Minor League News

Life goes on in the minors:

• To start with the news in a nutshell from the big club: they open tomorrow in Milwaukee, with james McDonald drawing Zach Greinke. We'll find out then if Casey McGehee's groin pull will keep him out or not, and whether Alex Presley has recovered from his whiplash concussion. Oh, and the Starlin Marte watch continues.
• Keith Law of ESPN has three Pirate prospects in his Top Fifty. They are Gerritt Cole (7), Jameson Taillion (10) and Alen Hanson (48). The link is here, but it's behind a subscriber's wall.
• First things first in the minors. The Bucs have until 5 PM tomorrow to sign first round selection Mark Appel, and the silence has been pretty deafening. Sounds an awful lot like they gave him a take-it-or-leave-it offer, and are ready to move on to ink a couple of overdrafts with the $600K in pool money they have burning a hole in their pocket if he doesn't sign. The FO has went ahead and just signed Florida HS pitcher Hayden Hurst, although its unknown yet if was paid over bonus, which is $100K for his 17th round slot.
• Jim Schonerd of Baseball America picked the best, the breakout and the most disappointing prospects of the year. For Pittsburgh, Gerritt Cole was the best; Alen Hanson the breakout player, and Steson Allie the biggest disappointment.
• Matt Eddy of Baseball America ranked the prospects by Runs Above Average to pick the top ten, up and down, of minor league position players. SS Alen Hanson made the good side of the ledger; C Ramon Cabrera and 1B Jose Asuna were on the dark side.
• Starlin Marte went 0-for-1 and Rudy Owens pitched a scoreless inning in the International League All-Star game. Owens, ironically enough, replaced Zach Duke on the bump.
• Altoona had four Eastern League All-Stars: Vic Black (1 scoreless inning), Brock Holt (1-for-2), Ramon Cabrera (0-fpr-2) and Brandon Cumpton, who didn't appear.
• The Bucs are trying to corner the market on Delacruz's this year. First they signed 3B Julio Delacruz, followed by OF Michael DeLaCruz. Both are highly regarded 16 year old players, and each was given a $700K bonus. Pittsburgh has $2.9M to spend on international players this year, so that duo has already eaten up about half the budget.
• The Pirates released veteran minor-league RHP Matt McSwain.
• It's not just Bucco minor leaguers in the news. Blackhawk High RHP Brian Omogrosso, 28, got his call to the show by the White Sox after a pair of surgeries almost derailed his career. Chris Adamski of the Tri-State Sports & News Service has his tale.