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I personally wouldn’t mind seeing them use Ashcraft as a reliever to keep his innings down. The stuff playing up might be equivalent to trading for a high end reliever. Kudos to Barco, his K rate and GB rate look quite impressive. Along with Harrington and Burrows they have some good options to fill in behind the big dogs over the next couple of years.

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Jun 29·edited Jun 29

Hoy hoy!

Went down to watch the Curve get beat by the Akron Rubber Ducks last night on a perfect night for baseball. You can see the gameday boxscore that our hosts have lovingly posted above. Here is my in-depth take on a good game.

Great thing about AA minor league baseball, is you can find things in a group of players that are fun to watch.

On the pitching side, got to see our #6 prospect Thomas Herrington, who took the loss to go to 0-2. My impression of Herrington was underwhelming. (This from a guy who watched Ashcraft be underwhelming early this season.) His velocity was not impressive, but he got a lot of swing and miss as you can see in the game recap above, cut and pasted below.

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Top Pitcher - Thomas Harrington: 5 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, BB, 6 K

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Elsewise, the pitcher that stood out to me was Emmanuel Chapman, 25, out of Boguanos, Cuba. He was signed as a minor league free agent. Here is the rap sheet on him from the game-day program:

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"Chapman was signed by the Pirates this offseason out of Cuba for his first professional experience. The right-hander opened the season with Greensboro and went 2-0 with a 3.00 ERA in 12 outings, striking out 23 batters with just six walks. Chapman joined Altoona in the end of May."

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Chapman pitched 2.2 innings last night, allowing no base runners and striking out five. He threw 31 pitches, 24 for strikes. He's big; listed at 6'6" and 255. And I believe I heard on the Curve broadcast that he was a Cuban defector. He entered in the 6th pitching out of a Grant Ford (bases loaded?) jam. I don't know if bucsondeck has anything on him, but he passed the eye test for me last night in Toon-Town. Would love to see more on the player.

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The pitcher who wowed me last night was not in our system. Guy name of Austin Peterson who'd just been promoted from A ball. The lanky right hander bedeviled the Curve, humiliating our 2-3-4 hitters (namely Henry Davis, Charles Macadoo and Sammy Siani in that respective order) to the tune of 0 for 12 with 11 strikeouts. Cheng and Glenn got him for doubles and Joe Perez got him for a two run homer, but that was it. Not sure he gave up a hit until the 5th. It was a good start and he deserved the win.

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Below is a quote from Robby Hammock, who, interestingly, got tossed after the 7th inning for dragging the Curve's batting circle and dropping it, covering home plate, while Chapman was warming up. He was peeved over balls and strikes that affected hitters like Davis.

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On Peterson, here is what coach said, lifted from Matt Michelone's game day story in The Mirror:

https://www.altoonamirror.com/sports/altoona-curve/2024/06/peterson-akron-hold-curve-in-check/

"“He has a good fastball, we had trouble getting to it,” Curve manager Robby Hammock said. “He has nice extensions, really gets up on you. When you get a fastball that gets on you like that, off-speed in the zone, it makes for a tough day. He just was attacking with all of his pitches in the zone.”

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Po-Yu Chen is going tonight for the Curve and I might just head down there again.

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"If you do, I'll give you SUCH a pinch."

-Wabbit

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What impresses me about Harrington is he just doesn’t walk anybody. Less than a walk per nine innings. 10 times as many strikeouts as walks, he does give up hits but that 1.10 WHIP deserves a lot better than a 0-2 record.

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You bet, Mitchell. Harrington, to me, was "underwhelming" but still effective. He ran through the raindrops a bit in the start, but the guy clearly knows how to pitch. Postgame interviews included his take on throwing to Davis and picking up some things from a Major League guy. Really good stuff. He's another one of the Army of Darkness the Pirates have coming up to Pitchburgh.

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Must have a been a tough watch of the 0-12 with 11 K's. By the third time thru hoping there were some loud boos from the crowd! Although the K's are not at all helpful to Hank's state of mind.

Love the story about manager dragging the on-deck circle to home plate! That would have been worth the price

admission alone!

Great info on another Chapman. Impressive. Espec to get out of a jam like that.

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The Curve is a blast, man. I'd'a been there again last night if it wasn't for all the Tornado watches. Sky cleared up and they played it, tho.

The ohfer from the meat of our order was something to behold.

This Chapman.... Interesting dude. Hoping for the best for him.

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Davis was hitting 1.078 at AAA and when he comes back he is sent to AA? Maybe closer to Pittsburgh where we do not have near enough Catchers?

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Unsure. Probably to be closer to UPMC docs or something. If he's ok to go out and stand in the batter's box, he's had to have gotten part-way back, but I can tell ya, concussions can last a while.

I had a fall this year and conked my head. My eyes did not unwoggle for well over a month. I experienced vertigo because my eyes wouldn't track precisely together and that small difference gave me vertigo.

When I lost the vertigo, I assumed I'd recovered, but holy heck, the way that knock on the head affected me was serious.

Catching is so dangerous. I feel for guys like Ryan Doumit and Francisco Cervelli. I only hope Henry Davis recovers and doesn't have any more concussions b/c it'll wreck his career.

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Hunter Barco is a man on a mission. After returning from TJ late in '23, he only threw 18 innings. This year at A+ he is 3-1, 3.16 ERA with an 11.4%/3.5% K/BB/9 in 57 IP. Doubt that he will be allowed to throw more than 90 innings this year, so could it be time to let him experience AA before being shut down for the year? Also at GBO, I liked that late inning Closer they found - MI Maikol Escotto!

Dariel Francia, 17, had a VG outing in relief for the PIG's (Pirate Gold) in the DSL. Tried to find some info on him, but had no luck. He was also mentioned in early June by BoD. Signed in 2023, but no info on bonus, pitches, velo, etc. Impressive stats so far 3-0, 0.87 ERA, 12.2%/4.4% K/BB/9.

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