Pirates Prospect Watch: Bowen Continues to Impress in AFL

The Salt River Rafters played the Surprise Saguaros in game 14 of the Arizona Fall League season. Representing the Pittsburgh Pirates for Salt River was Jase Bowen. 

In addition, Bowen batted second and played first base. There was one other Pirates prospect who made an appearance as left-handed reliever, Tyler Samaniego. 

After a 5-1 victory over Surprise, Salt River improved their record to 9-5 and now sits atop the standings for the AFL, with Peoria losing 6-5 earlier Tuesday night. 

Bowen

Only a little else can be said about Bowen’s performance in the AFL that has yet to be said. The right had a strong season in Greensboro, made it to Double-A for the final week, and now he’s putting up incredible numbers in the fall league.

Since Salt River has gone on the road recently, we haven’t had any advanced numbers on Bowen. Regardless, we can see Bowen is hitting the ball with authority. 

Tuesday night, Bowen reached base in his first three at-bats. One at-bat was ruled an error, but it looked like Bowen’s speed would’ve beat out the catcher’s throw regardless if he handled it.

Bowen finished the night going 2-4 with a double, a run scored, a stolen base, and a strikeout. 

Bowen’s 2-4 performance bumped his average to .392 with an OPS of 1.133. In addition, the Ohio native now leads all of the fall league with 20 hits. 

After looking at the fall league hitting leaders, Bowen is ranked seventh in OPS (1.133), seventh in average (.383), third in RBIs (13), 12th in OBP (.466), and sixth in SLG (.667). 

To say the least, the Pittsburgh Pirates front office has got to be happy with Bowen’s fall league performance so far.

Samaniego

Samaniego came into Tuesday’s game in the bottom of the eighth inning. The lefty would’ve had a perfect inning of work if it wasn’t for a catching error from first baseman Bowen. 

As a result, Samaniego allowed a single after the error but recorded his second strikeout of the inning on Damiano Palmegiani, preserving the 5-1 lead. 

Samaniego’s final line read 1.0 innings pitched, one hit, no runs, no walks, and two strikeouts.