How Pirates Prospects Fared In AFL

After 31 games, the Arizona Fall League concluded for the Pittsburgh Pirates prospects.

Pittsburgh had nine prospects play, with middle infield prospect Termarr Johnson playing in just 11 games before leaving to play for Team USA in the Premier12 Tournament. Pittsburgh had three players make the AFL All-Star game; Right-handed pitcher Derek Diamond, left-handed hitting outfielder Sammy Siani and catcher Geovanny Planchart.

Here are how the Pirates players fared for the Scottsdale Scorpions in the AFL.

Siani was the best of the bunch, batting .375/.492/.667 with three home runs and 18 RBIs in 80 at-bats and he scored 21 runs across 22 games. He also made an impact on the bases with six stolen bases. Siani also had a 15-game hitting streak and tallied a hit in all but one game.

Siani also had two hits in the All-Star game. Of his 30 hits in the AFL, five were doubles.

Pittsburgh infield prospect Kervin Pichardo saw more playing time as the season progressed. He batted .309/.424/.527, hit one home run and had 12 RBIs in his 55 at-bats. Pichardo turned in his best performance of the AFL when it mattered most, going 3-4 with three RBIs in the Scorpions’ 7-6 win over the Glendale Desert Dogs on Thursday to advance them to the play-in semifinals.

Pichardo had seven extra-base hits with five doubles and two triples. He also scored 13 runs and walked 11 times across 17 games.

Planchart hit two home runs and had six RBIs and batted .294/.432/.500. He had the fewest at-bats among the Pirates prospects with 34.

Johnson tallied 40 at-bats and slashed .250/.444/.475. The Pirates’ No. 3 prospect and No. 75 prospect in baseball hit one home run, drove in four runs and he walked 14 times. Of his 10 hits, five were extra-base hits.

Diamond was the lone pitcher to make the All-Star game from the five pitching prospects Pittsburgh sent to the AFL and started in that game for the National League.

He pitched in seven games, including making one start, amassing a 2.45 ERA and he had a whip of 0.82. in his 11 innings pitched. Diamond struck out 12 batters compared to walking just two and he allowed seven hits.

Khristian Curtis made the most starts of the Pirates’ prospects, starting three games across his seven appearances. Curtis, who is the Pirates’ No. 27 ranked prospect by MLB Pipeline, went 1-1 with a 4.67 ERA, struck out 16 batters and walked eight in his 17.1 innings pitched.

Curtis’ lone win came in the first game of the AFL. He pitched three shutout innings and struck out two.

Valentin Linarez was lights out coming out of the bullpen for Scottsdale. Across his 10.1 innings pitched, he allowed just three hits and one run while striking out 11 batters, though, he walked eight and hit one. He had the lowest batting average against for the Scorpions with a .086.

Brandan Bidois numbers were heavily skewed by his first outing of the AFL when he gave up six runs in just an inning of work. Across his other six outings, he allowed just one run.

Bidois had seven appearances and pitched 7.2 innings, allowed seven hits, walked nine batters and struck out 14. He finished the AFL with an 8.22 ERA.

Eddy Yean went 0-2 with a 6.75 ERA in his nine appearances out of the bullpen. In his 9.1 innings pitched, he allowed 13 hits and seven runs and he struck out eight batters.

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