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Morning Report: The Pirates are Seeing More Power from Their Minor League Teams

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If it seems like the Pittsburgh Pirates are seeing more home runs this year from their affiliates than last year, well that’s because they are showing more power. In fact, the eight affiliates have already combined for two more homers than last year when they hit 401 home runs total. That’s despite the fact that there are still approximately 175 games remaining on the minor league schedule.

The feeling of a big difference comes from seeing the individual players, such as Jordan Luplow hitting 22 homers. Last year’s leader in the system was Daniel Ortiz with 17 homers. Not only has Luplow surpassed that mark, Logan Hill hit his 18th homer last month before a fractured hand put him out for the season. Max Moroff hit 13 homers before spending two months in the majors, while Edwin Espinal has a new career high with 15 homers. The high totals made it feel like we were seeing more homers, but for a full season to be well ahead of last year’s pace, you need contributions around the system.

The team seeing the biggest increase is actually the DSL team, while all of the other clubs are just over or just under last year’s total. That difference mainly comes from Sherten Apostel, who leads the entire DSL in homers with eight this season. The DSL Pirates have hit 18 total this season, after crawling through last year with six homers. Apostel isn’t the only Pirate leading the league in homers. Mason Martin hasn’t hit any homers in two weeks, but he still leads the GCL with seven of them. Logan Hill still leads the Florida State League with 16 homers and he hasn’t been in the league for over a month.

It wouldn’t be right to just look at the homers by comparing them to last year’s players. You also should look at where they are among the team rankings in each league, to see if more homers means they are better than average as a system. So here is that list:

Indianapolis ranks ninth out of 14 teams

Altoona is ninth out of 12 teams

Bradenton is sixth out of 12 teams

West Virginia is fifth out of 14 teams

Morgantown is seventh out of 14 teams

Bristol is last out of ten teams

GCL Pirates are fourth out of 17 teams

DSL Pirates are 11th out of 40 teams.

So looking at league stats, none of the teams are ranked too high in their league. Fourth isn’t bad for the GCL Pirates, but they have the league leader in a very pitcher friendly league so they wouldn’t rank well with an average player in his place. While they still seem average at best as a group, the increase around the system is interesting though, and something to watch moving forward. The Pirates appeared to get some power potential in this last draft class, so many of those players will be putting in full seasons next year, with a chance to add to those overall system numbers. It will also be interesting to check back on this in a month and see just how high the bar is set this season over last year.

** Part four of the best tools from Baseball America came out on Friday morning. Only one player from the Pirates and it is a bit shocking. The coaches and managers for the 14 teams in the South Atlantic League voted Carlos Munoz as the best defensive first baseman. He was only the regular first baseman when Albert Baur was injured earlier in the season. When Baur returned, Munoz was just playing first base sporadically to give Baur rest. Before being promoted to Bradenton earlier this week, he played 41 games at first base and 59 as the DH or pinch-hitting.

I’d rate Munoz as an average first baseman at best. He’s fairly good at picking throws in the dirt and you would say he catches almost everything hit to him, but he doesn’t have great range and isn’t going to make any flashy plays. Munoz is also 5’11” and not athletic, so the throws pretty much need to be right on target. He’s not stretching or jumping for anything. I said the other day that Edwin Espinal was a bit surprising as the best first baseman in the Eastern League and he is clearly better than Munoz.

PLAYOFF PUSH

The Pirates trail in their division by three games. They are 6.5 games back for the second wild card spot.

Indianapolis is in first place, with a 4.5 game lead. Their season ends September 4th.

Altoona is in second place, one half game back. Their season ends September 4th.

Bradenton is in fourth place, 4.5 games behind. Their season ends September 3rd.

West Virginia is in third place, three games out of first. Their season ends September 4th.

Morgantown is in first place, 1.5 games ahead. Their season ends September 7th.

Bristol is in last place, 18.5 games back. Their season ends August 31st.

The GCL Pirates are in third place, eight games behind. Their season ends September 2nd.

The DSL Pirates are in second place, 2.5 games back. Their season ends August 26th.

PIRATES GAME GRAPH


Source: FanGraphs

TODAY’S SCHEDULE

Today’s Starter and Notes: The Pittsburgh Pirates won 4-2 over the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday night. The Pirates will send Trevor Williams to the mound today for his 18th start. He has posted a 2.64 ERA in five starts since the All-Star break. On the road this season, Williams has a 4.89 ERA. The Blue Jays will counter with right-hander Chris Rowley, who will be making his Major League debut.

In the minors, Mitch Keller will be making his second start for Altoona during their doubleheader. On Sunday, he went six innings, allowing two runs on five hits and three walks. Keller gave up both runs and four of those hits in the fifth inning, after allowing a walk and an infield hit over the first four innings. Steven Brault goes for Indianapolis, coming off of an outing in which he threw seven shutout innings. In that game, he lowered his league leading ERA to 2.06 through 113.1 innings. Braeden Ogle starts for Bristol tonight.

MLB: Pittsburgh (58-58) @ Blue Jays (54-61) 1:07 PM
Probable starter: Trevor Williams (4.07 ERA, 31:76 BB/SO, 105.2 IP)

AAA: Indianapolis (65-53) vs Syracuse (45-74) 7:05 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Steven Brault (2.06 ERA, 41:104 BB/SO, 113.1 IP)

AA: Altoona (60-56) vs Trenton (77-39) 4:30 PM DH (season preview)
Probable starter: Mitch Keller (3.00 ERA, 3:4 BB/SO, 6.0 IP) and Austin Coley (2.96 ERA, 26:93 BB/SO, 118.2 IP)

High-A: Bradenton (62-52) vs Charlotte (56-58) 6:30 PM  (season preview)
Probable starter:  Cam Vieaux (4.53 ERA, 16:35 BB/SO, 53.2 IP)

Low-A: West Virginia (55-59) @ Hagerstown (65-50) 6:05 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Mike Wallace (3.54 ERA, 18:68 BB/SO, 81.1 IP)

Short-Season A: Morgantown (31-20) @ Aberdeen (28-23) 6:05 PM (season preview)
Probable Starter: TBD

Rookie: Bristol (10-38) @ Pulaski (33-15) 7:00 PM

GCL: Pirates (14-27) vs Braves (22-19) 10:00 AM

DSL: Pirates (33-26) vs Rays2 (31-25) 10:30 AM  (season preview)

HIGHLIGHTS

Here is the final out of Nick Kingham’s complete game on Thursday night.

RECENT TRANSACTIONS

8/10: Nick King assigned to GCL Pirates.

8/9: Joey Terdoslavich placed on Indianapolis disabled list.

8/8: Matt Anderson placed on West Virginia disabled list. Blake Cederlind activated from disabled list.

8/8: Jerrick Suiter activated from Temporary Inactive List. Jake Brentz assigned to Bradenton.

8/7: Dovydas Neverauskas optioned to Indianapolis. George Kontos added to active roster.

8/7: Danny Ortiz sent outright to Indianapolis.

8/7: Gage Hinsz placed on disabled list. Alexis Bastardo released.

8/7: Carlos Munoz promoted to Bradenton. Brent Gibbs activated from West Virginia disabled list.

8/7:  Austin Meadows assigned to Morgantown on rehab.

8/6: Max Moroff optioned to Indianapolis. Sean Rodriguez added to active roster.

8/5: Pirates claim George Kontos off waivers. Designate Jhan Marinez and Danny Ortiz for assignment.

8/5: Pirates acquire Sean Rodriguez from Atlanta Braves for Connor Joe.

8/5: Wade LeBlanc reinstated from bereavement list.

8/4: Mitch Keller promoted to Altoona. Jerrick Suiter placed on the temporarily inactive list.

8/4: Michael de la Cruz assigned to GCL Pirates

8/4: James Marvel promoted to Bradenton. Oddy Nunez activated from West Virginia disabled list.

8/3: Angel German and Oneil Cruz added to West Virginia roster. Jordan Jess promoted to Bradenton. Nick King assigned to Morgantown.

8/3: Eury Perez traded to Miami Marlins for cash.

8/2: Gregory Polanco activated from disabled list. Jordan Luplow optioned to Indianapolis.

THIS DATE IN PIRATES HISTORY

Five former Pittsburgh Pirates players born on this date, including a recent one and four players born in the 1800’s.

Jose Tabata, outfielder for the Pirates from 2010 until 2015 when he was dealt to the Dodgers for Michael Morse.

Paul Carpenter, 1916 pitcher. He was signed by the Pirates in July of 1916 after his minor league team disbanded. He pitched just five games over the last 2 1/2 months, giving up one run in 7.2 innings.

Wyatt Lee, pitcher for the 1904 Pirates. Pittsburgh purchased his contract shortly before the start of the 1904 season. The Pirates tried to sign him as an amateur in 1899, but he started a bidding war between the Pirates and Reds and ended up pricing himself out of the range of both teams. In 1904, he was considered a major off-season acquisition for the starting staff, but he posted an 8.74 ERA in his 22.2 innings before the Pirates got rid of him in June.

Andy Dunning, 1889 pitcher. With injuries to their top two pitchers, the Alleghenys signed three young pitchers, one of them being Dunning. He lasted just two games due to poor control and the return of both Cannonball Morris and Pud Galvin.

Dan Lally, right fielder for the 1891 team. He played pro ball for 19 years, but lasted just two years in the majors, 1891 and 1897. For the Pirates, he hit .224 in 41 games.

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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