Altoona was off on Sunday. Bradenton and Greensboro wrapped up their first half week, while Indianapolis finished up their first full week of action.
YESTERDAY’S RESULTS
Prospect Watch: Mike Burrows Leaves With Injury, Bradenton Gets No-Hit
TRIPLE-A: INDIANAPOLIS INDIANS
Box Score: LINK
Starting Pitcher: Quinn Priester (0-1, 14.73)
- Final Line: 5 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 SO
Notable Performances:
- Travis Swaggerty 2-for-5, 2B, 3B, RBI
- Tucupita Marcano 2-for-4, 2B, 3 RBI, BB
- Endy Rodriguez 2-for-4, RBI, BB
- Nick Gonzales 0-for-2, 2 RBI, BB
Game Recap:
Indianapolis got a nice start from Quinn Priester, after he had a rough season debut that left him with a 14.73 ERA. He went five innings in this game, allowing one run on two hits, three walks and four strikeouts. He threw 73 pitches, with 46 going for strikes. Robert Stephenson continued his rehab with a scoreless appearance, throwing one inning on two walks and two strikeouts. He threw 11 of 22 pitches for strikes. Cody Bolton struck out the side on 16 pitches in his only frame. Angel Perdomo finished out the game with two no-hit innings on two walks and four strikeouts. Indianapolis won 8-1.
Tucupita Marcano continued his hot streak to start the season. He went 2-for-4 with two runs, three RBIs, a walk and his seventh double. He has a 1.446 OPS through these early stages. Travis Swaggerty hit his fourth double and second triple. He had two runs and an RBI. Endy Rodriguez had two singles, a run, RBI and a walk. Nick Gonzales drove in runs on two sacrifice flies.
Ben Cherington gave an update on Mike Burrows, who left yesterday’s game early.
DOUBLE-A: ALTOONA CURVE
Altoona had Easter Sunday off
HIGH-A: GREENSBORO GRASSHOPPERS
Box Score: LINK
Starting Pitcher: Jaycob Deese (NR)
- Final Line: 3 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 SO
Notable Performances:
- Maikol Escotto 0-for-5
- Jase Bowen 1-for-4, BB
- Sammy Siani 0-for-3, BB, 2 SB
Game Recap:
Jaycob Deese tossed three innings in his season debut, allowing one run on two hits and a walk, with three strikeouts. The 2022 17th round pick threw just four innings last year after signing. He was followed by Drew Irvine, who allowed two runs, while recording just one out. It could have been much worse, but Michell Miliano worked around a bases loaded jam to strand three runners. Miliano ended up recording five outs without a hit or walk, with four of those outs coming on strikeouts. Dante Mendoza tossed two scoreless. Oliver Mateo threw shutout ball in the eighth. Will Kobos threw two scoreless for the 4-3 win in ten innings.
Mike Jarvis started this game with a home run. He ended up collecting three hits. One of those other hits was a third inning RBI single that made it 2-1. Greensboro got their third run on a strikeout, as Ernny Ordonez and Sammy Siani were both running on the pitch and the catcher threw the ball away. Siani later laid down a sacrifice bunt for the decisive run. Angel Basabe had two hits and a run scored. He collected his first double, as did Brenden Dixon. The Grasshoppers went 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position, stranding 11 runners in the game.
LOW-A: BRADENTON MARAUDERS
Box Score: LINK
Starting Pitcher: Braxton Ashcraft (NR)
- Final Line: 3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 SO
Notable Performances:
- Enmanuel Terrero 0-for-4
- Jack Brannigan 0-for-3, 2 BB
- Javier Rivas 3-for-5
- Jesus Castillo 1-for-3, BB
- Braylon Bishop 0-for-2, HBP
Game Recap:
The Pirates sent pitchers Kent Emanuel and Braxton Ashcraft to Bradenton on a rehab assignments Sunday. Emanuel is a pitcher with big league experience, while Ashcraft was injured mid-2021 in Low-A and hasn’t pitched since. The latter looked impressive during his first game in 21 months, throwing three shutout innings on one hit, no walks and five strikeouts. He came out looking like he didn’t miss any time, filling the strike zone with breaking balls and a fastball that was sitting 95-97 MPH. He threw 31 of his 38 pitches for strikes.
Emanuel followed with a shutout inning, striking out two of the three batters he faced, while needing just eight pitches.
JP Massey was out next and had a busy fifth inning, with two singles, a walk and two strikeouts. He showed an impressive assortment of pitches, including a few nasty breaking balls and his fastball was up to 96 MPH, but the control wasn’t great. His second inning did not go well for control, though he picked up two more strikeouts. A walk, hit batter and fielder’s choice turned into three runs without the ball going into play thanks to two wild pitches and a throwing error by the catcher. Massey tossed a scoreless third inning of work, finishing with five strikeouts.
Yunior Thibo and Carlos Lomeli finished off the 4-2 loss by going one inning each. Thibo allowed a run.
The offense was led by Javier Rivas, who picked up three singles and scored a run. However, he also grounded into a game-ending double play with the tying run on base. Bradenton had seven hits and seven walks in the game, so they had their chances to score. They went 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position. Deivis Nadal had the only extra-base hit, his first double. He drove in both runs, though they came on a sacrifice fly and a bases loaded walk. Tres Gonzalez had two hits, a run scored and a stolen base.
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.
Irvine had good stuff in college too but seemed to get hit around too much then too. But he was on a bad team and in a tough conference.
The potential is there though; he has a good arsenal and the Pirates also seem to like him. They put him in good, high leverage situations last season and it looks like they were piggybacking him and Deese. It just didn’t work out well at all.
Hopefully he or the Pirates can get that stuff to play cause his FB plays up and jumps out of his hand, he has a nasty slider and good CU. A good pitchers frame too. It’s that Degrom/Harrington/JpMassey frame that everyone is looking for; the high waist and long limbs.
Hold on now, Braxton Ashcraft pumping 97??
This is the jump i want from harrington!
Rivas — three EVs from 103-106
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/gamefeed?gamePk=729624
But does he know how to slide?
At three negative launch angles.
#PirateWay
Big numbers for a very young prospect. He’s definitely a keeper.
If they call him up, do you think the casual fan would even notice Cruz is hurt?
They should have called up Tupac and not Mathis but I guess they want to go with the vet instead of the kid since they are playing well and winning.
They’re winning *because* they finally rostered some veterans and you people are still fetishizing every damn 14 yo with a pulse.