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First Pitch: Filling the Biggest Needs in the Pirates Farm System

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Over the last few years, the Pittsburgh Pirates have had one of the top farm systems in the game. What makes that even more impressive is the fact that they’ve remained ranked so high, despite graduating top prospects every year like Starling Marte, Gerrit Cole, and Gregory Polanco. That’s the sign of a strong system, when you can lose one of the top prospects in the game, and still remain in the top ten of baseball. Despite this overall strength, one thing I notice each year is the same complaint — pointing out the specific weaknesses of the system.

Farm systems are evaluated based on talent. That’s overall talent, and not the talent at each position. If you’re looking for a system that has a top prospect at every position, then you’re going to find zero results. And it’s that desire to have a prospect at every position that leads to wanting to draft for need, or wanting a player to play a position that he has no business playing, due to his horrible defensive skills at that spot.

The Pirates have two key weaknesses in their system — third base and left-handed pitching. I’d include first base, but that no longer seems to be a big weakness, since they have one of the top first base prospects after Josh Bell’s move from the outfield.

Today I wrote two articles from minor league camp, looking at some players who could help improve those weak areas in the system. The first article was a video feature on Connor Joe, who was drafted by the Pirates in the competitive balance portion of the first round in 2014. He missed the entire year with a back injury, and is just now getting into action. The Pirates announced when he was drafted that he would get time at first base. But today they had him working out at third base.

That’s a good thing, for reasons noted above. The only third base prospect the Pirates really have is Wyatt Mathisen, and he’s largely unproven. He was converted to third base last year after spending his first two seasons behind the plate. The Pirates also have guys like Dan Gamache, Eric Wood, and Chase Simpson, although they either look like future bench players, or in Simpson’s case, they’re too far off and too old for their level to be called prospects.

The Pirates will still be weak at third base if Joe starts playing there. But they’ll be taking the right step towards having a third baseman. Currently they don’t need a replacement until after the 2017 season, assuming Josh Harrison works out over the next three years. So they’ve got time to develop a guy. And Joe, just like Mathisen, has enough time and is close enough to the majors to be ready after Harrison leaves, assuming all goes well with his development.

The approach with Joe is similar to what the Pirates did with Mathisen. Draft an athletic player who has good hitting potential, and hope he can play a difficult position to fill. Mathisen started off at catcher, but quickly moved to third base after the catching position started filling up in the lower levels. Joe was drafted as an outfielder, but will have a hard time getting work at the position, especially after his back injury. So a move to third, where he might not work out defensively, but where he would have more value if he does work out, makes a lot of sense. The Pirates did the exact same thing with JaCoby Jones, drafting him as an outfielder and moving him to shortstop.

Left-handed pitching is another need, and that need was only made worse by a series of moves over the last year. The Pirates traded Blake Taylor for Ike Davis, and traded Joely Rodriguez for Antonio Bastardo. They also saw Wei-Chung Wang go to the Brewers in the Rule 5 draft. That depleted their left-handed starter supply, with the exception of Cody Dickson. This situation was improved when they traded Travis Snider to the Orioles, getting back Stephen Tarpley and Steven Brault.

I wrote about Tarpley and Brault today, noting the changes they made last year, how they did against Pirates’ affiliates, and some of the differences they are noticing between Orioles camp and Pirates camp. As I’ve said many times about the trade, the verdict will highly depend on how Andrew Lambo does in the majors. If he does well, and doesn’t provide a drop off from Travis Snider, then the Pirates will have been able to land two good left-handed pitching prospects while staying the same in the majors.

It’s harder to fill that left-handed need, as opposed to the need at a specific position on the field. You can’t just move someone to the position. You actually need a left-hander. With the future rotation in Pittsburgh made up of a ton of right-handers, and with PNC Park being favorable to lefties, you kind of want a left-hander to step up.

The Pirates still have a strong system, all because of the overall talent. But if you were hoping to see them make some moves to fill specific needs (and I don’t think they made all of these moves for that sole purpose), then you’re getting your wish.

**We have about 100 paperback books of the 2015 Prospect Guide remaining from the most recent shipment. We’ve already sold more than last year’s total, and I don’t anticipate ordering another shipment this year. That means once the current batch is gone, the hard copy version will be sold out. You can order your copy of the book on the products page of the site.

**Every day I upload content on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and the video features on YouTube. Be sure that you’re subscribed to all of those sites to follow everything we upload throughout Spring Training (there is different content for each social media site).

**Meet Connor Joe: The First Round Pick You Know Nothing About. I caught up with Joe to get the latest on his injury, where he might be playing in 2015, and video of his progress on the field.

**Watch Josh Bell, JaCoby Jones, And Austin Meadows Taking Non-Stop Batting Practice. A fun video looking at all three taking batting practice at the same time in a split cage.

**Will The Snider Trade Result In The Pirates Finally Having A Left-Handed Starting Prospect? A look at Tarpley and Brault, what they were working on before the trade, what to expect from them in 2015, and some differences between how the Orioles and Pirates do things.

**Alvarez Beating The Shift, Cervelli’s Defense, Worley’s Improvements, Lambo Comfortable. Notes from today’s game, and where each of these players are at during this point in camp.

**Josh Harrison Leaves Spring Training Game With Left Ankle Discomfort. Harrison said he would give an update in the morning on his status.

**Pirates Agree To Terms With All 21 Of Their Unsigned Players. All of the players on the 40-man roster are now under contract.

Tim Williams
Tim Williams
Tim is the owner, producer, editor, and lead writer of PiratesProspects.com. He has been running Pirates Prospects since 2009, becoming the first new media reporter and outlet covering the Pirates at the MLB level in 2011 and 2012. His work can also be found in Baseball America, where he has been a contributor since 2014 and the Pirates' correspondent since 2019.

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