Mark Appel signing last summer could have had huge impact on Pirates this year at trade deadline

Keith Law released his updated top-50 prospects and three Pirates made the list: SP Jameson Taillon, No. 13 OF Gregory Polanco, No. 17 SS Alen Hanson, No. 36 Taillon is 3-7 with a 3.75 ERA in 17 starts for the Altoona Curve. Taillon is up seven spots from his preseason ranking but Law continues to point out the lack of life on Taillon’s fastball and that he can be too easy to hit. Gregory Polanco continues to emerge as one of the top prospects in the game. Polanco has moved from No. 55 in Law’s preseason ranking to now No. 17. There’s some scouts out there who feel Polanco is the Pirates top prospect. Law calls Polanco a high probability

Development Camp Preview: A look at the defensemen and goaltenders

DEVELOPMENT CAMP PREVIEW While the Penguins prospect system is desperately lacking legitimate NHL forward prospects, that’s not the case on the blueline. Defensemen Olli Maata, Derrick Pouliot and Scott Harrington are the consensus top-3 prospects in the organization and Brian Dumoulin has also evolved into a top-5 prospect in the Penguins system. While the Penguins are deep with d-men prospects, the organization has also become much stronger at the goaltender position since last summer. Tristan Jarry, the Penguins 2013 2nd round pick, headlines the group of goaltenders to participate in the camp. DEFENSEMEN (12) Olli Maatta, 2012 1st round pick Born: 08/22/1994 (18) | 6-2, 206 | Profile: Who is the Penguins top prospect in their system? Many will point

Development Camp Preview: A look at the Forward group

DEVELOPMENT CAMP: FORWARDS The Penguins development camp gets underway tomorrow and runs from Tuesday through Saturday. Saturday’s scrimmage at 3:00 p.m. is open to the public. We’ll provide extensive coverage of the camp starting tomorrow and throughout the week. Here’s a look at the forward group: FORWARDS (21) Scott Wilson, 2011 7th round pick, RW Born: 04/24/1992 (21) | 5-11, 185 | Profile: 2011 7th round pick, Wilson has the ability to become a late round gem. He’s a fast rising prospect in the Penguins system who scouts feel has NHL potential. Wilson plays the Penguins way in that he’s tenacious and is a very good hitter for a player his size. He had 16 goals and 38 points in

Minor League Report for Aug 16: Ohlendorf goes 7 strong in 3-2 loss

Louisville 3 – Indianapolis 2 — Starter Ross Ohlendorf went seven strong innings, allowing 6 hits and 2 earned runs, receving a no decision. Ohlendorf threw 60 strikes on 94 pitching, striking out 5 and walking 1. — Alex Presley (.322) went 0-for-5 with 1 strikeout in the loss. Presley is expected to be a candidate to be recalled following the Pirates homestand. Presley is 3-for-19 in his rehab stint with Triple-A Indy.

Alvarez bumps batting average up to .365; Lincoln, Owens & Ohlendorf tidbits

Alvarez pushes batting average to .365 Third baseman Pedro Alvarez bumped his batting average up to .365 this afternoon for Triple-A Indianapolis. Alvarez went 2-for-3 with a triple and run scored in the Indians 3-0 win over Rochester. Alvarez is batting .472 with 3 home runs and 8 RBI’s in his last 10 games. A positive for Alvarez has been patience at the plate and he has 4 walks to 3 strikeouts in his last four games, a span of 13 at-bats. GM Neal Huntington gave mixed signals on Alvarez today. Huntington called Alvarez’s .350 batting average at the time, “misleading”, while also indicating he is making progress but that there’s some things that need to be worked out. One

Prospect Camp: Day 1 Scouting Report & Observations

  Day 1 Observations Pens Prospect Camp Day 1 from William DePaoli Day 1 of Penguins prospect camp is in the books as the prospects went through testing earlier in the day and an on-ice session this afternoon. Most of the on-ice drills centered around skill/flow drills, systematic drils such as breakouts/forecheck and 1-on-1 situations. Here is a full scouting report from today’s skate with players reports (in no particular order). C/RW Josh Archibald | 5-9, 161lbs | 2011 6th round pick | Day 1 Report: Among the top performers on day 1. Archibald has excellent speed and was argubaly the best skater on the ice. Really stood out early on in the majority of flow/skill drills. Archibald also performed

Farm Report: Jeffrey pushing hard for a promotion to the NHL

Scouts: Jeffrey NHL Ready Dustin Jeffrey had a goal and assist and John Curry made 29 saves to earn his ninth shutout of his Penguins career, leading the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins to a 3-0 win over the Albany Devils on Wednesday night at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza. Jeffrey continues his strong play, leading Wilkes Barre with 7 goals, 13 assists and 20 points on the season. Jeffrey has developed into an impact player in all facets of his game, playing a superb two-way game and is developing into a threat on the penalty kill, notching his 3rd shorthanded goal of the season tonight. The question in Penguins circles for a few weeks now is how long can the Penguins

Samuelsson absent from development camp for 2nd year in a row

2009 second round pick Philip Samuelsson is not participating in the Penguins development camp for the second year in a row. Many fans have been asking why he’s not attending and I’m told it has nothing to do with his underage incident a few months back. Samuelsson has been invited to participate in the 2010 USA Hockey National Junior Evaluation Camp from July 30 – Aug. 7 in Lake Placid, N.Y. A team contact tells me Samuelsson is currently training for the camp and there has been a mutual agreement from both sides for Samuelsson not to attend the Pens’ development camp so there is not a risk for injury. Samuelsson who is the Penguins No. 5 rated prospect in

Pens’ Development Camp: What to watch for

The Pittsburgh Penguins 2010 prospect development camp kicks off Tuesday, July 13th and runs through Saturday, July 17th. The group of rookies and prospects will take part in the development camp, which consists of on-ice practice and scrimmage sessions at Southpointe, medical and fitness testing at the UPMC Sports Medicine Complex on the South Side and workouts, meetings and seminars at Mellon Arena. The group 25 plus prospects headlined by top prospects Simon Despres, Robert Bortuzzo, Eric Tangradi and Beau Bennett arrived in Pittsburgh today for a team meeting. The players will go through medical testing tomorrow morning at the UPMC complex, followed by the first practice session Tuesday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. The on-ice sessions will be conducted on

Pirates demote pitching prospect Alderson; re-acquire Bixler

The Pittsburgh Pirates today re-acquired shortstop Brian Bixler from the Cleveland Indians in-exchange for cash considerations. Bixler, 27, was selected by the Pirates in the 2nd round of the 2004 draft. Once considered the Pirates top shortstop prospect in their system, the 27 year old infielder has failed to make any impact at the MLB level and has spent most of his career in the minor leagues. Bixler was batting .278 with 3 home runs and 27 RBI’s in 64 games this season with Triple-A Columbus, the Cleveland Indians top minor league affiliate. Bixler appeared in 18 games with the Pirates in 2009, batting .227 before being traded to Cleveland this past off-season. Bixler has been assigned to Triple-A Indianapolis.