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Pittsburgh Pirates: Double-A Altoona Player Awards
The Pittsburgh Pirates minor league season has been over for about a month now. With that, it is time to start looking at the players at each level who performed the best on each minor league team. So far he have looked at Low-A and High-A.
Next up will be the Pittsburgh Pirates Double-A affiliate, the Altoona Curve. The Curve had a solid season. They finished second in their division with a record of 76 wins and 64 loses. They started the year with some of the top prospects in the system. These top prospect included catcher Reese McGuire, outfielder Harold Ramirez, Kevin Newman, and top prospect Austin Meadows. A lot of the prospects Double-A did not even see full season there however. A lot of the players were either moved up after the first part of the season, or they graduated to Triple-A by the end of the year. As for the first two prospects listed they were actually traded away from the Curve at the deadline.
Like the Marauders, there was not really stand out pitching prospects, however they did have some advanced arms throw for them. Leading the rotation was top 20 prospect Clay Holmes. The other notable pitcher were Tyler Eppler, Cody Dickson, Brandon Waddell, Alex McRae, and Frankie Duncan. They also had a few good relievers as well in Dovydas Neverauskas, Edgar Santana, and Montana DuRapau.
On the hitting side of things they had the top prospect listed above, but also Barrett Barnes, Jose Osuna, Jin-de Jhang, and Edwin Espinal. The Altoona Curve finished the year 76 and 64, and they made the playoffs. They did this without having a top pitching prospect or a consistent top hitting prospect on their team for the full season. They did not have any necessarily stand out prospects all year-long, but they had solid players up and down the lineup and pitching staff. With all that being said who are the Pittsburgh Pirates prospect awards for Double-A Altoona?
Pitcher of the Year
Although he had a losing record, Tyler Eppler is the Altoona Curve pitcher of the year. On the season Eppler went nine and ten. He pitched to a relatively solid earned run average of 3.99. Although not the best earned run average on the staff, he had the most solid season of the staff. Clay Holmes, the big name of the staff, struggled early on and gave up a lot of base runners. Similar to Cody Dickson, who had a better earned run average, but a much higher WHIP. On the year Eppler had an impressive WHIP of 1.28, which led the Altoona Curve pitching staff. Eppler also led the team in starts and innings pitched. He showed that he could be a reliable back end starter for this team and an inning eater. He also gave a strong strikeout to walk ratio of 3.2 strikeouts per one walk.
Eppler was a sixth round pick in the 2014 draft. He came from Sam Houston State, the same college that fellow teammate Cody Dickson was from. The right-handed pitcher is now just 23 years of age and will likely start in Triple-A next year. Eppler will never be a big time prospect, however he is notable s he is rated as a top 30 in the system. Eppler does not project to be a legitimate pitcher in this league, but he could be a nice back-end of the rotation type pitcher. If he continues to put up solid, consistent numbers, as he has done his whole minor league career. So, who is the hitter of the year?
The Hitter of the Year
This is the more interesting of the two awards. The Altoona Curve were stacked with offensive potential this year. They had top position prospects Austin Meadows, and Kevin Newman. Also top ten prospects Harold Ramirez and Reese McGuire. They also had solid organizational prospects in outfielder Barrett Barnes, Jin-de Jhnag, and Edwin Espinal. The issue with the top prospects is none of them played full seasons at Double-A.
Meadows was an aboslute stud, but only appeared in 45 games this year. He missed the first month with a fractured orbital, and then was promoted to Triple-A for the end of the year. The same can be said for Kevin Newman who was promoted from Single-A. With Harold Ramirez and Reese McGuire, their seasons were cut short here when they were dealt to Toronto. So this leaves the orgnizational prospects listed before, but all three are worthy of the season long honor.
The Hitter of the Year
The Hitter of the Year for the Altoona Curve goes to Barrett Barnes. A long forgotten second round pick, Barnes really put together a notable season. A player who often is injured, was able to play in 124 games this year. This is by the most he has appeared in, and the first time he eclipsed the 100 games played mark. Not only did he play in most games, but he also put together a great season. On the year he batted .306, with an on-base percentage of .377, a slugging of .477, giving an OPS of .853 on the year. He also added ten stolen bases along with nine home runs. One concern is he did strikeout 105 times, which is .85 times per game. This is kind of a high rate and a number that cannot go up as he moves up to Triple-A next season.
Barnes likely projects to be a fourth outfielder at the next level. However, with the amount of injuries and lack of productivity he has had, this is a positive. He also is quite versatile in the ability to play all three positions, he is athletic enough to cover the ground and has a relatively good arm. The Pittsburgh Pirates always can use a outfield bench bat, Barnes could be a cheap option for them soon.
Up Next
The Altoona Curve had a successful season winning 76 games and reaching the playoffs. The team was made up of a lot of moving top prospects. Most of these prospects made a strong impact on the team. The team also was backed up of a lot of experienced inning eating pitchers. Prospects like Tyler Eppler and Clay Holmes battled all year and kept their team in games.
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Next year they likely will have Kevin Newman back, and will see a lot of the top prospects from High-A join their team. Players like Yeudy Garcia, Kevin Kramer, and Jordan Luplow will make the jump to Altoona.
This concludes the Double-A Altoona Awards. Next up will be Triple-A Indianapolis Indians. The best part of this team entering the season was their pitching staff. Making up the staff was five top 20 prospects in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization. They also had a few top hitting prospects led by Josh Bell, along with organization prospects Alen Hanson, Willy Garcia, Adam Frazier, and Max Moroff.
The Triple-A awards will be the last of the minor league affiliates. After that there will be an article on the overall awards for the Pittsburgh Pirates minor league players of the year.