The Pirates are back from their two-city road trip to open a six-game homestand tonight against a team from the NL West, and then a team from the AL West. Joe Block has a preview.
After the Diamondbacks, the Pirates will welcome the Texas Rangers to PNC Park.
The Bucs will have the number one overall selection in the MLB Draft and speculation is starting to ramp up as to who it will be. Most mock drafts predict LSU outfielder Dylan Crews, but the Pirates could go for a lesser prospect and try to save money on him while committing more money to other slots, hoping to entice high school players to give pro ball a shot. That’s what the team did with Henry Davis two years ago.
Crews is the number one prospect in baseball, but he has competition in the draft from his LSU teammate, right-handed pitcher Paul Skenes, and from Florida outfielder Wyatt Langford, high school outfielder Walker Jenkins, out of North Carolina, and another high school outfielder, Max Clark, out of the state of Indiana.
The draft is scheduled July 9th through the 11th during the All-Star break in Seattle.
MLB
The White Sox got a major boost to their bullpen yesterday with the return of closer Liam Hendriks to the team. He could make his first appearance in a game next week. Hendriks was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in January and finished his final round of chemotherapy last month. The three-time All-Star had 37 saves last season.
ALTOONA CURVE
In Bowie, Maryland, the Altoona Curve escaped the Baysox with a 13-11 win in a slugfest. The Curve have scored 24 runs in their last two games. The bullpen almost gave it away after starter Aaron Shortridge gave up only two runs over six innings. Mason Martin hit a grand slam and Claudio Finol, Liover Peguero, and Connor Scott all had three hits, with Finol hitting his first home run.
Kyle Nicolas takes the mound for the Curve tonight.
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