Pirates prospect Termarr Johnson had his first 3 hit game this season on Friday Night June 20.
The Altoona curve had a game earlier in the day which was a continuation of a postponed game from Thursday, June 19 starting in the 3rd inning. Termarr Johnson had his 3 hit game in the second game of yesterday's double header.
Termarr Johnson was much more aggressive than he usually is. He swung at the first pitch in his second and third at bat, both leading to singles. In his first at bat he hit a 2-1 pitch for his first hit of the game, again a single. In his first 3 at bats, Termarr saw one fastball which he took the other way for one of his hits. Teams love to pitch break on the outside half of the plate to Termarr. As the announcer said during the game, he hopes Termarr will play to his strength and spray the ball to all fields in the second half of the season.
Termarr leads the Curve with 7 home runs and has a 17% k-rate on the season. It seems this month the Pirates are urging players to reduce K-Rate, and Termarr has done just that. Despite leading the Curve in home runs he has sacrificed power overall with a slugging of .383 in June.
Speaking of reducing strikeouts in June while sacrificing power, Mitch Jebb has struck out 3 times in June which is a K-Rate of 3%. Mitch Jebb will never be a power guy, but in June his slugging is .214. That needs to improve. It's also worthy to note he has a 11% walk rate in June. Keeping a good BB% while having such a minuscule K% is a good sign.
The Altoona announcers believe both Jebb and Johnson are good hitters, let's hope they are right. The second half of the season in Altoona should shine some light on the topic.