Pittsburgh Pirates Prospects: Newman, Martin, Players of the Week

The Pittsburgh Pirates had two prospects be recorded as their leagues respected Players of the Week.  Kevin Newman and Jason Martin took home the honors.

For the first time in a long time, the Pittsburgh Pirates seem to have a lot of their top prospects depth at the top of the minor leagues.  In years prior, fans always questioned what the point of getting excited about some of these prospects were because “we wouldn’t seem them for six years anyhow”.  However, many of them are now in Double-A and Triple-A, so even for the casual fan it is interesting to see how they do. Well, the Pittsburgh Pirates had two of their prospects perform at the highest level this past week. Kevin Newman was named the International League Player of the Week.  Meanwhile, Jason Martin, who we looked at yesterday, was named the Eastern League Player of the Week.

POTW

Kevin Newman has been the shortstop of the Indianapolis Indians all season long.  He entered the year as one of the Pittsburgh Pirates top 10 prospects. However, he did slide down the rankings after putting up a rather pedestrian 2017 season at Altoona. Once again he got off to a mediocre start in Triple-A this year.  Through the first month he was hitting around .250.  However, this past week he went on a tear.  The former first round pick batted .519/.552/.778 with a home run, four doubles, and seven runs scored.  Of course, he also added two stolen bases and was able to score seven runs batting out of the lead off spot.  Now, he is batting .309/.336/.423 on the 2018 campaign.

Then of course there is Jason Martin.  Yesterday on the website, we covered Martin’s season a little more in depth. Still, the fourth piece of the Gerrit Cole trade put together a heck of a week.  He has been in Double-A Altoona all season.  This past week he posted a slash line of .522/.577/.826 with two home runs and eight RBIs.  The lefty hitter continued his hot week posting a 3-4 game last night.  Now, on the season Martin is slashing .361/.417/.639 with five home runs in 29 games.  He very much is pushing hard to be promoted to Triple-A in the near future.

Next: Jason Martin off to a Hot Start

2018 Outlook

It could be very interesting to see how the rest of the season plays out for these two Player’s of the Week.  While Jordy Mercer is currently the Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop, he is often the first player mentioned when it comes to looking to upgrade the lineup. If Newman continues to hit in the upper .200s he could be the first notable position prospect to be promoted barring injuries.  Meanwhile, Martin will have to wait until one of the outfielders are moved from Triple-A. Both were also part of MLB Pipeline’s Prospect Team of the Week.