Games are underway in the Florida Instructional Leagues, and ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel was covering the Pittsburgh Pirates this afternoon. Below are some tweets from McDaniel on today’s progress from some of the players, along with some of my notes below those tweets.
Stetson Allie hit by another pitch and fouled one off his foot. I think there’s a silent protest against him for his work on the mound.
— Kiley McDaniel (@kileymcd) September 27, 2012
Allie gets ahold of high fastball out over the plate and pulls it over the LF fence. There’s some hitting talent here to work with.
— Kiley McDaniel (@kileymcd) September 27, 2012
My Notes: Allie definitely has some raw power. My concern when he made the switch to being a position player was that he would struggle with strikeouts, which was the case this season. It’s not hard to find a guy with raw power who can’t hit for average and strikes out too much. That makes Allie a non-prospect as a hitter at this point. He’s a project, and while there is a chance he could improve his hitting, that chance seems very unlikely.
Luis Urena continues his breakout instructs for the Pirates. I’ve already seen 5 extra base hits in about 10 ABs
— Kiley McDaniel (@kileymcd) September 27, 2012
My Notes: Heading in to this year I had an irrational prospect love for Gregory Polanco, mostly based on his build and tools. Polanco broke out, which no longer made that prospect love irrational. Luis Urena is now taking his spot. I’ve been following Urena just as long as Polanco. Only Urena has yet to break out like Polanco did this year. Every time I start to cool on him, I watch him crush a homer, or throw a perfect strike from right field to third base, or demonstrate one of his other tools. Urena is a potential five tool guy who can hit for power, and has the build of a major league ball player. It’s good to see that he’s hitting so well in instructs.
Jameson Taillon with a ho-hum easy two innings at 94-96 with inconsistent feel for the curveball.
— Kiley McDaniel (@kileymcd) September 27, 2012
Victor Black only 95-97 in relief today. The pitchers jammed behind home plate hoping to see 100 are now relegated to chasing foul balls.
— Kiley McDaniel (@kileymcd) September 27, 2012
My Notes: Good to see Black keeping the velocity up, even if it isn’t the 99 MPH he hit the other day. I wouldn’t be too concerned with Taillon’s curve. It looked very sharp at the end of the year with Altoona.
Per LA Sports Management, Alen Hanson will be leaving instructs on Saturday to get ready for winter ball with Toros del Este.
I’ll be heading down to instructs in about two weeks to get the final information needed for the 2013 Prospect Guide, and to get some live reports.
Links and Notes
**The Pirates lost to the Mets 6-5.
**Pirates Notebook: Rough Start From Correia Sends Club 80th Loss; McCutchen, Walker Updates.
**From last night: 2013 Is the Make or Break Year for Huntington and Company.
September 28, 2012 at 8:22 am
I give you credit for mentioning Urena, but he repeated GCL in 2012 with very inconsistent results. He hit for a lower average, his W/K went from 1/2 to 1/5, but of the 29 hits he got, 16 were EBH’s. I think the Pirates are allowing Allie to develop physically and mature mentally and then I see him as being back as an upper 90′s pitcher. From everything I read, it is not any type of injury, it is just his inability to throw strikes. The most important tool in baseball is the quality of that space between the ears.
September 28, 2012 at 9:23 am
Allie’s only hope of making the majors is going back to pitching.
JMHO
Twitter: timwilliamsp2
September 28, 2012 at 9:25 am
Everything you mentioned about Urena is why I’ve cooled on him. But every time I do that, I see him go on a hot streak, or read a good report about him going on a hot streak. The BB/K ratio makes it less likely that he’ll be the next Polanco.
September 28, 2012 at 10:40 am
Urena is young, streaky goes with young. Watching Polanco for 5 minutes is enough to figure him out, he is another stud in the stable.
I did not like Allie when I saw him play a game in a high school all-star game, he will go down as a bad draft pick, problem is he cost about 2.5mil.
Twitter: timwilliamsp2
September 28, 2012 at 11:04 am
I liked Allie much better as a pitcher.
September 28, 2012 at 11:13 am
i think Allie’s time as a pitcher is over. they wont be pulling a james mcdonald with this guy.
September 28, 2012 at 9:22 am
Tim….if you go down to instructs, I hear they expect all press to go thru the same SEALS drills….just wanted to make sure you’re prepared for that.
lol
September 28, 2012 at 12:17 pm
Random thought, but talking about the seal training for a minute….all of the drills are pretty much the same thing as high school football players do in preseason work outs; rolling tires, running together, grappling….if our pro athletes cant handle that, they’re probably going to hurt themselves in the gym or doing sprints in the outfield before a game. What a massive overreaction all of that was. Just my opinion. I think it would be hilarious to see all the writers being yelled at to do drills in the outfield though. Lol
September 28, 2012 at 12:53 pm
Ian…I was one of the ‘knee jerkers’ and I am embarrased by it.