The Pirates have promoted first baseman Matt Curry from Class A West Virginia to Class AA Altoona, Pirates Prospects reports.
↵There's little doubt Curry deserved to be promoted - he was hitting a ridiculous .361 AVG / .477 OBP / .671 SLG at West Virginia. What's significant about this promotion, though, is that the Pirates are having Curry skip Class A+ Bradenton. That's strange, because Curry dominated at West Virginia right out of the chute, and there was plenty of time for the Bucs to promote him, say, a month ago. His hitting coach at West Virginia even expressed concern about Curry getting bored on a team filled with much-less-mature hitters. Instead, the Bucs kept Curry at West Virginia for two months, then had him skip Class A+ altogether. It's a minor detail, and the Pirates' development staff tends to be very thorough and thoughtful, so I'm sure they had a reason for doing things this way.
↵Anyway, this aggressive promotion suggests the Pirates see Curry as a serious prospect. Let's hope they're right.