Top Ten Hitters and Pitchers for Week 12 of the Minor League Season

With the full-season minor league teams having every Monday off this year, we get to do weekly recaps based on the action from Tuesday to Sunday each week. Below you’ll find a list of the top hitters and pitchers for the Pittsburgh Pirates over the last week. The batters are sorted by OPS and they each had at least 20 plate appearances last week. The pitchers are sorted by ERA and they pitched at least four innings.

Top Hitters

1. Blake Sabol, Greensboro – He hit .526/.625/1.158 in 24 plate appearances, with three doubles, three homers and five walks. The Pirates tried adding versatility with him by putting catching on his resume, but he didn’t play there at all this past week. He has a 1.127 OPS in 27 games this year split between Greensboro and Bradenton.
2. Jared Triolo, Greensboro – He hit .440/.483/.760 in 29 plate appearances this past week, with two doubles and two homers. He didn’t start the year off great, but he’s up to a .293/.350/.450 slash line in 65 games.
3. Matt Fraizer, Greensboro – Fraizer returns in the third spot after a down week last week. He’s been hot all season, and this past week he hit .346/.452/.692 in 31 PAs. In 68 games this year, he’s hitting .315/.399/.580, with 12 steals and 18 homers.
4. Maikol Escotto, Bradenton – He started off the year red hot then really cooled down. He returns here after a .318/.464/.591 slash line in 28 PAs, with two homers and five walks. In 52 games this year, he has an .807 OPS. The league OPS is .714 this year.
5. Anthony Alford, Indianapolis – The only repeat on the hitting side from last week’s article when he finished seventh. He hit .286/.348/.667 in 23 plate appearances this past week, with two doubles and two homers. After putting up a .325 OPS with the Pirates, he has a .969 OPS in 47 games in Triple-A.
6. Christian Bethancourt, Indianapolis – He hit .348/.400/.565 in 25 PAs, with two doubles and a homer. The veteran backstop has a .770 OPS in 57 games this year, seeing most of his time at 1B/DH.
7. Mason Martin, Altoona – Martin returns after a rare slow week. This past week saw him hit .261/.346/.609 in 26 PAs, with two doubles and two homers. He has 19 homers on the year and a .944 OPS that ranks fourth among hitters in the league with significant playing time. The downside is that he ranks second in the league with 90 strikeouts and he has a higher K rate than the strikeout leader.
8. Endy Rodriguez, Bradenton – He hit .333/.435/.500 in 23 PAs last week. He has been consistently solid all year, leading to an .812 OPS in 62 games. Catchers tend to wear down in this league later in the summer due to the heat/humidity, but so far so good.
9. Hunter Owen, Indianapolis – He hit .250/.286/.600 in 21 PAs last week, with a double and two homers, though it came with ten strikeouts. He has a .695 OPS in 55 games, with 76 strikeouts in 196 PAs.
10. Fabricio Macias, Indianapolis – He has handled the jump over Double-A well, hitting .306/.358/.408 in 14 games at Triple-A. He had an .861 OPS with Greensboro before the promotion. Macias hit .353/.450/.412 in 20 PAs this past week.

Top Pitchers

1. JC Flowers, Greensboro – Flowers (pictured above) was included in this article consistently for more than a month, but he missed out in each of the last two weeks. He returns in the top spot with six shutout innings on four hits, two walks and four strikeouts. He has a 2.78 ERA this year in 55 innings split between Bradenton/Greensboro, with 57 strikeouts and a 1.02 WHIP.
2. Domingo Gonzalez, Bradenton – One of just two repeats on the pitching side from last week. He pitched six innings with one unearned run on three hits, a walk and six strikeouts. He has a 3.72 ERA in 48.1 innings, with 69 strikeouts.
3. Adrian Florencio, Bradenton – In his start this past week, he threw five shutout innings on four hits, two walks and three strikeouts. He has a 2.51 ERA in 57.1 innings, with 66 strikeouts and a 1.06 WHIP.
4. Garrett Leonard, Greensboro – He gave up four hits and three walks over 4.2 innings in two relief outings this week, but he kept the opposition off of the board. He has a 4.93 ERA in 38.1 innings this season, with 36 strikeouts and 31 walks.
5. Steven Brault, Indianapolis – Brault’s second rehab outing in Indianapolis went amazingly well. He was perfect for four innings, striking out six batters.
6. Cam Vieaux, Altoona – He was on last week’s list for allowing two runs over ten innings in two starts. This week he allowed one run over six innings on three hits, a walk and four strikeouts. He has a 3.68 ERA, 44 strikeouts and a 1.16 WHIP in 44 innings with Altoona.
7. Quinn Priester, Greensboro – In six innings during this past week’s start, he allowed two runs (one earned) on two hits, three walks and four strikeouts. In 12 starts this season, he has a 3.27 ERA and a 1.31 WHIP in 55 innings, with 49 strikeouts.
8. Beau Sulser, Indianapolis – Sulser has been starting full-time this season but his outing this week was in relief of Brault. He went five innings, allowing one run on six hits, three walks and five strikeouts. He has a 3.29 ERA in 65.2 innings, with 64 strikeouts and a 1.48 WHIP.
9. Jared Jones, Bradenton – His Sunday start surely didn’t begin like a top ten week. He gave up three runs in the first inning. Just one was earned, but he walked one batter and hit two others, while also allowing a hit. He finished with just one earned run over five innings, shutting down the opposition for the next four frames. He has 55 strikeouts this year in 35 innings.
10. Logan Hofmann, Bradenton – We had to go to 12 spots this week because the last three guys all allowed one run over four innings. For Hofmann it was a starting assignment, and he gave up just two hits. He has a 2.72 ERA, a 1.01 WHIP and 61 strikeouts in 46.1 innings this season.
11. John O’Reilly, Altoona – He pitched twice in relief, allowing one run on six hits, no walks and three strikeouts. O’Reilly has a 5.51 ERA in 32.2 innings, but he had a solid two-month stretch between his outings on May 6th (season debut) and July 6th in which he had a 3.22 ERA in 22.1 innings, so he could be getting back on track.
12. Jeffrey Passantino, Altoona – He pitched four innings in relief on Sunday and allowed one run on three hits and a walk, with four strikeouts. He has a 3.29 ERA, 45 strikeouts and a 1.02 WHIP in 41 innings this season.