Pittsburgh Pirates pitchers lead minor league notes
The Pittsburgh Pirates will be getting help from two of their best pitching prospects very soon, plus other minor league notes.
The Pittsburgh Pirates lost a 9-4 affair to the Chicago Cubs yesterday. Pirates starting pitcher Francisco Liriano gave up eight runs, all from home runs, in 4 2/3 innings. For a team that is fighting for a playoff spot in a division being steamrolled by the aforementioned Cubs, it was a tough loss.
It was an especially tough loss for a team that finished second in the majors in fielding independent pitching (FIP) by its rotation last season. Prior to yesterday’s loss, the Pirates’ rotation had the eighth-worst FIP in 2016.
The Pirates have the talent to come back and make this a competitive division, but a fourth straight Wild Card Game appearance isn’t guaranteed: The New York Mets and Washington Nationals are slugging it out in the National League East; the St. Louis Cardinals are playing well and are tied with the Pirates in the NL Central; and the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants could get hot at any moment.
If the Pirates are to maintain their excellence from previous seasons, the rotation will need a jolt, and it could get some big ones from Indianapolis.
The Pirates’ Triple-A affiliate, the Indianapolis Indians, have two of the International League’s best pitchers. One is Tyler Glasnow, who is stifling offenses to the tune of a 2.13 earned run average and 11.61 strikeouts per nine innings pitched. The other is Jameson Taillon, who only strikes out 7.71/9 IP but has a 1.69 ERA and has walked only four batters in 37.1 innings.
Each pitcher is proving he is ready to retire major league hitters. But that doesn’t mean the Pirates are going to promote them early this season like the Atlanta Braves did with Aaron Blair. The Pirates don’t want to start their service clocks to early, Glasnow has some control issues he needs to iron out and Taillon didn’t pitch competitively in either 2014 or 2015.
Both Glasnow and Taillon have the track records to suggest they would help the Pirates. So how much longer can the Pirates justify keeping them in Triple-A?
With that, minor league notes are back after more than two weeks on hiatus. Onward, to Triple-A!
Next: Triple-A
Cincinnati Reds outfielder Jesse Winker may not have the sexiest stat line ever, but he’s cut from the same mold as Reds first baseman Joey Votto. Winker is seventh in the International League in walk rate (15.3 percent entering Friday) and strikes out almost as often as most other hitters walk.
Entering Friday’s game he was hitting .303 with a .405 on-base percentage but was slugging just .394. Winker has the potential to be a doubles machine, and as a left-handed hitter his home run pop would play up in Great American Ballpark.
Winker should make his major league debut at some point this season, because it seems as though everyone else in the International League has made theirs. But while players get promoted left and right, Pirates first baseman Josh Bell quietly plugs along without much hype. He had a .375 weight on-base average (wOBA) entering Friday, which was just below Nationals shortstop Trea Turner. Turner has been getting a lot of promotion buzz, and Bell should too.
Rockies pitcher Jeff Hoffman has a 2.16 ERA in the Pacific Coast League. That is third in the league, as is his opponent’s average (.205) while his opponents’ batting average on balls in play (.241) is fourth.
Next: Double-A
Philadelphia Phillies catching prospect Jorge Alfaro missed almost a month at the beginning of the season due to injury, but he’s been a stellar hitter when he’s been on the field. He slashed .500/.526/.750 in eight games prior to an injury to his right oblique and he has six hits in as many games since returning May 7.
The Phillies hope for big things from Alfaro, whom they received in the Cole Hamels trade with Texas at last season’s trade deadline. He played just three games in the Phillies’ system last season as he was hurt most the year. He’s off to a .407/.419/.610 line so far this season.
Milwaukee Brewers starting pitcher Josh Hader could turn into a steal. The Brewers received Hader from the Houston Astros in the Carlos Gomez trade, and he’s pitched splendidly for his new franchise. Since the trade, Hader has a 1.77 ERA, 2.36 FIP, 3.82 strikeout-to-walk ratio and is holding opponents to a .191 batting average.
In Wednesday’s start, Hader tossed six innings and allowed just one earned run and struck out six, bringing his ERA to 1.04 in 2016.
Harrison Bader just keeps on hitting. The St. Louis Cardinals outfielder spent the majority of 2015 as the University of Florida’s steady leadoff man. The Gators went to the College World Series and were a game away from making the championship series. Bader had eight hits, including two home runs, in 23 at bats in Omaha, then he combined to slash .311/.368/.523 with 11 home runs in 61 games between two levels of Class A.
The jump to Double-A hasn’t slowed Bader, as he’s on a 15-game hitting streak and is slashing .366/.410/.590 with seven home runs. He’s gone hitless in just five games in 2016.
Next: Class A-Advanced
Speaking of participants in the 2015 College World Series, Josh Sborz is having a successful time switching from a closer to a starter. Sborz was the closer on the CWS-champion Virginia Cavaliers, earning 15 saves. The Dodgers drafted him in the Competitive Balance B round last season, and he’s moved quickly through the minors.
Of Sborz’s 13 professional appearances last season, only three were starts, but he’s started in all seven of his games this season. While his 3.48 ERA doesn’t scream future Cy Young Award winner, he is pitching in the California League, one of the worst leagues for pitchers. Also working in his favor are his 4.00 K/BB and 10 walks in 44 innings.
Over in the Carolina League, two Boston Red Sox prospects are catching fire. Andrew Benintendi, an outfielder, and Yoan Moncada, a second baseman, are powering one of the best lineups in all of minor league baseball.
Benintendi had a double and triple in the first game of the season and hasn’t slowed down. He’s leading the league in batting average (.360), is second in slugging (.600), fifth in OBP (.414) and second in wOBA (.449).
Moncada has been no mere mortal. He’s slashing .322/.449/.517 and has 21 stolen bases, most in the league. He also leads the league in runs with 36.
Next: Class A
Since the calendar turned to May, no hitter in the Midwest League has been hotter than Tampa Bay Rays second base prospect Jake Cronenworth. The 2015 seventh round draft pick from the University of Michigan has hit .419/.519/.605 this month and has scored 14 runs in 11 games.
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Credit for Cronenworth’s sweltering start to the season goes to two things. One is his control of the strike zone. Entering Friday he was eighth in the league in walk rate (15.6%) and has such a low strikeout rate (14.9%) that average luck would produce a high on-base percentage.
The other factor is that his BABIP is .484—highest in the league—means the baseball gods couldn’t be any more generous.
That high BABIP has fueled his engorged OBP, and both will surely return to normal levels over the next few months. However, Cronenworth has cut his strikeout rate by more than 10 percentage points and he had a .399 OBP in 234 plate appearances in Class A Short Season in 2015, so his on-base skills are legitimate. Normal luck on batted balls will reveal how legitimate.
Over in the South Atlantic League, the Augusta GreenJackets, the Single-A affiliate of the Giants, have two of the best pitchers in the league. Phil Bickford, the Giants’ 2015 first round draft selection, is sixth in the league in strikeout rate (11.08/9 IP) and is holding opponents to a .215 average.
Next: Boston Red Sox: Class of the American League?
His teammate Michael Santos might not strike out as many hitters (7.49/9 IP) but he’s only walked three batters in 33 2/3 innings, resulting in the league’s fourth-best K/BB (9.33).