This is one in a weekly update on the top 10 Pittsburgh Pirates prospects.
Welcome back to another installment of updates for the top 10 Pittsburgh Pirates prospects.
Overall, it’s been more of the same from the Pirates’ top pitching prospects. Paul Skenes and Jared Jones have continued their excellent starts to the season.
On the position-player front, Jack Brannigan has far and away been the best performer in the top 10 while the other three have struggled.
Full updates on the top 10:
Skenes was scored upon for the first time this season but he turned in another strong outing and set a career-high in innings. It seems like it’s only a matter of time until the top Pirates prospect reaches the big stage.
Johnson is still drawing his share of walks and slugged his first home run of the year on Sunday but he remains in a slump to start the season. A big reason for his early-season struggles? He’s striking out in nearly 30% of his plate appearances.
Jones’ first start of the week against the Brewers was another really good one. However, he had his poorest showing to date against the Giants on Sunday. In the latter, Jones allowed three runs in five innings and only struck out three. He’s still been everything the Pirates could have hoped for so far.
It’s been a struggle for Solometo in the early going and he had another disappointing outing in his latest start. Walks have plagued Solometo so far, but he only issued one free pass in his lone start of the week.
Pitch count got the better of Chandler and knocked him out of his start before he could escape the first inning. Outside of that, it’s been an encouraging start for one of the top Pirates prospects.
Harrington still has yet to make his season debut as he battles a shoulder injury.
Home runs have really been an issue for Ashcraft so far this season and he allowed another one in his last start. Opponents are hitting .311 against him on the year.
Jebb started to show signs of breaking out of the slump he’s been mired in to begin his first full professional season. Though he’s hardly shown any power, he has showed off his speed.
At least Cheng is getting on base because he has not been able to get the bat going up to this point. It’s unusual to see from the usually-steady infield prospect.
Of all the position-player prospects in the Pirates’ top 10, Brannigan has been by far the most successful this season. He went on a power surge this past week and belted three homers. Combine that with his ability to steal bases and Brannigan looks intriguing.
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