
By Garett Mansfield
AltoonaCurve.com
The future is now.
Although they are not wearing Curve uniforms, the players assigned to the Pirates alternative training site make up some of the best baseball talent ever assembled within Peoples Natural Gas Field.
Since 1999, Altoona has served as a vital training ground for Pittsburgh’s next crop of talent, much like we analyzed in a previous post leading up to the 2020 First-Year Player Draft in June. While wins, losses, batting averages and ERAs are not being tallied in satellite camp, some of the Pirates’ top prospects are getting valuable reps against their teammates.
The 2020 outlook for the Curve was a positive one that was loaded with future Major League talent. Ten of Baseball America’s Top 30 Pirates prospects entering this season played for A-Adv. Bradenton at some point in 2019, including four that reached Double-A Altoona by the end of the year. It is reasonable to believe that most of those names would have found their way to Altoona in 2020 before the season was shelved due to the coronavirus.
On the current Alternative Training Site roster, 15 players have have a spot on either Baseball America or MLB Pipeline’s Top 30 lists.
Here is a snapshot of those players:
Nick Gonzales – Mid-season #1 by Baseball America




Ke’Bryan Hayes – #2 by MLB.com and Baseball America


Oneil Cruz – #3 by MLB.com and Baseball America


Liover Peguero – #4 by Baseball America, #5 by MLB.com


Cody Bolton – #5 by Baseball America, #10 by MLB.com


Ji-Hwan Bae – #9 by Baseball America, #11 by MLB.com

Travis Swaggerty – #11 by Baseball America, #6 by MLB.com

Mason Martin – #15 by Baseball America and MLB.com


Nick Mears – #19 by Baseball America

Jared Oliva – #20 by Baseball America, #9 by MLB.com


Max Kranick – #23 by Baseball America, #21 by MLB.com


Will Craig – #24 by Baseball America, #19 by MLB.com


Blake Cederlind – #27 by Baseball America, #28 by MLB.com

Rodolfo Castro – #23 by MLB.com


Aaron Shortridge – #27 by MLB.com

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