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Pittsburgh Pirates: Ranking Each Minor League Affiliate

By Noah Wright

PITTSBURGH, PA - JULY 18: Catcher Henry Davis (R), who was selected first overall in the 2021 MLB draft by the Pittsburgh Pirates, poses with General Manager Ben Cherington after signing a contract with the Pirates during a press conference at PNC Park on July 18, 2021 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Justin Berl/Getty Images)
PITTSBURGH, PA - JULY 18: Catcher Henry Davis (R), who was selected first overall in the 2021 MLB draft by the Pittsburgh Pirates, poses with General Manager Ben Cherington after signing a contract with the Pirates during a press conference at PNC Park on July 18, 2021 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Justin Berl/Getty Images) /
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(Photo by Mark Blinch/Getty Images) /

Greensboro Grasshoppers

The Grasshoppers did start the 2022 season with a lot more talent. At one point, Endy Rodriguez, Henry Davis, Matt Gorski, Tyler Samaniego, and Nick Dombkowski were part of the same roster, and now, all of them have gotten the bump to Altoona.

The weakest part of the Grasshopper roster is their group of position players. Among the players on their active roster, they have four regulars with a wRC+ above 100 and four more regulars with a wRC+ below 100. Granted, Dariel Lopez has been good this season, batting .294/.332/.504 with a .369 wOBA and 121 wRC+. Since the start of June, Lopez has had a 143 wRC+ (48% better than the league average). Catcher Abrahan Gutierrez has also turned the heat up recently with a 158 wRC+ in his last 231 trips to the plate.

Their best pitching prospect is Jared Jones. Jones definitely has the potential to be a big-league starter. However, he has a 10.4% walk rate and 1.49 HR/9. Jones has run into some poor batted ball luck with an 18% HR/FB ratio, but his overall command has gotten in the way more than once this season.

Jones has the greatest chance to refine his stuff. Still, many of the other pitching prospects at Greensboro are more projection/ability than on-paper performance, like Eddy Yean, Ricky DeVito, Logan Hofmann, Adrian Florencio, and Nick Garcia. Aside from Jones, there’s one pitcher in that group that could possibly figure things out, but there are a lot of high-risk/high-reward arms at Greensboro.

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