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Bubba Chandler, RHP, Pirates: Chandler was one of the most dominant pitchers in the minors for the better part of the first two months of the season. June wasn't as kind to baseball's No. 10 prospect. Chandler failed to complete more than four innings in any of his five starts last month, including one where he was lifted after recording just two outs. But July has been much better.

Chandler tossed six scoreless innings Thursday against Triple-A Gwinnett, striking out seven while walking just two batters. He has now thrown two consecutive scoreless six-inning outings. Chandler threw the hardest pitch of the day (100.2 mph) and tied for the most swings and misses (15) of all Triple-A pitchers. More importantly, Chandler has been in the strike zone far more frequently after struggling mightily with fastball command during his blip. He now has a 15-inning scoreless streak.

Chandler still ranks among the game's finest pitching prospects, even if his orgmate Konnor Griffin has leapfrogged him in the Pirates' Top 30 Prospects. The Pirates figure to be sellers over the next three weeks, so perhaps a long-awaited spot in the rotation will finally come open for Chandler in the not-too-distant future.

Brandon Sproat, RHP, Mets: Sproat fired seven scoreless innings against Triple-A Lehigh Valley yesterday, allowing three hits and striking out four. It is the third straight scoreless start for the 24-year-old. In that time, he has tossed 18 innings with 18 strikeouts, five walks and seven hits allowed. Until his recent run, Sproat had struggled at Triple-A since being elevated to the level last August. He has tweaked his repertoire of late to emphasize his curveball and changeup, giving him weapons to combat lefthanded hitters, rather than relying on his slider and sweeper. Sproat has lowered his ERA this season from 5.95 to 4.61 with his recent run of three strong starts.

Dante Nori, OF, Phillies: The Phillies' top pick in the 2024 draft had perhaps his best game of the season on July 10 for Low-A Clearwater. Nori hit his second home run of the season as part of a 2-for-4 day that also included a double and a stolen base. The 20-year-old leads the Florida State League with 79 hits, and his production has been on an upswing in July. Nori is hitting .310/.459/.483 with seven walks and five strikeouts through eight games in July.

Kendry Rojas, LHP, Blue Jays: Rojas opened the season on the injured list with an abdominal injury. He made his first start for Double-A New Hampshire on July 4 and followed with his second start on Thursday. Rojas turned in one of the best starts of his pro career, tossing five scoreless innings with 10 strikeouts, zero walks and two hits allowed. The 22-year-old Cuban generated strikeouts with all three pitch types—fastball, slider, changeup—while designating his mid-90s fastball as his go-to out pitch versus Somerset.

Brice Matthews, 2B/SS, Astros: With multiple infielders on the injured list, including shortstop Jeremy Peña, the Astros called up Triple-A Sugar Land second baseman Brice Matthews, their first-round pick out of Nebraska in 2023. The 23-year-old hit .283/.400/.476 with 10 home runs and 25 stolen bases in 73 games for Sugar Land this season. Matthews ranks third in the Pacific Coast League in stolen bases and sixth with 50 walks.

Editor’s Picks

Fast Movers? Geoff Pontes highlights a dozen prospects in the 2025 draft class who could reach the majors as soon as next year. Read more…

MLB Draft Tracker: Make this your own for all of our draft content this weekend. We’ll have new BA 500 rankings today, a fresh mock and plenty of more insights leading up to the first round on Sunday. Read more…

Baltimore’s Spending Power: Carlos Collazo explains why the O’s just became the most interesting team of the first round. Read more…

Baseball America Helium Pick Of The Day

Each day, we’ll pick a prospect that has our attention.

Antwone Kelly, RHP, Pirates: Kelly is one of the bigger breakouts in the Pirates system this year. He bullied High-A hitters with his upper-90s fastball that regularly creeps into the triple digits and earned a promotion to Double-A Altoona in late June. So far, it's been more of the same for Kelly, who struck out a season-high nine batters on Thursday over 4.2 innings against Binghamton while allowing just a single run. Kelly now has a 1.17 ERA with 18 strikeouts to five walks in 15.1 innings since arriving in the upper minors.

Quick Hits

Prospect news and notes from around baseball…

• Giants pitching prospect Luis De La Torre struck out seven over four scoreless Low-A innings last night. Baseball America highlighted him last month.

• Mariners infielder Colt Emerson went 3-for-5 with a homer and a double for High-A Everett.

• Kaelen Culpepper remains on fire. The newly-added Top 100 Prospect went 3-for-5 with a homer and has a .956 OPS in 16 games since his promotion to Double-A Wichita.

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