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Prospect Watch: Solid Start from Tyler Eppler; Adrian Valerio Starts to Heat Up at the Plate

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P2 Top 30

A look at how the current top 30 prospects did today. If a player is in the majors for an extended time (Colin Moran), or loses his prospect eligibility (Edgar Santana, Kyle Crick, Max Moroff and Dovydas Neverauskas), he will be removed from this list. 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, 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 more active prospects on the list. Rankings are from our 2018 Prospect Guide, and links on each name go to their Pirates Prospects player pages.

1. Mitch Keller, RHP, Altoona – DNP

2. Austin Meadows, CF, Indianapolis – 1-for-4

3. Cole Tucker, SS, Altoona – 0-for-5, RBI, BB

4. Shane Baz, RHP, Extended Spring Training – DNP

5. Ke’Bryan Hayes, 3B, Altoona – 1-for-5, 2 BB, SB

6. Kevin Newman, SS, Indianapolis – 1-for-4

7. Taylor Hearn, LHP, Altoona – DNP

8. Lolo Sanchez, CF, West Virginia – DNP

9. Bryan Reynolds, OF, Altoona – Disabled list

10. Jordan Luplow, LF, Indianapolis – 2-for-3, BB

11. Luis Escobar, RHP, Bradenton – DNP

12. Clay Holmes, RHP, Indianapolis – DNP

13. Braeden Ogle, LHP, West Virginia – DNP

14. Nick Kingham, RHP, Pirates – In Majors

15. Kevin Kramer, 2B, Indianapolis – 1-for-3, 2B, BB

16. Adrian Valerio, SS, Bradenton – 3-for-4, 2 2B, BB, SB

17. Calvin Mitchell, OF, West Virginia – DNP

18. Oneil Cruz, SS, West Virginia – DNP

19. Nick Burdi, RHP, Pirates (disabled list) – DNP

20. Dario Agrazal, RHP, Altoona – DNP

21. JT Brubaker, RHP, Altoona – 4 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 1 SO

22. Will Craig, 1B, Altoona –  2-for-4, BB, RBI

23. Stephen Alemais, 2B/SS, Altoona – 1-for-5

24. Jason Martin, OF, Altoona – 2-for-7

25. Brandon Waddell, LHP, Altoona – DNP

26. Eduardo Vera, RHP, Bradenton – DNP

27. Mason Martin, 1B, West Virginia –  DNP

28. Conner Uselton, OF, Extended Spring Training – DNP

29. Cody Bolton, RHP, Extended Spring Training – DNP

30. Steven Jennings, RHP, Extended Spring Training – DNP

Prospect-Watch-Indy

Indianapolis won 4-2 over Gwinnett. Starter Tyler Eppler put together his fourth strong start of the season, allowing one run over six innings on five hits and a walk. He had five strikeouts and an impressive 9:4 GO/AO ratio, considering that he’s more of a fly ball pitcher. Eppler now has a 2.64 ERA in 30.2 innings, with 29 strikeouts. Brett McKinney and Johnny Hellweg each threw a scoreless inning, while Josh Smoker gave up one run in his only inning.

Trailing 2-1 in the bottom of the eighth, Indianapolis got back-to-back doubles from Kevin Kramer and Jose Osuna to make it a tie game. A walk to Jordan Luplow and a hit-by-pitch of Erich Weiss loaded the bases. Ryan Lavarnway then walked to give Indianapolis the lead. The Indians scored on insurance run on a Christopher Bostick ground out. Osuna had a nice night on offense, going 2-for-3 with his 11th double, a walk, an RBI and two runs scored.

Here is the boxscore from the MiLB site.

You can view the season preview here.

Prospect-Watch-Altoona-Curve

Altoona played their regularly scheduled game after completing yesterday’s suspended game (recap below). JT Brubaker took the mound for the seven inning contest and had his worst outing of the season. He only allowed two runs, but gave up six hits, three walks and hit a batter in four innings, running his pitch count up to 79 in the process. Brubaker had just one strikeout, though he did post an impressive 9:0 GO/AO ratio. He took the loss in the 2-0 game, raising his ERA to 1.80 in 35 innings.

The Curve had just two hits and two walks in the game. Ke’Bryan Hayes singled and walked. Jordan George had the other single and Will Craig had the other walk. Cole Tucker went 0-for-3 and he’s now 2-for-36 with 12 strikeouts in his last ten games.

Here is the boxscore from the MiLB site.

In the completion of yesterday’s suspended game, Pedro Vasquez made his first start of the season after spending the beginning of the year in Pirate City due to a Spring Training illness, followed by a building up period to get his pitch count up. He didn’t need a high pitch count on this night because the game was suspended due to rain in the bottom of the third inning. Vasquez went three innings, allowing one run on three hits and a walk, with two strikeouts and a 5:2 GO/AO ratio.

Before the rains, Jason Martin had two hits, including his fourth triple, and two runs scored. Jordan George had two hits and an RBI. Will Craig had a single and a sacrifice fly. Logan Hill had an RBI single.

The game was halted with a 3-1 score and Altoona batting with two outs in the third. When play resumed, Logan Sendelbach took over on the mound on his 24th birthday. He threw two scoreless innings before the first three batters all reached in the sixth, with one crossing the plate. Tate Scioneaux followed and stranded both inherited runners, keeping it a 4-2 game. He stayed on for the seventh inning and got the save.

Altoona scored a run in the fourth inning on a Stephen Alemais double, followed two batters later by a Cole Tucker sacrifice fly. Christian Kelley homered to lead-off the sixth to make it 5-2, which was the final score.

Here’s the boxscore.

You can view the season preview here.

Prospect-Watch-Bradenton

Bradenton lost 8-6 to Charlotte on Saturday night, as Oddy Nunez had one of his worst career outings. Nunez went 4.1 innings, allowing 11 hits, six runs (five earned) and four walks. He had four strikeouts and a 7:1 GO/AO ratio. Despite four walks, he threw 64 of his 95 pitches for strikes. Nunez was our Player of the Week last week after putting together two strong starts. He has a 3.21 ERA in 28 innings. Adam Oller allowed two runs over 2.2 innings, while Jess Amedee threw a scoreless eighth.

Adrian Valerio got off to a slow start this season at the plate, but he has raised his average recently, getting up to .262 after a 3-for-4 day. He hit two doubles, walked and stole his fifth base. Tyler Gaffney had a double and a walk. Hunter Owen had two hits and an RBI. Albert Baur had two hits and Alfredo Reyes had a double and a walk.

Here is the boxscore from the MiLB site.

You can view the season preview here.

Prospect-Watch-WV-Power

West Virginia was postponed. They will play a doubleheader tomorrow.

Here’s the boxscore from the MiLB site.

You can view the season preview here.

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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