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Morning Report: The Pittsburgh Pirates Have Three First Place Minor League Teams

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I added the Playoff Push section back this morning, as the two A-ball teams are about a month away from the first half of their season ending. Once the first half ends, then the Playoff Push section disappears until August, when all eight affiliates and the Pirates are covered. Bradenton and West Virginia are the only two teams that have their season split in half and they can make the playoffs in June.

As you will see below, Bradenton has a nice little lead in their division, though it’s far from safe with the amount of time left. I saw the note from Brian Peloza in last night’s Prospect Watch about Indianapolis now sitting in first place in their division after a doubleheader sweep yesterday. They were playing Toledo, the team that is now in second place by two games. Altoona is also leading their division at this point, giving the Pittsburgh Pirates three first place teams at the three highest levels of the minors.

We always say that the minor league records don’t matter much unless it’s prospects getting the majority of the playing time. All three of those affiliates have a lot of top 30 prospects in the system, so it’s obviously a good sign to see them winning at those levels. West Virginia doesn’t have many prospects, so while you want to see them in the playoffs if possible, it’s not the same as the top three teams.

It’s still clearly too early to think about playoffs for Altoona or Indianapolis, those teams have about 100 games left each, but the possibility of multiple playoff teams is always a good thing. The players talk about the added pressure of playing to get into the playoffs. Then once you start the playoffs, you usually see late promotions of prospects from teams that didn’t make the playoffs. That gives them extra games and the chance to play in meaningful games. If you can add extra games for your top prospects, and those are meaningful games, you’re giving them some great experience during the developmental years of their career.

*My favorite part of the Morning Report is the prospect status updates. We rank prospects twice a year and follow them all year to come up with those rankings, so it’s a big deal when a player we covered from the start graduates from the list. We already had Josh Bell and Tyler Glasnow graduate this season, which knocked down the high farm system rankings for the Pirates. Now they are middle of the road for the farm system rankings, which shows you how much high-end talent does for the rankings.

I mentioned last time I updated that Alen Hanson lost his prospect status from MLB Pipeline due to the Rookie of the Year award rules that they use. If a player has 45 days in the majors, not including any games after the rosters expand on September 1st, then they lose their prospect/rookie status. We don’t go by that rule though. As I pointed out last week, unless a player passes that 130 at-bat mark, they really never got a shot in the majors. Well, the same thing has come up with Trevor Williams, who reached 45 non-Sept/Oct days in the majors, but he is still short of 30 appearances or 50 innings pitched, so he remains on our list.

Speaking of Williams, he pitched last night, so he’s the best place to start the updates for players currently on the active roster.  He went 5.2 innings against the Phillies last night in his second solid outing in a row, which came after a disastrous start against the Los Angeles Dodgers. He now has 38 Major League innings, which leaves him 12.1 short of losing his prospect status. After that Dodgers start, I wasn’t sure Williams would reach 50.1 innings so soon, possibly later in the season. It obviously now looks like he will stay in the rotation and could reach that mark in two more starts (at least that would be a good sign if he did).

Alen Hanson got a rare start on Thursday and batted three times. He’s now at 74 career at-bats as he continues that slow climb towards 131. Jose Osuna passed the halfway point on Friday, going 0-for-3 to give him 66 at-bats. He’s been struggling lately with his OPS dropped under .700 yesterday, but I still think he loses his prospect status next among the hitters. That’s mostly because no one is around to replace him and he’s certainly not the first to go when someone returns. Gift Ngoepe didn’t play on Friday. He’s at 41 at-bats and has 20 strikeouts, so my guess is still that he doesn’t lose his prospect status this year, or at least not before the last week or two of the season when he might get some September time.

Johnny Barbato will likely lose his prospect status due to appearances, not innings. He’s at 20 appearances and 25 innings, so he would need some extended outings not to lose it after 11 more games. He could be the one to go to the minors from this list when the Pirates add their waiver pickup (Jhan Marinez) to the roster, so stay tuned.

Daniel Ortiz has never been in our top 50, mostly because you’re seeing his upside right now as a fifth outfielder. The other reason is that we generally don’t rank minor league free agents, but we will if they deserve it. As a rule of thumb, if a player spent seven seasons with a team and they’re willing to let them leave for nothing, there is generally a good reason. Just to cover everyone who has prospect status though, Ortiz has four at-bats. I’d be shocked if he reaches 131.

Next update in five days. Chances I’m talking about the same exact players then? Probably zero, since the list keeps changing.

PLAYOFF PUSH

Bradenton leads their division by 3.5 games with 28 games remaining in the first half.

West Virginia trails their division leader by six games, with 29 games left in the first half. They are in fifth place.

PIRATES GAME GRAPH

Graph wasn’t updating last night, so here is the boxscore from the Pirates

TODAY’S SCHEDULE

Today’s Starter and Notes: The Pittsburgh Pirates lost 7-2 to the Philadelphia Phillies on Friday night. The Pirates will send Ivan Nova to the mound today in a late afternoon start. He has a 1.89 home ERA in three starts, compared to a 2.80 road ERA in five outings. The Phillies will counter with 24-year-old right-hander Vince Velasquez, who has a 5.63 ERA and a 1.38 WHIP in 38.1 innings over seven starts.

In the minors, Indianapolis starter Tyler Eppler has a .216 BAA and an 0.99 WHIP. He has gone at least five innings in every start this season. Altoona starter Brandon Waddell has yet to pitch into the fifth inning in any of his four starts this season, though he has worked on a limited pitch count since returning from a left forearm strain. West Virginia will activate James Marvel from the disabled list today to make his start. We didn’t get a reason for his DL trip, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that it was just to give him rest as part of his first full season back from Tommy John surgery. Cole Tucker currently has a 26-game on base streak.

MLB: Pittsburgh (18-24) vs Phillies (15-24) 4:05 PM
Probable starter: Ivan Nova (2.48 ERA, 4:33 BB/SO, 54.1 IP)

AAA: Indianapolis (22-18) vs Toledo (20-20) 7:05 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Tyler Eppler (2.90 ERA, 8:33 BB/SO, 40.1 IP)

AA: Altoona (23-15) vs Erie (18-20) 6:00 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Brandon Waddell (6.75 ERA, 7:14 BB/SO, 10.2 IP)

High-A: Bradenton (26-16) @ Ft Myers (22-20) 6:05 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Logan Sendelbach (4.68 ERA, 4:18 BB/SO, 25.0 IP)

Low-A: West Virginia (19-21) @ Columbia (21-18) 7:05 PM  (season preview)
Probable starter: James Marvel (3.97 ERA, 9:33 BB/SO, 34.0 IP)

HIGHLIGHTS

Here are a pair of homers from the last few days. First up, Austin Meadows…

…followed by Max Moroff

RECENT TRANSACTIONS

5/19: Pirates claim Jhan Marinez off waivers.

5/19: Stephen Alemais placed on disabled list.  Cam Vieaux activated from West Virginia disabled list.

5/19: Jin-De Jhang added to Altoona roster. Zane Chavez placed on disabled list.

5/17: Gregory Polanco placed on disabled list. Danny Ortiz recalled from Indianapolis.

5/16: Pirates sign Haicheng Gong.

5/16: JT Brubaker activated from Altoona disabled list. Chris Diaz assigned to Morgantown.

5/15: Nick Kingham promoted to Indianapolis.

5/15: Casey Sadler and Pedro Vasquez assigned to Bradenton. Sam Street assigned to Extended Spring Training.

5/15: James Marvel placed on West Virginia disabled list. Chris Harvey assigned to West Virginia.

5/14: Cam Vieaux placed on West Virginia disabled list. Adrian Valerio added to West Virginia roster.

5/14: Barrett Barnes added to Indianapolis roster. Anderson Feliz assigned to Morgantown.

5/12: Pirates active Adam Frazier and David Freese from disabled list. Chris Bostick and Max Moroff optioned to Indianapolis.

5/12: Justin Maffei assigned to Morgantown.

5/12: Zane Chavez added to Altoona roster. Tomas Morales assigned to Morgantown.

5/11: Chris Harvey assigned to Morgantown. Brent Gibbs assigned to West Virginia.

5/11: Nick Kingham assigned to Bradenton. Pedro Vasquez assigned to Extended Spring Training.

THIS DATE IN PIRATES HISTORY

Two former Pittsburgh Pirates players born on this date, one of them is among the most underrated players in team history. George Grantham played seven seasons for the Pirates, spending time at first base, second base and outfield. He was a member of two teams that went to the World Series, the 1925 and 1927 teams. He had a .901 OPS in 913 games with the Pirates and never posted an OPS below .850 with Pittsburgh. That OPS ranks him fifth in team history and second only to Ralph Kiner among the 60 players with at least 750 games played for the Pirates.

The other player born on this date was Joe Harris, who was not only a teammate of Grantham for two years, he also played first base. He is a lot like Grantham in that he is relatively unknown despite a solid career. He was a .317 career hitter and batted .329 with the Pirates in 145 games. Harris once got a lifetime ban from MLB for signing with a semi-pro team, but was reinstated based on his service during WWI.

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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