Pittsburgh Pirates Prospects: Oneil Cruz Continues to Rake & More

Oneil Cruz continues to make a strong push to be crowned the starting shortstop for the Pittsburgh Pirates

So, the Pittsburgh Pirates have a shortstop prospect named Oneil Cruz. Not sure if you have heard of him before or not. If you have not then you probably want to get familiar with Cruz’s name.

Okay, all joking aside, Cruz is off to a tremendous start to his season. Helping leading the Indianapolis Indians to a 5-1 victory over the St. Paul Saints to improve to 5-2 on the season Cruz was 2-for-3 with a double and a triple. Cruz has done nothing through the first week of the minor league season other than show why he is one of the top hitting prospects in all of baseball. Combine this with a poor offensive start to the season for Kevin Newman and the calls for Cruz to be promoted will only continue to grow.

Slugging first base prospect Mason Martin also had a triple for the Indians, while Rodolfo Castro had a pair of hits and drove in a run. Center fielder Travis Swaggerty was 1-for-3 with a RBI and left fielder Canaan Smith-Njigba drew a pair of walks. Right fielder Cal Mitchell also drove in a run.

On the mound right Beau Sulser pitched a rain shortened complete game. Sulser allowed 1 unearned run on 4 hits in 5 innings pitched. He did not walk a batter, struck out 7 and lowered his ERA on the season to 3.12.

Double-A Altoona was also successful on Tuesday night, defeating the Richmond Flying Squirrels 3-2 to improve to 2-2 on the season. Playing in center field and leading off Matt Fraizer went 2-for-5 with a double, second baseman Nick Gonzales was 1-for-2 with a pair of walks, and third baseman Jared Triolo went 1-for-3 with a walk and a double.

The Curve runs were driven in by catcher Carter Bins who had a RBI double and designated hitter Connor Scott who was 1-for-2 with two walks and a pair of RBI. Kyle Nicolas started for the Curve in his Pittsburgh Pirates organizational debut. The hard-throwing righty allowed 2 hits, walked 3, and struck out 5 in 3.2 scoreless innings pitched. Tahnaj Thomas made another appearance out of the bullpen, allowing a hit, issuing a walk, and striking a batter out in his inning pitched.

Highly touted pitching prospect Jared Jones started for High-A Greensboro in their 4-3 loss. Jones pitched 3.1 innings allowing just 1 run on 3 hits, he walked a pair and struck out 7. The Grasshopper bullpen ran into trouble allowing 3 runs on 6 hits and a walk in 4.2 innings pitched.

Outfield prospect Hudson Head bat lead off, but was 0-for-3 with a walk. This was the same stat line for Endy Rodriguez who played left field on Tuesday night. Catcher Henry Davis hit his 1st home run of the season, as did infielder Maikol Escotto.

At the Low-A level the Bradenton Marauders improved to 3-1 on the season with a 4-3 victory over the Lakeland Flying Tigers. Third baseman Brenden Dixon was 1-for-4 with a walk and his 1st  home run of the season. Shortstop Tsung-Che Cheng was 1-for-5 with a RBI, right fielder Rodolfo Nolasco was 1-for-3 with a walk, and designated hitter Alexander Mojica continued his opening week power surge with 2nd double of the season.

Max Kranick started for the Marauders. In his rehab start the righty pitched 2 innings, allowing a solo home run and striking out 3 batters. Carlos Jimenez followed, also allowing just a solo home run in 3 innings pitched. Jimenez also struck out 6 batters. Cristian Charle and Yunior Thibo combined to allow 1 run on 4 hits, no walks and 5 strikeouts in 4 innings pitched.