Weekly Notes: Sox Sweep Bucs To Drop Overall Franchise Record Under .500, Hernandez Top Pick, ASG/Derby, Fraze Gone & Peggy Back, Another Good Week For Greensboro

All-Star Week Comes & Goes...

Pirates Stuff

• The Pirates traded UT Adam Frazier to the Royals for IF (primarily shortstop) Cam Devanney, 28, who was optioned to Indy. Cam has hit .272/18 HR for the Royals’ AAA Omaha club this year, but has never played in the show, spending the last six years in the Milwaukee/KC systems w/.253 career BA. He's an insurance policy should Isiah Kiner-Kalefa land elsewhere before the deadline ends. Fraze  was replaced on the roster by utility guy Liover Peguero, 24, who was hitting .251 at Indy. It's his second stop in Pittsburgh this year; he's hit .236 in 67 games overall with the Bucs since 2021. 

Adam Frazier - 2025 image SportsNet Pgh

• Rapper Mac Miller vibes still run strong here; a limited number of  his Pirates-themed T-shirts went on sale at PNC Park, with a cut of the price going to his underserved youth fund, and sold out. The Bucs will restock them next week. 
• RHP Johan Oviedo, 27, who's coming back from '24 TJ surgery and a '25 camp lat injury, has been sent to Altoona after a rehab stop at Bradenton.
• Greensboro did it again - another combo perfecto, just nine days after pulling off the first one on July 4. Hung-Leng Chang got the ball rolling for the first five innings, then Joshua Loeschorn, Jake Shirk and Jarod Bayless brought it home as the Grasshoppers beat Bowling Green, 4-0. Shirk appeared in both zippos while Geovanny Planchart was behind the dish for the two games.
• Greensboro OF PJ Hilson has been named the Hi-A Sally League Player of the Week after hitting .400 with three long balls. 
• SS's Darell Morel (.261) and Johan De Los Santos (.338) will represent the Pirates in the Dominican Summer League All-Star Game

Game Stuff

• The Bucs met the White Sox for a Yinzerpalooza weekend set at PNC to open a nine-game homestand. The party didn't get off to a very festive start as Chicago was up, 3-0, before the Bucs came to bat and ran away with the opener, 10-1.
• Despite yesterday's drubbing, the troops lined up in the early AM to get their Mac Miller bobbleheads; Mac's mom, Karen, threw out the first pitch. The Bucs jumped out to an early 3-0 lead this time around, but they still lost, 10-4 and the 38,401 sellout fans broke into "Sell the Team" chants a couple times during the night as the club dropped it's tenth game in 11 tries. Guess the gang is still on break. 
• They went from Mac Miller day to having Wiz Khalifa throwing out the first pitch; no diff. The White Sox homered twice and went up 4-0 before the Bucs got to bat and the beat(down) went on with a 7-2 brooming by the American League's worst team. It was, btw, the first road sweep by Chicago since 2022 and their first series sweep of the season. It also dropped the Pirates/Alleghenys won-loss record to 10,878-10,879, the first time that the Pirates all-time record has fallen below .500 since 1903. Motown visits next, starting a three-gamer on Monday.

Draft Stuff

• Draft: Rounds 1-3 of the MLB Draft were held Sunday evening, with the remaining picks (4-20) made on Monday. The Pirates had the sixth overall selection and picked RHP Seth Hernandez, a 19-year-old out of Corona HS, CA. He was one of the more highly touted guys available and the Bucs have some cred developing pitchers, so Seth checks the boxes...Second round/#50 pick was 17-year-old RHP Angel Cervantes, Warren HS. CA. Less toolsy and more of a project than Hernandez, he was a Top 50 Draft Prospect...the 73rd pick/Competitive Balance was 3B Murf Gray, a 21-year-old out of Fresno State who was a two-time MVP in the Mountain West... In the third round/#82, they selected C Easton Carmichael, a 21-year-old out of Oklahoma, a good stick with gap-to-gap power.

Seth Hernandez - Draft Profile via Pirates

• Interesting Pirates second day guys were 8th round/#233 OF Josh Tate, 21, of Georgia Southern, who led the Sun Belt in hitting with a .362 BA but with little pop. With their 9th‑round pick/#263, the Pirates took LSU 1B Jared Jones, 21, (he'll turn 22 on 8/1) who was ranked at #101 on MLB's Top 250 Draft Prospects list after a line of .323/22 HR/76 RBI during the season. 10th round/#293 IF Matt King, 22, (he's a senior) from Arizona State hit .401 with a .464 on-base percentage, so he was an on-base machine for the Sun Devils and projects as a good-hit utility guy. RHP McLane Moody, 18, was grabbed in the 15th round/#443, a prepster with a 96 MPH heater from Fort Smith Northside HS in Arkansas. He has a commitment to Arkansas. Eddie King Jr, 22, was taken in the 16th round/#473 from Louisville. He hit .367/.435/.750 with 17 home runs as a senior. The corner guy has dealt with several injuries in career, but his stick makes him a nice late sleeper pick for a team that's short on muscle. 
• Local boy comes home: The Pirates selected Liberty RHP (2-4/5.07 ERA, 84 Ks in 65-2/3 IP) and Montour grad Dylan Mathiesen, 21, in the 13th round/#383rd overall. Mathiesen led the WPIAL in strikeouts his senior season in 2022 as Montour won its first PIAA title and Mathiesen was named the Post-Gazette's 4-A Player of the Year. 
  

ASG Stuff

• Paul Skenes started the All-Star game by tossing 14 pitches, fanning a pair, and was up 2-0 when Ketel Marte doubled home a pair in the NL's half. But much like his Pirates outingss, he didn't get the decision - after nine frames the Midsummer Classic at Atlanta's Truist Park, it was 6-6, and decided for the first time by an extra-inning "swing off", a sort of home run derby. Each squad picked three players, each of whom got three “homer or no count” swings. The Phils Kyle Schwarber went three-for-three, winning both the ASG MVP and the game (7-6 was the official final). Another first was the The Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) challenge system — allowing batters, pitchers and catchers to question called balls and strikes. It's been used in the minors and tried out on the big stage on Tuesday and seemed to work out pretty well as four calls were overturned by the review without much delay. 

Paul Skenes - 2025 photo/Pirates

• Skenes was the first pitcher (four position players have also done it) to start consecutive ASGs in his first two seasons and is one of 10 twirlers to start back-to-back Classics.
• Oneil Cruz took nicely to the bright lights...he banged 21 homers in the first round of the ASG HR Derby, one a 513' foot launch (A Truist Park record and tied with Aaron Judge as the longest HRD blast not hit in Coors Field), to move on to the semis as the first Bucco in the Derby to get past the first round. It ended for Cruz in the semis, though Oneil bopped 13 more dingers (and 9 of the ten longest homers of the night through the first two rounds) - Cal Raleigh smacked 19 long balls and went on to win it all, out-swatting Junior Caminero. 

MLB Stuff

• Fox Sports selected an All-Time National League Dream Team. and two ol' Buccos were on it, Hans Wagner and Barry Bonds. A third Pirate, Roberto Clemente, was an honorable mention/second team pick w/Mel Ott & Tony Gwynn.
• DH/1B Rowdy Tellez signed a minor-league deal with Texas on 7/5; they called him up to the big club after the ASG break. 
• MLB has extended the paid leave for current Guardian/ex-Buc RHP Luis Ortiz through August 31 while they continue their gambling investigation.
• RHP Max Kranick, who the Mets claimed from the Bucs in early 2024 after TJ surgery, is back on the IL and due for another major elbow procedure after earning a spot in the NY pen. He's expected to miss most, if not all, of 2026.
• RHP Tanner Rainey, who the Pirates DFA'ed in June and then declared for free agency, was signed to a minor-league deal by the Tigers.
• RHP Trevor Cahill, 37, who last pitched in MLB for the Pirates in 2021, retired officially after a comeback try in the Atlantic indie leagues fizzled.