Minor League Updates: The Weekend of 22-24

Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports /
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Minor League Updates: It was a very exciting weekend in the Pirate’s minor leagues as many players had great weekends.

The minors are very important, and the site strives to provide minor league updates as much as possible on the Buc’s prospects.  There will be minor league updates on specific time periods when there is things worth pointing out.  Last week, when Kang made his rehab debut there was an update.  Well this weekend was a great one for many of the Pirate’s top prospects, and there is a lot to note.

Minor League Updates AAA Indianapolis Indians:

There are two performances that are up for nomination at the AAA level.  One comes on the pitching side of things while the other comes from the offense.  Tough to decided which one is more impressive.

Jameson Taillon is MLB ready.  He has missed two years of competitive pitching yes, but he has shown that he has matured beyond the AAA level.  There are only two things keeping him down right now, one being that he needs to show that his arm can handle pitching every five days again, the second Super Two.  However, with his performance this weekend has sparked many to have him replace Jeff Locke.  Taillon threw on Saturday, the 23rd.  He threw a no-hitter into the 6th innings.   He gave up only 1 hit while striking out 6 and walking none. Taillon is proving that he is ready for the Show and it is just a matter of time before we see him in the black and gold.  For more on Taillon see link below:

Related Story: Taillon is Dominating at AAA?

The second performance comes from the Pirate’s top infield prospect, Josh Bell. On Friday the 22nd, Bell was the biggest part of the Indians 13 run performance.  Bell hit his 3rd homer of the season which was part of his four hit day.  Four hit days are great and do not come around much, but what makes Bell’s four hit day special is that it was for the cycle.  Bell finds himself blocked at first-base for now with Jaso performing well, but as long as he continues to hit he will force the Pirate’s hand eventually.

Josh Bell Updates: Hits for Cycle
Mandatory Credit: Butch Dill-USA TODAY Sports /

Minor League Updates AA Altoona Curve:

The biggest news coming out of Altoona this weekend is not from the field. Although Clay Holmes has a quality start on Sunday throwing 6 innings and giving up only 1 run.  However, it was announced that top hitting prospect, Austin Meadows, is off the DL and most likely will be making his season debut today.  This is exciting because many feared Meadows would be delayed due to his fractured orbital, but he only has missed 3 weeks or so.

Minor League Updates A+ Bradenton Marauders

Luis Heredia continued to have success out of the bullpen this weekend.  On Sunday he thew one scoreless innings gaining 1K and he has kept his ERA under 1 so far.

Left-Handed start Brandon Waddell had another dominant start.  The 2015 fifth round pick threw seven innings and gave up only 1 run on Saturday.  He rang up 6 batters and did not walk any.  This strong performance puts his season ERA at 1.17.

Related Story: Previous Future Friday

Minor League Updates A- West Virginia Power

Mitch Keller continues to show why the Pirates paid over slot to sign him in 2014.  The former 2nd round pick pitched his second 10K performance this weekend.  Keller threw 5 innings while striking out exactly 10 batters.  He has yet to give up a run this year at West Virginia.  As of now this week’s “Future Friday” will be on him.

Ke’Bryan Hayes continues to dominate as he collected multiple hits this weekend.  His average is sitting at an amazing .392 with a .962 OPS.  One must wonder how long he will keep this performance up.

JT Brubaker, a 6th round pick out of Akron in 2015, had another strong start.  The former Zip threw 5 innings and only gave up 1 run.  He rang up seven batters, but did walk four.  On the year Brubaker’s ERA is sitting at an outstanding 2.14.

It was a nice weekend for a lot of prospects, but these were the biggest minor league updates from it.  The fact is that the Buc’s have put together and have kept a strong farm system.  They have players blossoming at every level.  It will be interesting to watch these players continue to do so over the coming weeks.  Expect most of these players to get a promotion in the coming weeks as the season starts to deepen.  Always check back for updates as the site will continue to give updates on the minors every few days.  Check on Fridays for “Future Friday” updates and check on Wednesdays for updates on the top 30 prospects stat lines.  Of course continue to check for minor league updates as news breaks on big time performances and other minor league updates occur.

All Stats Courtesy of MILB.com