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Pittsburgh Pirates minor leaguers own leaderboards

By Brody Hilgenkamp

Mar 3, 2016; Bradenton, FL, USA; Pittsburgh Pirates first baseman Josh Bell (55) during the sixth inning against the Toronto Blue Jays at McKechnie Field. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 3, 2016; Bradenton, FL, USA; Pittsburgh Pirates first baseman Josh Bell (55) during the sixth inning against the Toronto Blue Jays at McKechnie Field. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports /
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March 21, 2012; Port Charlotte, FL, USA; A detail of a Tampa Bay Rays hat and glove in the dugout for a spring training game against the New York Yankees at Charlotte Sports Park. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports
Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports /

The Tampa Bay Rays and Pittsburgh Pirates have minor league pitchers impersonating the game’s premier strikeout artist, plus more minor league notes.

On Saturday, Yonny Chirinos of the Charlotte Stone Crabs, the Tampa Bay Rays Class A Advanced affiliate,  tossed six innings and allowed one run on five hits and six strikeouts. The start was just a blip on the minor league radar considering Chirinios isn’t ranked among the Ray’s top 30 prospects.

But it was an interesting start considering he is impersonating one of the greatest pitching performances we’ve ever seen.

Los Angeles Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw is threatening to break the single season record for strikeout-to-walk ratio. According to FanGraphs, the single season record was set in 1884 by Lady Baldwin. Baldwin struck out 21.00 hitters for every walk that season, and entering Wednesday’s start Kershaw was sitting at 20.33. (Baseball-Reference says the record is 11.6250 by Phil Hughes in 2014, in which case Kershaw will obliterate the record.)

Chirinos, among other pitchers, is paying homage to Kershaw with his ridiculous K/BB ratio. Among all minor league pitchers with at least 40 innings pitched, Chirinos has the highest K/BB at 18.00. That insane level of control has led him to a 1.77 earned run average and 2.81 Fielding Independent Pitching between Class A and Class A Advanced. Furthermore, Chirinos hasn’t walked a batter since May 14.

Entering Wednesday, Mitch Keller of the Pittsburgh Pirates had walked six batters in 62 innings for an 11.50 K/BB, fourth in the minors. Keller started yesterday and threw five innings and allowed two runs with one walk and seven strikeouts.

Striking out a lot of hitters while issuing few free passes is one of the hallmarks of a good pitcher, so it should come as no surprise that most of the pitcher’s atop the minor league K/BB leaderboard are among the best pitchers. For example, at sixth on the list is Pirates pitcher Jameson Taillon, who made his major league debut June 8 and nearly tossed a no-hitter Tuesday against the New York Mets.

For the second week in a row, strike-throwing machines kick off our minor league notes. Let’s see what’s happening around the rest of the minors.

Next: Triple A

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