Pittsburgh Pirates Minors: Marvel, Kranick, Swaggerty

The Pittsburgh Pirates loss to the Atlanta Braves last night.  However, the team had some standout players down in the minor leagues.

The Pittsburgh Pirates continue to see their offense struggle at the big league level.  That has not been an issue down in the minor leagues.  The Pittsburgh Pirates affiliates have all played winning baseball this year.  This includes the Altoona Curve and West Virginia Power, who both saw really good games yesterday.

Altoona Curve

The Altoona Curve may have found their ace for the 2019 season.  Pitching prospect James Marvel has done nothing but impress since his promotion from High-A Bradenton.  If you are a typical reader of the site, you have seen Marvel’s name on here quite a bit of late.  He has done really well in his three starts since being promoted to Double-A.

Yesterday, Marvel received his 3rd starts as a member of the Curve against the Binghampton Rumble Ponies of the New York Mets organization.  Once again, the former 36th round pick, pitched into the 7th innings.  Marvel threw 6.1 innings while giving up 2 runs and striking out 5.  He earned the victory improving to 2-1 with a 2.25 earned run average.  Cole Tucker went 2 for 5 in the game with a double.  Furthermore, Will Craig his 20th home run and picked up RBIs 95 and 96 on the season. He leads the organization in RBIs.

West Virginia Power

The West Virginia Power improved to 63-57 after picking up a shutout win by the score of 9-0.  The Power sent former 11th round pick Max Kranick to mound against the Charleston RiverDogs of the New York Yankees organization.  Kranick threw 6 shutout innings picking up 5 strikeouts along the way.  He did not walk a batter and only gave up 3 hits across the six innings of work.  Kranick’s earned run average is now under 4 sitting at 3.96. Meanwhile, he only has 17 walks and 74 strikeouts in 75 total innings.

Leading the offense to a 9 spot was none other than 2018 first round pick Travis Swaggerty. The outfielder picked up 2 hits in 5 at-bats including a solo home run.  He also scored an additional run after reaching base with a single.  Furthermore, Pittsburgh Pirates top 30 prospect Deon Stafford also had a strong game at the plate.  The catching prospect went 2-4 with a solo home run as well.  Stafford is now batting .264 on the season.  Swaggerty, on the other hand, has gotten off to a slow start since his promotion to Low-A, batting just .182 through his first 5 games.