcia, and how he and Stephen Tarpley give the Power two aces. Garcia didn’t have his best outing on Saturday, but he was still better than what you normally get from pitchers. He gave up two runs over five innings, which raised his league-leading ERA to 2.12 through 85 innings. Garcia had a 10:2 GO/AO ratio, improving on the 1.33 mark he had prior to the game, which is good for a power pitcher. John Sever followed Garcia with three shutout innings. In his last seven outings combined, Sever has given up one run over 17.2 innings, while striking out 19 batters.
Elvis Escobar hit his 19th double and fourth homer, giving him 25 extra-base hits on the season. He has shown solid improvements over last season with West Virginia, when he had a .554 OPS in 55 games and was striking out at a much higher rate. His big problem this year is his base running, with nine steals in 27 attempts, for one of the worst success rates you’ll ever see. Escobar isn’t that slow and he was 24-for-38 prior to this season, so the problem seems to be in his timing. Cole Tucker stole his 25th base of the season, which ranks him tied for tenth in the league, two behind teammate Tito Polo.
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Jonathan Brubaker pitched one of the best games all season and he almost got through six perfect innings. He retired the first 17 batters in a row, then struck out the next batter, only to have him reached when Christian Kelley had to throw the ball to first base to complete the out and he threw it away. Brubaker then allowed a single before getting a ground out to end the inning. He had a 5.33 ERA coming into the day, but did throw one-hit ball over five shutout innings during one of his previous starts.
Ty Moore had two hits, scored a run and stole his fifth base. He is hitting .345 and has reached base in 31 of 32 pro games, including each of the last 27 games. Kevin Kramer had a single, giving him hits in 10 of his last 11 games. He is 12-for-44(.273) during that stretch. First round pick Kevin Newman didn’t play in this game. John Holdzkom made his second rehab appearance and threw a scoreless seventh inning, striking out two batters.
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Gage Hinsz made his fourth start of the year and he’s still looking for his first solid outing. He gave up three runs over three innings in this contest, with the third run scoring after he faced one batter(walk) in the fourth inning that came around to score after he left the game. Hinsz allowed two earned runs in each of his first three games, but he has only pitched a total of 9.2 innings so far, giving him an 8.38 ERA. He has been working with a limited pitch count, as he had a setback prior to the season, so he got a late start to the season and he’s still building up. Despite the limited pitch counts, the inning total is still very low and this game saw him issue four walks, which followed one free pass in each of his last two contests.
Hinsz is the bigger prospect, but the story of this game was Carlos Munoz. He homered in the first inning, third inning and sixth inning. Munoz isn’t exactly the person you would expect to hit three homers in a game. He had a total of eight in his first four seasons in the Pirates’ system, and then three more this year prior to Saturday night. Munoz drove in five runs with three swings, but Erik Lunde had the big hit, a fourth inning grand slam that turned a close 4-2 game into a blowout. His homer followed five straight walks and Bristol walked six times in the inning.
The GCL Pirates had a doubleheader postponed due to rain.
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The DSL Pirates won on Saturday with some help from the Tigers’ defense, which committed six errors in the game, leading to four unearned runs. Pirates’ starter Miguel Hernandez pitched five innings, allowing just one unearned run, while Julian Villamar and Hector Garcia finished off the win, giving up one run over four innings. Garcia was an All-Star for the Pirates this season and he’s been their most consistent pitcher all year.
The Pirates had 12 hits, though Eddy Vizcaino’s triple was the only extra-base hit. Christopher Perez and Julio Gonzalez had rare two-hit games, as they now have .160 and .130 batting averages, respectively. In fact, Gonzalez had just four hits in his first 16 games as a pro and never more than one in a game. Jeremias Portorreal was on a hot streak coming into this week, but he has really cooled off. He is 3-for-27 over his last seven games and has struck out three times in each of his last two games.
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.
Time to move Harold Ramirez to Altoona – still hitting .371!
Munoz – all he does is hit…the Pirates may need to move him up to NYPA leauge to give him a greater challenge.
Hinsz may be the “bigger prospect”, but that is all based on reputation and signing bonus so far – he has yet to actually do anything to earn that status since being drafted. The same for Joe, Supak, Roth, etc – time for these guys to step up.
I really like this format…much improved! Thanks.
The top 30 list at the top shows Meadows as DNP but the box score shows he went 1 for 3.
That’s because we were showing the box score from Friday. He didn’t play yesterday, as the game was canceled.
Learn something new every day.
New layout is awesome by the way.
Glad to see Bristol doing better this season. The Power seems to have jelled. Good records pretty much thru the system
Are any of Justin Sellers, Bobby La or Holtzcom likely to be called up this month?
I can’t scroll over to check out the whole box scores on the iPad or phone any ideas?
Turn your device sideways.
That has helped a little when I did it earlier still doesn’t allow the full picture
Ipad
When I turn my phone sideways, I still can’t see the slugging percentages in the boxscores.
iPhone?
iPhone and iPad
I just made a few changes. Is it working now?
I can see further over now for sure. On the Indy box score I go over to avg. on the rest some I can see OBP some not. All pitchers are k/9 which I think is everything.
I am having the same problem. I think the ribbon on the right needs to be narrowed or have an option to close it. It definitely cuts off box scores.
iPhone or Android?
I noticed 24-year old Andriese started at 1B in Morgantown while batting in the .150s. The regular starter who is 23 yrs old Albert Bauer has an OPS in the .500s. Munoz is 21, batting nearly .400 in Bristol. Why is Andriese and Bauer still in the organization? Why can’t they move Munoz to Morgantown?
Baur has been in the organization for a month, he was just drafted. Andriese is just a roster filler not holding anyone back. As mentioned in the other comment, Munoz has serious conditioning issues and always fades at the end of the season, and that’s coming from a player that’s only played in short-season ball. If they thought he was a legit prospect, he would be in Morgantown, but it really doesn’t matter this season where he is, it won’t cost him a chance to go to West Virginia next year and neither Baur, nor Andriese will block him. He just needs to show he can keep hitting over a full schedule and not fade like he always does.
I know Andriese is roster filler and so is Forgione who started at SS giving Newman a day off, while Kramer played 2B. It is that they have better options in Rivera and Montilla. So, I think they are spreading ABs over too many guys. I get that Bauer has been in for a month. I am just saying if a guy is hovering at .400, then he is ready for the next level. Munoz is not a prospect, but if he performed well In Morgantown, then he could be. Leading the APPY League in OPS at 21 does not tell us much.
Until guys reach AAA you don’t necessarily want too many guys you deem prospects on the same team at the same position.
Because you want all of your prospects getting regular ABs.
If prospects are on the bench they lose that.
The regular ABs are more important than the level, especially below AA.
As John said that’s why you have organizational guys (roster filler) around, just to give prospects days off.
Plenty of players go from Bristol to WV the next year, so it doesn’t really matter where they get their at-bats. If they are ready for WV, guys ahead of them this year won’t stop them. You missed the conditioning part with Munoz and that’s more important. He has had no trouble starting off hot, he just fades and they apparently don’t believe he’s more than a DH, otherwise he wouldn’t be at Bristol five years into his career with those numbers. They aren’t overlooking what he is doing, he isn’t new, they know really well who he is and what he is capable of by now
Montilla is likely hurt, he hasn’t played in two weeks, while Rivera had a shot at Low-A last year and didn’t do well. The fact he hasn’t seen a game at Low-A this year should tell you a lot. The only bench player from Morgantown that should be playing more is Alexis Bastardo, otherwise the others are there to give starters a rest
Bastardo should be getting more at-bats. There are like 20 position players on the WV Black Bear roster. Send either Bastardo or Hughston to Bristol and maybe Nagle to play 1B. 22-year old Hennry Rosario has nearly 3x the at-bats as Bastardo. Rosario would be the perfect seldom used extra outfielder in Morgantown.
Carlos Munoz is old for Bristol but he’s tearing up this year. What is his upside? Does he have much of a prospect status?
Munoz is a terrific hitter, but you can tell by how slow he has moved, that something isn’t right. He has never shown the ability to produce over an entire half season, always fading at the end. Munoz is 5’11”, 225 pounds, so conditioning seems to be a huge issue. He can flat out hit, but unless he can show he can do it over a full season, then there is always going to be limited upside, especially coming from a first baseman/DH
I think this is an unfair criticism of Munoz – what players consistently perform through an entire season, whether its a full season or short season league? Some are slow starters, but get hot later in the season. All I know is he’s a .300 career hitter in the minors, so he must be doing something right.
As for his body type, not ideal – but I see guys like Harrison, Sandoval, Uribe, and others succeed in the majors although they all carry more weight than ideal.
Given his age and his success in Bristol, the Pirates need to move him up soon – to one of the WV teams and see how he handles a higher level. Joe continues to scuffle, so maybe the Power would make the most sens to place Munoz.
It’s not unfair criticism, it’s noticing a pattern that has held him back and which is why he is in Bristol five years into his career when West Virginia would have been a great level for him based on age. Instead, he stayed in Extended Spring Training and went two levels lower. Munoz hitting the cover off the ball isn’t something new, we talked a lot about him in 2013 in the DSL and 2014 in the GCL.
I wasn’t being critical of Hinsz – I was being critical of the reference to him being considered a “higher” prospect than Munoz, when there doesn’t seem to be any evidence supporting that designation or statement – other than his signing bonus.
Like the new setup alot. Big day for Munoz.