Welcome to In The System, our new daily analysis of the latest throughout the Pirates' organization!
Each morning, we'll spotlight an individual player or performance from the previous day/night, in addition to offering convenient links to find all the information anyone could want on Class AAA Indianapolis, Class AA Altoona, high Class A Greensboro and low Class A Bradenton throughout the season.
Player: Carmen Mlodzinski
Position: Starting pitcher
Bats/throws: Right/right
Age: 22
Size: 6-2, 232 pounds
MLB organizational rank: 11
Affiliate: Greensboro
Ben Cherington's staff did quite well in their scouting of the Cape Cod League in 2019. With the lack of a full 2020 amateur season, the Draft would have to rely heavily on those reports from two summers ago. It already seems like the plan worked with No. 7 overall pick, Nick Gonzales. And it's certainly been an excellent start for the No. 31 overall selection, Mlodzinski.
In his fourth start with the Grasshoppers, Mlodzinski worked five scoreless innings, allowing four hits, a walk and a hit batsmen while striking out seven. Just a week removed from his latest outing, in which he hurled five hitless frames, Mlodzinski lowered his ERA to 0.55 in 16 1/3 total innings.
This fantastic start is obviously an encouraging development, but there doesn't seem to be much of a reason to rush Mlodzinski to Class AA just yet. He only matched his career-high of 78 pitches on Sunday afternoon. And the command concerns surrounding him in the amateur ranks have reappeared a bit.
If you're still awake and you wanna watch Carmen Mlodzinski, the #Pirates No. 31 overall pick, strike some dudes out for 30 seconds, we got you covered. pic.twitter.com/GQxUzQT4tT
— DK Pittsburgh Sports (@DKPghSports) June 11, 2020
ELSEWHERE
• It turns out Adam Frazier isn't the only Frazier employed by the Pirates that's tearing the cover off the ball. No, not Todd, though he also had a monster game to clinch Team USA's spot in the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo. The Frazier in the system that's been excellent so far this season is Matthew Frazier, who raised his batting average to .320 after recording a double in a three-hit game for the Grasshoppers. The 2019 third-rounder has five homers, 12 RBIs and five stolen bases this season. His teammate, Fabricio Macias -- of two grand slam fame -- also collected three hits, an RBI and a run scored Sunday for Greensboro.
• Indianapolis bucked the once-a-week trend that was developing over the early part of the season by throwing Max Kranick in his second start at the level. This one didn't go as well as the first. He was charged with four runs on seven hits and a pair of walks with just one strikeout over 4 1/3 innings.
• Ji-hwan Bae and Rodolfo Castro had big hits for the second consecutive night for Altoona. Bae tripled, doubled and scored a run while Castro doubled and drove in all three of the Curve's runs in the contest. Bae's average is up to .271 after a difficult start to the season thanks in part to a six-game hitting streak, during which he's batting .480 (12 for 25).
OFFICIAL LINKS
YOUR TURN: We'd love to hear from you, too, especially if you make it out to see any of these prospects and affiliates play. Feel free to file your own original scouting reports and other observations in comments.