Ranking each of the Pittsburgh Pirates’ minor league affiliate teams

Number Four
Indianapolis Indians

Being last doesn't necessarily mean they're bad. The Pirates' Triple-A team, the Indianapolis Indians, still have some talented players. However, compared to the rest of the Pirates' affiliates, Indy definitely has the weakest roster by default. Still, there are some prospects to talk about currently on Triple-A's roster.

Of course, you can't talk about Indy's roster without mentioning Paul Skenes. The first overall pick from last year who set the record the signing bonus record opened the season for Indy by pitching three perfect innings and striking out five. He averaged out at 100 MPH and had a called+swinging strike rate of 39%. His slider, change-up, and curveball also looked great, with both his slider and change inducing a CSW% over 45%. To call his change-up a change-up would be a little disingenuous. It's more of a splinker, akin to that of Jhoan Duran of the Minnesota Twins, as he averaged out at 95 MPH with the pitch with change-up movement.

Not to be outdone the following day, fellow top pitching prospect Quinn Priester followed that up with 5.2 innings, allowing just one earned run (which scored after he was pulled from the game), striking out nine batters, and only allowing two to reach base, one via a free pass and another via a base hit. Priester's velocity on everything was up, but his slider and four-seamer had gained nearly two to two-and-a-half MPH from last season.

Skenes and Priester are the two big guns in the pitching staff, but the likes of Jose Hernandez, Brent Honeywell, Kyle Nicolas, Eric Lauer, and Wily Peralta provide depth, both for Indy and the Pirates' Major League club.

Position player-wise, Malcolm Nunez and Nick Gonzales have gotten off to great starts for the year. Nunez has two home runs in his first four games, while Gonzales has seven hits in his first 19 plate appearances. The rest of Indy's position players consist of Joshua Palacios, Canaan Smith-Njigba, Matt Gorski, Billy McKinney, Liover Peguero, Joe Perez, and Jake Lamb. Like with pitching, they provide solid depth to Indy's team and the Pirates' big league club