The Next Pittsburgh Pirates Star on the Rise?

Everybody wants to know what the next big thing will be. Baseball fans are especially interested now that Starling Marte has been promoted to the Pittsburgh Pirates. We were curious about who could be the player that many might not have heard of, or who might be the hottest outfield prospect in the Bucs system. We knew that Josh Bell and Andrew Lambo have been out with injuries, so who is it?

The player that took Lambo’s place in right field in Altoona just might be what we’re looking for, the type of late round draft pick that is making the best of it.

His name is Adalberto Santos. He’s been a hitting machine since coming to Altoona. Just look at the juice:

He was promoted to the Curve after putting up a 316/.398/.477 triple slash since he was the Bucs 22nd pick back in 2010 from Oregon State.

Here is Santos getting a knock in his last game.

The homerun power started to show three games ago when he hit two bombs against Reading. As you can see the hitting numbers in his past ten games, have kept his average, slugging, on-base percentage and obviously his OPS at the top of the Altoona Curve offensive categories.

He might not be highly ranked by any of the prospect gurus, but he’s producing and just might be the player to ease Pirates fans minds after losing Robbie Grossman in the Wandy trade.