10 top Pirates prospects on Altoona Curve opening-day roster

The Altoona Curve set their opening day roster Thursday. As is typical, the Pirates' Double-A affiliate features a bounty of the organization's top prospects.

Ten players listed among the top 30 prospects lists for the Pirates by either MLB.com or Baseball America will start the 2018 season with the Curve, including consensus top prospect Mitch Keller.

A righthanded pitcher, Keller is ranked the No. 12 prospect by Baseball America, No. 15 by MLB.com. Also beginning with Altoona are three Pirates' first-round picks taken over the prior four drafts: infielders Will Craig (2016), Ke'Bryan Hayes (2015) and Cole Tucker (2014).

Will Craig flexed some as he drove this ball out to center for his first #SpringTraining homer. No. 18 on the #Pirates Top 30 Prospects list: https://t.co/ApnAp2jFgG pic.twitter.com/wD0y9e5w1Y

— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) March 24, 2018

The centerpiece of the Andrew McCutchen trade, outfielder Bryan Reynolds, was assigned to Altoona, as have lefthanders Taylor Hearn and Brandon Waddell, righthanders Dario Agrazal and Yeudy Garcia and infielder Stephen Alemais.

Hayes, Tucker, Reynolds and Hearn have top-10 organizational prospect rankings by MLB.com and/or Baseball America.

The Curve's 20th season was scheduled to begin Thursday night at home against Akron.

Chris Adamski is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at cadamski@tribweb.com or via Twitter @C_AdamskiTrib.