Pittsburgh Pirates Minors: Kranick, Reynolds, Rankings

There have been some impressive things coming out of the Pittsburgh Pirates farm system of late.  Here are the latest updates on what is going on down on the farm.

In 2016 the Pittsburgh Pirates invested three of their top draft picks on high school pitchers.  The class was led by righty Travis MacGregor who they drafted in the second round.  Then the team took one of the top lefty prep pitchers available in Braeden Ogle.  Ogle was a prep arm who got an over-slot deal in the fourth round.  The last prep pitcher was Max Kranick.  Kranick was drafted in the 11th round and he too received an over-slot deal.

The right-hander Kranick is now pitching for the Low-A West Virginia Power. He had one of, if not the best, start of his career yesterday afternoon. Kranick threw against the Asheville Tourists of the Colorado Rockies Organization.  In the start, Kranick threw six innings and only allowed one hit.  The hit came in the sixth inning when Kranick surrendered a double.  However, he picked him off and held onto his shutout. All in all, Kranick threw six innings of one hit shutout ball while punching out six batters.  He now has a 3.95 ERA with 50 strikeouts across 54.1 innings on the season.

Meanwhile, at Double-A, the Altoona Curve are starting to see one of their top prospects starting to heat up.  This prospect is Bryan Reynolds, who of course was one of the players acquired in the Andrew McCutchen trade.  The former second-round pick had a slow start to the year and had to have wrist surgery back in early April.  He did not come back until May 29th and did not see his batting average go above .200 until June 13th.

However, the former Vanderbilt Commodore has been one of the Curve’s hottest hitter over the last ten games.  Over the last ten games, he has seen his batting average go from .256 to .276, collecting 14 hits in his last 42 at-bats.  Also, he has hit in 11 runners, with three home runs, and has only struck out four times in this period.  His biggest accomplishment came on July 26th when he hit a walk-off 2 run home run. He kept up his hot streak last night going 2-4 with a run, a RBI, and a stolen base.

The last note is that MLB Pipeline updated their prospect rankings recently.  This, of course, takes into account how prospects are performing this year as well as prospects who have graduated from prospect status.  For instance, Austin Meadows no longer is considered a prospect, therefore, he is no longer on the top 100 or top 30 organizational list.  Mitch Keller still headlines the group as the Pittsburgh Pirates top prospect and is ranked 14th overall in baseball.  Next up on the list is Ke’Bryan Hayes who is second on the team list and number 55 on the top 100 list.  Rounding out the top 100 list for the Pittsburgh Pirates are 2018 first round pick Travis Swaggerty at number 88 and 2017 first round pick Shane Baz at number 98.