A popular question during the Winter League season is “How good are these leagues the Pirates players are competing in?” When a player like Gregory Polanco starts tearing up the league, people question how good the pitchers are that he is facing. It happened last year with Starling Marte when he was picking up Player of the Week awards consistently in the Dominican. So I broke down the competition just so people could see who Marte was playing against. With Polanco at nearly the same stage in his development that Marte was at in 2011, when he hit .328 with an .836 OPS in 30 games in the DWL, it’s a good time to break down the pitchers he has faced.
Polanco has 64 plate appearances so far this season. He is hitting .358 with five doubles, four homers, 11 walks and a 1.148 OPS in 14 games. He has also reached base at least once in every game his team has played, collecting hits in 13 straight before going 0-for-3 with a walk on Sunday. So the stats are off the charts early on in the year, but who exactly are these pitchers giving up all these hits? It is hard to give people an exact estimate of the talent because it is such a diverse talent pool. He could face a major leaguer one at-bat and a Low-A pitcher the next time up.
Below is a recap of every plate appearance, with an asterisk next to left-handed pitchers. The pitchers top level in 2013 is listed next to their name. For guys who played in the Mexican League, they are listed as Triple-A, which is the accepted level for the league. Other players are former pro players (including a couple former major leaguers) that only player Winter ball now. They are listed as None.
Game One
1. Jose Contreras, MLB – Fly out to CF
2. Contreras – Walk
3. Atahualpa Severino*, AAA – Home Run
4. Leuris Gomez, AA – Single
Game Two
5. Bruce Billings, AAA – Strikeout
6. Billings – Pop out to shortstop
7. Felix Diaz, AAA- Home Run
8. Jerry Gil, AAA – Line out to CF
Game Three
9. Hector Noesi, MLB – Strikeout
10. Noesi – Double
11. Noesi – Ground out
12. A. Severino* – Strikeout
Game Four
13. Omar Javier, AA – Double
14. Javier – Strikeout
15. Javier – Double
16. Luis Liria, A+ – Walk
17. Rafael Cruz, None – Strikeout
18. Francisco Samuel, None – Ground out
Game Five
19. Dustin Richardson*, AAA- Double
20. Richardson* – Single
21. Ramon Pena, A+ – Single
22. Frank Batista, AA – Walk
23. Ricardo Gomez, AAA – Home Run
Game Six
24. Eliah Villanueva, AAA – Single
25. Villanueva – Ground out
26. Adalberto Mendez, AAA – Strikeout
27. Bruedlin Suero*, A+ – Pop out to shortstop
Game Seven
28. Lorenzo Barcelo, AAA – Strikeout
29. Barcelo – Strikeout
30. Barcelo – Single
31. Johan Yan, AAA – Fly out to CF
Game Eight
32. Kyler Newby, AAA – Double
33. Newby – Strikeout
34. Franquelis Osoria, None – Strikeout
35. Kelvin Perez, AAA – Line out to CF
36. Erick Abreu, AAA – Ground out to 2B
Game Nine
37. Jeff Mandel, AAA – Ground out to P
38. Mandel – Single
39. Roman Colon, AAA – Strikeout
Game Ten
40. Robbie Ross*, MLB – Single
41. Claudio Vargas, AAA – Strikeout
42. Jhan Marinez, AAA – Fly out to CF
43. Mike Marbry, AA – Ground out to SS
44. Buddy Baumann*, AAA – Pop out to 3B
Game Eleven
45. B. Billings – Walk
46. B. Billings – Single
47. Jose Pina, AAA – Grand Slam
48. Wander Perez*, None – Strikeout
49. Rommie Lewis*, None – Ground out to 2B
50. Marcos Mateo, AAA – Walk
51. Wirfin Obispo, AAA – Walk
Game Twelve
52. Yunesky Maya, MLB – Line out to RF
53. Maya – Walk
54. A. Severino* – Walk
55. Manny Delcarmen, AAA – Single
Game Thirteen
56. J. Mandel – Walk
57. J. Mandel – Foul out to RF
58. J.Mandel – Single
59. Pedro Viola*, AAA – Strikeout
60. Ramon Ramirez, MLB – Walk
Game Fourteen
61. Chris Volstad, MLB – Ground out to 1B
62. Volstad – Walk
63. Ramon Ortiz, MLB – Pop out to 2B
64. Luis Vasquez, AAA – Fly out to RF
The Final Numbers And Analysis
Here are Polanco’s numbers against pitchers from each level.
MLB Pitchers: 3-for-8, 4 BB
Triple-A: 13-for-32, 3 HR, 5 BB
Double-A: 4-for-6, BB
A-Ball and Lower: 1-for-2, BB
Against players who didn’t play pro ball in 2013, he has gone 0-for-5. This is a tough group to categorize. They are usually guys who made it at least to AAA and haven’t played affiliated ball recently, but they are still active in the Winter Leagues. As mentioned above, there are some veterans in this group with major league experience.
Against left-handed pitchers, Polanco is 4-for-10 with a double and homer.
The basic finding is that the large majority of the players he is facing pitched in Triple-A this season, with some current and former major league players mixed in there. It obviously isn’t as good as what he will face with the Pittsburgh Pirates, but it is fairly equal to what he would see in a Triple-A season. With any small sample size, you can’t take too much from the numbers, but you get an idea of the type of pitchers he (and other players in the Dominican) are facing this off-season.
