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Prospect Watch: FCL Pirate Teams Are Done, Greensboro Clinches

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Your daily Pittsburgh Pirates Prospect Watch article for recaps of all of today’s games. Be sure to pick up your copy of the latest Prospect Guide in our store, available as an ebook or a limited edition paperback.

The two FCL teams expected to finish their seasons this morning.  They were scheduled to play each other Friday and Saturday, but those games have been canceled due to pitchers being in short supply.  Then the Gold team’s game in Sarasota got rained out in the fourth inning, cutting short a great start by Luis Peralta, so they’re done.  They finish with a record of 30-14, which currently is the league’s second best.  The Black team also got rained out, so they finish at 19-23.

It’s been an odd season in the complex league.  To start with, MLB obviously slapped the whole thing together at the last minute — note that, on the league web pages, the logo at the top still reads “GCL.”  That plus the difficulty in navigating the various web pages for the FCL shows what an afterthought the whole thing was to the bean counters running the sport.  On the Pirates’ end, it almost feels like they didn’t quite get up and running fully.  A normal GCL season was 50-odd games, but the FCL Pirates Gold will play only 44 and the Pirates Black 42.  The draft being held in July meant we got a briefer-than-normal look at the prep hitting draftees.  The Pirates chose not to activate the prep pitching draftees at all, except Bubba Chandler appeared as a shortstop and DH.  Even some of the college pitchers didn’t appear in games.

INDIANAPOLIS

(7:05pm)

Season preview

Boxscore

Starting Pitcher:  James Marvel 6 IP, 9 H, 8 R, 5 ER, 2 BB, 2 K

Notable Performances:

Michael Chavis 0-3, BB

Jared Oliva 0-4

Bligh Madris 0-3, BB

Game Recap:

Indianapolis (54-62) lost to St. Paul, 8-0.  Like Beau Sulser, James Marvel has served as an innings eater in the Indy rotation; the two of them have combined for 41 starts and 227.2 IP.  Nobody else has started more than a dozen or pitched more than 63.1 innings.  Of course, that means taking one for the team now and then.  Marvel gave up all eight runs in this one, five of them earned, but stayed in for six innings.  The offense failed to show, as Indy managed just two singles.  The closest thing to news the offense produced was Michael Chavis’ return.  He served as DH and went 0-for-3 with a walk and two strikeouts.

ALTOONA

(6:35pm)

Season Preview

Boxscore

Starting Pitcher:  Travis MacGregor 6.1 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 8 K

Notable Performances:

Oneil Cruz 1-4, HR (13)

Ji-Hwan Bae 0-4

Rodolfo Castro 0-4

Mason Martin 0-3, HBP

Canaan Smith-Njigba 0-3, BB

Cal Mitchell 0-3

Matt Fraizer 2-3, HR (3)

Game Recap:

Travis MacGregor’s had a rough year, but he had a strong game against a good Bowie lineup in Altoona’s (57-57) 3-2 win.  McGregor threw six shutout innings before leaving with one out in the seventh and two on.  Oddy Nunez let one of the runners score, so MacGregor finished with one run and just three hits allowed, and eight whiffs, over six and a third.  Nunez gave up a run in the eighth and Shea Murray got the last four outs for the save.  The Curve had only three hits, but two of them left the park.  Matt Fraizer connected in the second for his third in AA and 23rd overall.  It came with Canaan Smith-Njigba aboard via a walk.  Oneil Cruz went the opposite way for his 12th of the year in the third.  The only other hit was a single by Fraizer and the Curve fanned 13 times.

GREENSBORO

(7:05pm)

Season Preview

Boxscore

Starting Pitcher:  Grant Ford 3 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 5 BB, 4 K

Notable Performances:

Liover Peguero 3-5

Nick Gonzales 1-5

Jared Triolo 1-4, BB

Lolo Sanchez 1-4, 2B

Will Matthiessen 1-3, SF

Blake Sabol 2-4

Matt Gorski 1-4, HR (17)

Game Recap:

Greensboro (73-44) clinched a playoff spot with a 5-2 win over Hudson Valley.  Grant Ford started and gave up a walk and a home run to the first two batters he faced.  He ended up allowing four hits and five walks over just three innings, including four walks in the first inning alone.  But the two runs were all he gave up.  Steven Jennings and Colin Selby combined on six shutout innings in relief, allowing just three hits and no walks, and fanning ten.  The Grasshoppers trailed, 2-0, from the first until the seventh, when they took the lead with four runs.  Matt Gorski put them ahead with a two-run home run, his 17th blast of the season.  Every Hopper had at least one hit as the team totaled 13.  Liover Peguero had three, and Blake Sabol and Andres Alvarez each two.

BRADENTON

(6:30pm)

Season Preview

Boxscore

Starting Pitcher:  Luis Ortiz 4 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K

Notable Performances:

Jackson Glenn 1-4, 2B, BB

Endy Rodriguez 2-5, 2B, 3B

Dariel Lopez 0-2, SF

Jack Herman 0-4

Abrahan Gutierrez 2-5, 2B

Jase Bowen 0-4

Maikol Escotto 0-4

Tyler Samaniego 2 IP, 5 K

Game Recap:

Bradenton (71-45) lost to Lakeland, 4-3, in ten innings.  Luis Ortiz pitched well, allowing just three hits and a walk, while fanning five.  He gave up three unearned runs, though, thanks to three errors.  Tyler Samaniego, this year’s 15th round draft pick, had a nice outing, fanning five over two perfect innings.  Endy Rodriguez provided most of the offense early.  He doubled in a run in the first, then tripled in a run and later scored in the third.  Abrahan Gutierrez also had two hits, and Jackson Glenn scored twice.  The Marauders missed a lot of chances, going 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position.  They failed to get the free runner home in the tenth when their first hitter was called out for batters interference and the next two fanned.  In the sixth, they got runners to second and third with nobody out and failed to score.  Carlos Campos gave up a leadoff double in the bottom of the inning to end the game.  Dariel Lopez apparently got hurt on a play in the field in the sixth.

FCL PIRATES BLACK

(Noon)

Season Preview

Boxscore

Starting Pitcher:  TBD

Notable Performances:

Game Recap:

Canceled.

FCL PIRATES GOLD

(10:00am)

Season Preview

Boxscore

Starting Pitcher:  Luis Peralta (0-3, 3.41, 29 IP, 36 K)

Notable Performances:

Game Recap:

The game was rained out in the fourth inning with no score, so the Gold team’s season is over.  It’s a shame the game got cut short, because Luis Peralta fanned the first six batters he faced and was perfect through three, with eight Ks.

DSL PIRATES BLACK

(10:30am)

Boxscore

Starting Pitcher:  Joaquin Tejada 1.2 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 4 BB, 2 K

Notable Performances:

Game Recap:

DSL PIRATES GOLD

(10:30am)

Boxscore

Starting Pitcher:  Luigi Hernandez 2 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K

Notable Performances:

Game Recap:

Wilbur Miller
Wilbur Miller
Having followed the Pirates fanatically since 1965, Wilbur Miller is one of the fast-dwindling number of fans who’ve actually seen good Pirate teams. He’s even seen Hall-of-Fame Pirates who didn’t get traded mid-career, if you can imagine such a thing. His first in-person game was a 5-4, 11-inning win at Forbes Field over Milwaukee (no, not that one). He’s been writing about the Pirates at various locations online for over 20 years. It has its frustrations, but it’s certainly more cathartic than writing legal stuff. Wilbur is retired and now lives in Bradenton with his wife and three temperamental cats.

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