As bad as the first half has been for the big league squad
the minor league system is VERY encouraging.
First, it has seen the return from injury of some who could help the
Pirates. Brandon Crumpton and Casey
Sadler are long shots, but they are back and that is good. Nick Kingham is looking like his old self and
that is very good.
Indy was loaded with talent and their record shows it. In fact, it is not as good as it ought to be
because of how much the Pirates have had to raid it. Max Moroff was on fire and is not sitting the
bench in Pittsburgh. Osuna looked good,
and is looking okay in Pittsburgh. Diaz
has made several trips as have many bullpen pieces. Some non-prospects have been hitting the
cover off the ball, Bostick and Ortiz.
That always is nice. But it is
the prospects that make us happy.
Meadows had a slow start but a .300 May removed real concern. It is the injury that worries now. The pitching prospects are out of sight. Glasnow has been great since his demotion. Brault has been amazing. Clay Holmes has good showings, and probably
ought to be considered as the ground ball bullpen guy. Drew Hutchinson is starting to look like
someone who could be a major leaguer, and Edgar Santana has looked very good
out of the pen.
Prospects at Altoona have also done well. Again Newman started slow, but has come
on. But the power of Kramer has been a
revelation, and Luplow earned a promotion with his strong hitting. Suiter is a lower type of prospect, but .313
is good. Connor Joe is the only one that
might be considered disappointing at .251.
Pitching is equally as exciting.
Austin Coley’s win-loss leaves something to be desired but his 67 Ks
does not, nor does allowing fewer hits than innings. J.T. Bruebaker is also striking out over 60
people, and Alex McCrae is not exactly failing with his 7 wins. Yeudy Garcia has been disappointing, but
hopefully a move to the pen will help him find his hard throwing way to the
majors. I am not sure how much we are
supposed to be paying attention to Montana DuRapu, but he has a 1.16 WHIP with
14 saves. Not mind blowing, but not
awful. And Tate Scioneaux has put
together a good season out of the pen with a .98 WHIP.
Bradenton has propsects showing great potential again. Out of no where Logan Hill earned a promotion
through his bat. But the big prospects
of Cole Tucker and Ke’Bryan Hayes have delivered in some surprising ways. Hayes is hitting .267 in a non-friendly
hitting league, but is showing good defense at the corner. He also has stolen 22 bases. That would be astounding if Cole Tucker had
not stolen 34. Tucker is also hitting
.292. The other name of real interest is
Will Craig, last year’s first round pick, and he is hitting .291. Kevin Krause has been derailed off the
prospect track with injuries, but his .275 AVG with 6 HRs might help his
cause. It was the pitching that was
always the exciting point of this team and while Gage Hinz has showed a lot of
inconsistency, he has shown enough to keep one excited about him. Mitch Keller’s .91 WHIP in 11 starts is
competing with Taylor Hearn’s 96 Ks and a 1.16 WHIP for most exciting
thing. Daniel Zamora’s bullpen ability
is also something to not neglect.
West Virginia was expected to be awful, and they are not
great, but playing better than expected.
This is partly because of Ty Moore, who earned a promotion. Carlos Munez, who started off in extended
spring training, hit well. He has cooled
off as of late, but a .257 AVG is something to be happy about. Valerio and Alemais cannot stay healthy
enough to get a good read, but Valerio has looked impressive. This leaves
really only Hunter Owen as a hitting prospect.
And he has delivered with a .280 AVG and a team leading 9 HRs. The pitching here is what really exceeds
expectations. The futures games just got
a taste of Luis Escobar. But he is not
alone in showing real promise. Cam
Vieaux earned a promotion (and has yet to lose in 3 starts in Bradenton). He ought to be climbing onto some of the
larger prospect lists as at least a possible lefty-bullpen arm in the
future. Oddy Nunez and James Marvel are
both pitching rather well showing strikeout ability as starters. And Eduardo Vera has a 62/8 K/BB rate, which
was done in some starts and some bullpen appearances. Cenderlind has been a disaster, but one such
disaster should not take away from the others.
That is a really nice look to our prospects in a fairly nice
system. It is top heavy, but the
emergence of Escobar, Nunez, and Vera along with the stable hitting of Cole
Tucker, Hayes, and Hunter Owen makes the bottom not quite as awful as it was thought to
be. If either Valerio, Alemais, or Munez
can develop into something then the Pirates system is very deep and good. And we have yet to look at this year’s
draft.
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