Weekend Notes: Team Laurels, Minor League Moves & News, Who Can?

The Bucs go to Colorado after winning 6-of-9 games, and we're another weekend closer to the ASG and draft...life is good.

Notes:

• 23-year-old RHP Max Kranick got the call from Indy for Sunday; it was a pretty aggressive move for a guy that has just 34 IP in the upper levels, all pitched this year at Altoona/Indy, with a 2-2/4.37 slash. Worked, though - he tossed five perfect frames for his first MLB win. Elias Sports posted "Since 1893 (when the mound was moved to its current distance), Max Kranick is the first starting pitcher who, in his MLB debut, finished an outing with 5+ perfect innings." (There is some hair-splitting involved; Nick Kingham went 6-2/3 spotless IP in his debut before giving up a single) The only loser in the deal was RHP Geoff Hartlieb, who was optioned back to Indy.
• The Pirates are planning on a six-man rotation through the All-Star break, the make-up yet TBD. 
• Bryan Reynolds is on an 12-game hitting streak.
• Wil Crowe claimed his first MLB victory Friday night in the Pirates 5-4 win over the Cards.
• Ke'Bryan Hayes ran his major league-leading on-base streak to 29 games before grounding out as a pinch hitter on Saturday.

The Cheetah - 2021 photo Justin Aller/Getty

• Jake Stallings kept his streak intact - the Bucs are 8-0 when he's had multi-RBI in a game.
• The Buccos signed 30-year-old RHP Shelby Miller to a minor league deal. He's a depth acquisition, as the vet hasn't posted solid numbers since 2017. The Pirates saw some things they liked in his arsenal, particularly his slider, and hope to build him back up to a starting role.
• Altoona RHP Roansy Contreras broke into BA's Top 100 Prospect update at #99. Holdover Top 100 Baby Bucs are SS Oneil Cruz (#38), 2B Nick Gonzales (#39), RHP Quinn Priester (#58) and SS Liover Peguero (#87).
• RHP Mitch Keller, after a pair of short relief stints, got his first start at Indy Friday night. He went three innings, giving up three runs (two earned) on four hits, two whiffs and no walks after 40 pitches. We're not sure what Hanny has in mind for Kells, but it's being fed to him in small doses - that's Mitch's longest outing so far. 
• OF Anthony Alford, who has been working his way back to Pittsburgh from Indy, injured his wrist in an outfield collision and is day-to-day. He dodged a bullet by avoiding a concussion.
• The Pirates have traded OF Troy Stokes Jr. and RHP Jandel Gustave to the Brewers for 17-year-old minor league C Samuel Escudero as the Bucs try to restock the backstop spot. Escudero's first stop will be in the DSL. Stokes had a brief stay with the Bucs (2-for-18 in eight games) and Gustave is a 28-year-old who last pitched in the majors in 2019; he was 1-0-5/3.60 at Indy in 15 outings and provides the Brew Crew a big-league insurance policy.
• 2B Nick Gonzales returned to High-A Greensboro's lineup this weekend.
• If you're looking for a quick summer read of a gone era, The Pittsburgh Quarterly has a piece on Pie Traynor and his Ameri-can Heating days on Bill Cardille's Studio Wrestling show and more, written by biographer James Forr.