These Pirates prospects have stood out in the 1st half

This story was excerpted from Alex Stumpf’s Pirates Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

It is officially summer, which means longer days, air conditioning and time for reflection. The baseball season is halfway through, and in the Majors, plenty of attention is being dedicated to who this year’s All-Stars will be.

Let’s do the same for the Minors. Now that we’re at the midway point of the season, let’s take a look at the prospects at each level in the Pirates' system who performed the best in the first half.

Triple-A Indianapolis: RHP Bubba Chandler -- 2-2, 3.41 ERA, 58 IP, 74 K
Chandler is the top pitching prospect in the game, according to MLB Pipeline, so his season has been under a microscope as he sits at the precipice of the Majors. Unfortunately for the right-hander, a slump has come at an inopportune time, as he’s allowed 11 earned runs and walked eight over 9 1/3 innings this month.

This rough patch isn’t going to last forever. This June swoon may have inflated his ERA, but it also shows just how dominant he was the first two months that he is still sitting in the mid-3.00s. Chandler will get the call to the Majors at some point this year. Right now, he’s just the top performer in Triple-A.

Honorable mention: RHP Mike Burrows (No. 15)

Double-A Altoona: LHP Hunter Barco -- 3-1, 2.10 ERA, 51 1/3 IP, 67 K
Barco only spent a month with the Curve this year, getting the call to Indianapolis in early May. Perhaps that should disqualify him from this list, but it’s hard to argue that anyone has outperformed the guy who threw 25 2/3 scoreless innings before moving up.

Barco, the Pirates’ No. 5 prospect, cleaned up his delivery last year in hopes of being able to stay on the field and to maximize his stuff. There’s no question that the latter point has been achieved. He’s been able to throw his breaking stuff in the strike zone more, which was a point of emphasis this Spring Training in Major League camp, and it’s carried over to his instruction in the Minors.

If he can land those for strikes, the fastball becomes even more effective, ramping up to the high-90s.

“He’s a rare breed,” Curve pitching coach Matt Ford said. “He’s got that ‘it’ factor. He’s got a magic fastball. I played catch with him. I hated it.”

Honorable mention: RHP Wilber Dotel

High-A Greensboro: OF Esmerlyn Valdez -- .312/.391/.608, 19 HR, 52 RBI
For an organization that has the top pitching prospect in baseball and one of the fastest-rising position players, Valdez’s inclusion might have been the easiest call on this list. He leads all players at the High-A level in:

• Home runs (19)
• RBIs (52)
• Slugging percentage (.608)
• Extra-base hits (38)
• Total bases (158)

Early in the season, there was some skepticism if Valdez’s offensive outburst was sustainable since he was an unranked prospect. He hasn’t slowed down. Entering play Tuesday, there were only 10 Minor League hitters at any level with at least 100 at-bats and an OPS over 1.000. Valdez was one of those 10.

Honorable mention: RHP Antwone Kelly

Low-A Bradenton: SS/CF Konnor Griffin -- .337/.402/.539, 11 HR, 34 SB
We round out this list with another player who has moved up a level. Griffin (Bucs' No. 2 prospect) got the bump to Greensboro earlier this month after posting a .932 OPS with the Marauders, and those numbers have only improved with Greensboro.

The Pirates bet on the highest-rated prep player in last year’s Draft, and his ascent this year has been rapid. That journey started when he was the only teenager in the Bucs' Major League Spring Training camp this year.

“You talk about a tremendous person, athlete, just the whole package,” manager Don Kelly said recently. “The way that he went after it as an 18-year-old, he did not seem 18 to me when he was walking around and the way he handled himself. Then you see the talent on the field, the way he runs, throws, hits. Just the season that he's had so far, really excited to take that next step and continue to work his way up here.”

Honorable mention: OF Will Taylor