Cannonballs Coming: The post-JaCoby era begins

Bradenton was off.  Some extended comments on the GCL Pirates are at the bottom.

-- Indianapolis held off Columbus, 2-1.  Alen Hanson provided the offense with a two-run HR, his sixth.  He was 1-4 overall.  Gustavo Nunez, batting second, went 2-4 and Keon Broxton (pictured), batting third, was 3-4 with two doubles and a triple, but somehow neither figured in any scoring.  Broxton is 6-8 in his last two games and 12-37 (.324) in his last ten.  Elias Diaz and Willy Garcia were each 0-4.  Wilfredo Boscan gave up one run on three hits and four walks in six innings.

-- Altoona lost to Akron, 4-2.  Jason Creasy gave up three runs in six innings on four hits and two walks.  He fanned four.  With JaCoby Jones gone, the Curve had only four hits.  Josh Bell was 2-3 with a double and Jose Osuna hit his fifth HR.

-- The West Virginia Power beat Lakewood, 7-4.  Stephen Tarpley gave up four runs, three earned, on seven hits in six innings.  He walked none and fanned seven.  John Sever threw three scoreless innings for a save.  Michael Suchy was 3-4 with a double and Jordan Luplow 2-4 with his eighth HR.  Tyler Filliben went 2-2 with two walks, Connor Joe 2-3 and Tito Polo 2-5.  Cole Tucker was out of the lineup again.

-- Morgantown lost to Tri-City, 5-3.  Starter Seth McGarry struggled with his control, walking four in two and two-thirds innings.  He gave up four runs and two hits, while striking out one.  Nick Hibbing threw three and a third scoreless innings.  Logan Hill was 2-4 with a triple and his fifth HR.  Kevin Newman was 0-4.

-- Bristol got past Greeneville, 4-3.  Gage Hinsz gave up one run in five innings on two hits and a walk.  He struck out one.  Julio De La Cruz and Sandy Santos each went 2-4, De La Cruz with two doubles and Santos with one.  The box score claims Carlos Munoz went 0-4.

-- The DSL Pirates lost to the Cubs, 4-3.  Domingo Robles threw five shutout innings, giving up two hits and no walks, with two strikeouts.  Huascar Fuentes hit his fifth HR and Ramy Perez his first.

-- The GCL Pirates beat the Astros, 7-5.  The Pirates' offense came largely from eight walks, as they had only five hits, and the Astros' offense came mainly from five Pirates' errors.  Michael De La Cruz went 1-2 with two walks and three runs, Adrian Valerio 1-1 with two walks and a double, Ke'Bryan Hayes 1-2 and Jhoan Herrera 1-3 with a double and three RBIs.  Gerardo Navarro gave up just three hits and two walks, with six strikeouts, in five innings.  He was charged, though, with five runs, four of them unearned.  Richard Mitchell threw four scoreless innings to get the win.

The first several hitters in the Pirates' lineup -- De La Cruz, Valerio and Hayes -- showed a patient approach, swinging at little if anything out of the strike zone.  De La Cruz and Valerio are also very fast.  The two hitters who made the hardest contact were Herrera and Edison Lantigua.  Herrera had two deep line drives, one for a double and one for a sac fly.  He doesn't take many pitches, though.  Lantigua was the Pirates' top prospect in the DSL last year, but missed the beginning of the GCL season with an unknown injury.  He hasn't done much so far, but today he had two deep drives to the opposite field (he hits LH) get caught.  His approach at the plate looks good, so I'd be curious to see how he'll do once he gets more time.

Valerio had several slowly hit grounders to contend with.  He came in on all of them very quickly, showed good agility and balance and a strong arm, but scattered his throws around.  I imagine a lot of that is learning to play under better control, as I thought he hurried a couple of the throws a little more than needed.

Hayes was the DH, so I didn't see him in the field.  Neither Navarro (whom I've seen several times before) nor Mitchell impressed me much.  Navarro is a lefty soft-tosser who's in his second GCL season.  Mitchell supposedly had a good arm, but he was only throwing mid- to upper-80s.  I don't think either is a prospect.