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Morning Report: The Pirates Among League Leaders in Batting

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For today’s Morning Report, we are going to take a look at the Pirates who are among the top ten hitters in their league for each offensive category. Tomorrow we will look at the pitchers.

Indianapolis

Chris Bostick is fifth in triples with two and eighth with a .320 average. He’s also just one hit and one double outside of the top ten, though being in the majors means he will drop further back.

Max Moroff is tied for first with eight homers. He’s seventh with a .546 slugging percentage and ninth with 53 total bases. Just like with Bostick, he will drop in homers and total bases as long as he’s in the majors, though he could possibly move up in slugging.

Altoona

Kevin Kramer leads with a .385 average, a .487 OBP and a 1.112 OPS. He’s tied for second with ten doubles, seventh with 60 total bases and tied for sixth with two triples. Kramer is also tied for second with 37 hits and tied for eighth with 17 runs scored. Basically, he’s good.

Jordan Luplow is tied for eighth with five homers and tied for fifth with nine doubles.

Bradenton

Christian Kelley is eight in batting with a .318 average and eighth with a .408 OBP.

Logan Hill is second with eight homers and tied for fifth with a .554 slugging percentage. He’s second with 67 total bases, tied for third with 23 runs and tied for seventh with 22 RBI.

Cole Tucker leads baseball with 23 steals. He’s also tied with Mitchell Tolman for fifth place in walks with 19 each.

Ke’Bryan Hayes is fifth with 11 steals.

Will Craig is tenth with 20 RBI.

Casey Hughston and Alfredo Reyes are both tied for fifth with three triples. Hughston is tied for tenth with eight doubles.

Eight different players in the top ten of at least one category is fairly impressive as you can see by comparing it to the other affiliates.

West Virginia

Trae Arbet is eighth with a .934 OPS, seventh with 57 total bases, sixth with a .564 slugging percentage, tied for sixth with five homers and third with 23 RBI. He’s also tied for seventh with Stephen Alemais (and 11 others) with two triples.

Hunter Owen is ninth with a .930 OPS, sixth with a .420 OBP and first with three triples.

Carlos Munoz is fifth with a .422 OBP and tied for second with 20 walks.

Logan Ratledge, who has been promoted to Bradenton, is ninth with 15 walks.

Ty Moore is tied for seventh with nine doubles.

PIRATES GAME GRAPH


Source: FanGraphs

TODAY’S SCHEDULE

Today’s Starter and Notes: The Pittsburgh Pirates lost 4-3 in ten innings to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday night. The Pirates will send Chad Kuhl to the mound for his seventh start of the season tonight. He had his last two outings limited, one due to a rain delay and the other due to taking a line drive off his knee. The Dodgers will counter with 29-year-old right-handed pitcher Kenta Maeda, who has a 5.81 ERA in six starts this season.

In the minors, Tyler Eppler makes his sixth start of the season. He has a .200 BAA and an 0.95 WHIP. He has gone at least five innings in each start. Brandon Waddell makes his second start since returning from a left forearm strain that cost him nearly one month. Mitch Keller will have a tough time matching his last two starts. In both games, he threw seven shutout innings while striking out nine batters. He was named the Florida State League Pitcher of the Week for last week. Kevin Kramer has a 26-game on base streak active. Cole Tucker currently has an 18-game on base streak.

MLB: Pittsburgh (14-19) @ Dodgers (19-14) 10:10 PM
Probable starter: Chad Kuhl (5.54 ERA, 12:21 BB/SO, 26.0 IP)

AAA: Indianapolis (12-16) vs Charlotte (14-16) 11:05 AM (season preview)
Probable starter: Tyler Eppler (2.96 ERA, 6:21 BB/SO, 27.1 IP)

AA: Altoona (17-12) @ Richmond (13-17) 12:05 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Brandon Waddell (5.14 ERA, 2:11 BB/SO, 7.0 IP)

High-A: Bradenton (20-13) @ Jupiter (13-20) 6:30 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Mitch Keller (2.88 ERA, 5:34 BB/SO, 34.1 IP)

Low-A: West Virginia (15-17) @ Asheville (15-16) 7:05 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: James Marvel (3.41 ERA, 8:29 BB/SO, 29.0 IP)

HIGHLIGHTS

Here is an opposite field RBI single from Austin Meadows on Monday night. He had three hits on Tuesday.

RECENT TRANSACTIONS

5/9: Jackson Williams assigned to Altoona from Indianapolis. Zane Chavez assigned to Morgantown.

5/8: Pirates add Max Moroff and Chris Bostick to roster. Elias Diaz and Phil Gosselin assigned to Indianapolis.

5/8: Adam Frazier assigned to Indianapolis on rehab. Just Maffei assigned to Indianapolis.

5/8: Boomer Synek retired.

5/8: Kevin Krause placed on disabled list. Logan Ratledge promoted to Bradenton.

5/7: Michael Suchy placed on disabled list. Jerrick Suiter promoted to Altoona.

5/7: Jess Amedee activated from disabled list.

5/6: Jameson Taillon placed on disabled list. Josh Lindblom promoted to Pirates

5/4: Brandon Waddell activated from disabled list. JT Brubaker placed on disabled list.

5/3: Jordan George activated from Bradenton disabled list.

5/2: Jackson Williams promoted to Indianapolis. Justin Maffei assigned to Morgantown.

5/2: Zane Chavez assigned to Altoona.

5/1: Pirates recall Elias Diaz. Option John Bormann to Bradenton.

5/1: Pirates release Greg Williams, Holden Helmink and Julian Villamar.

4/30: Pirates option Danny Ortiz to Indianapolis. John Bormann promoted to Pittsburgh.

4/30: Pirates release Trace Tam Sing.

THIS DATE IN PIRATES HISTORY

Four former Pittsburgh Pirates players born on this date, and one trade of note, plus a little baseball history about the cities where the Pirates’ top two minor league teams play. Three of the players had brief careers with the team, including outfielder Tony Alvarez (2002, 04), pitcher Pete Schourek (1999) and infielder Al Rubeling (1943-44). The other was pitcher Russ Bauers, who played for the Pirates from 1936 until 1941. His career was derailed by multiple arm injuries, so after winning 13 games in both 1937 and 1938, Bauers seemed like he would win more than 31 games in his career, but that’s where he ended. In his six seasons with the Pirates, he had a 3.53 ERA over 553.2 innings.

On this date in 1989, the Pirates traded infielder Ken Oberkfell to the San Francisco Giants in exchange for pitcher Roger Samuels. This ended up being a one-sided trade, as Oberkfell hit .319 the rest of the way, while Samuels pitched 3.2 unsuccessful innings with the Pirates, which marked the end of his big league career.

Not many people know that Altoona was once a Major League city back in 1884. For that one season, there was a league called the Union Association, which competed with the National League and the American Association to try to win over fans. The Union Association folded after one season and Altoona has only hosted minor league teams since then, including the Pirates Double-A squad since 1999.

Indianapolis has had multiple Major League teams in their history, but none since 1914 when the Federal League shutdown. Their first NL club played in 1878 and the first win in franchise history was on May 10th. Altoona’s first win was on May 10th as well, exactly six years later, and both teams won their first game while they were home. Indianapolis was called the Blues, while Altoona was known as the Mountain Citys.

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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