Po-Yu Chen among prospects off to a strong start in June
A look at some top performing players in the month of June in the Pirates' system.
It was far from an ideal start to the season for Altoona Curve right-handed pitcher Po-Yu Chen.
In four games during April, Chen posted a 7.98 ERA, allowing 19 hits while walking seven across 14.2 innings pitched. He struck out just seven in that span.
May was a little better, having an ERA of 4.38 in five games, although he still wasn’t striking out many batters (12 in 24.2 innings pitched).
Chen has looked like a different pitcher through two starts in June, keeping the walks down and seeing a jump in the strikeouts.
On June 1, against Portland, Chen allowed just one run in six innings pitched, striking out five, although he received a no-decision in the start.
He stepped it up in his last start on Friday in Richmond. Chen pitched a career-high eight innings, allowing just one run on four hits and a walk while striking out nine. The strikeouts are the second-highest total of his career, just behind the 12 he recorded with Greensboro in 2023.
That gives him 14 strikeouts in two starts, which is more than he had all of May in 10 fewer innings and double what he had in April in nearly the same amount pitched.
He’s also averaging 14 whiffs per start in June.
Chen isn’t the only prospect in the Pirates’ system off to a strong start this month; here are a couple more names.
There was a point when, in terms of wRC+, Javier Rivas was the worst hitter among qualified minor-league baseball players.
While it’s still well below average (67), Rivas has come a long way and is off to a fast start in June. After hitting just one home run in April and May, he already has two this month.
Rivas has slashed .412/.500/.941 in six games this month. On June 6, Rivas went 3-3 with a triple, home run, and three runs driven in.
He’s always hit the ball hard but struggled to make contact and barreled things up (a lot of contact into the ground).
On the same team, Esmerlyn Valdez is quickly recovering from a month of May that saw him bat just .188 and struggle with strikeouts.
He’s also hit a pair of home runs, and among his seven hits so far this month, five have gone for extra bases.
He’s slashed .412/.565/1.000 while walking (five) more than he has struck out (four).
On Thursday, he went 3-3 with two home runs.
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Feel like Chen git blown up early last year too then went on a long stretch of very good
Just when I recommended that Jhonny Severino and YDLS skip over Rivas and Delgado at A and be promoted directly to A+ when Brannigan, Johnson, McAdoo, and a few others push their way to AA. I would still be in favor of doing that.