Every Friday we run a Q&A with questions that I’ve received throughout the week. You can submit your questions all week by using the Q&A form on the bottom of the site. This week we had a few questions that resulted in longer answers, and a lot of questions about Spring Training stats (I only answered one). Below are the questions for this week.
Austin Shirley: If Tyler Glasnow puts up Bradenton like numbers in Altoona would there be any chance of a promotion to Indianapolis at the end of the year?
Glasnow is in an interesting position. The Pirates typically have their starting pitching prospects throw about 150 innings at the Double-A level, before being promoted to Indianapolis. The one exception here has been Gerrit Cole, and even in that case, people in the organization and coaches in Altoona at the time didn’t think he was ready to make the jump.
The thing about Glasnow’s numbers in Bradenton is that they were fantastic, but didn’t tell the story of what was going on. He was working on his fastball command, which was hidden behind the numbers because his stuff was good enough to get away with mistakes in A-ball. That may or may not be the case in Double-A. It might not even be the case in Triple-A. But he’s not going to reach his upside in the majors unless he continues to improve on his command.
Any mid-season promotion for Glasnow will have to be a result of his stuff, and not his numbers. I’m not sure if he falls in the Gerrit Cole category right now. There’s also the fact that Cole was promoted to Indianapolis early because it was the end of the season, and he was on pace to spend half a season with Indianapolis in 2013, before making the jump to the majors. Glasnow could have a full season in Altoona, and still have half a season with Indianapolis. Since he’s not coming up before mid-season 2016, there wouldn’t be much of a need to rush him through Altoona.
The only way I see him making it to Indianapolis at the end of the year is if they make the playoffs and Altoona misses the playoffs. That would likely result in a promotion during the final week of the season, in order to get more playoff experience for Glasnow.
Michael Nelson: Would it make sense to have Kang start at 3B and move Harrison around the diamond again to give every starter a day off? 1 day at 3B, SS, 2B, RF, and twice in LF (Marte covering CF 1 of those days).
First, you’d have to be sure that Kang is good enough to start, and comfortable playing third base. As for moving Harrison around, that wouldn’t be a bad idea to keep everyone fresh by going with the “Golden State Warriors” approach. You’re using six games per week here, and the only change I would make would be one start in left field. I wouldn’t want to see Andrew McCutchen taking off one game per week. Also, this schedule would give Harrison six games per week, and everyone else would get five games per week. If you cut out that second start in left field, then you’ve got six games from McCutchen, and five from everyone else.
This also assumes Harrison is hitting as well as he was last year. If he’s not, then it might not make sense to bench everyone once a week in order to get him a starter’s workload.
David Gaudino: So far in the early games, it looks like the players who we expected to compete for those final roster spots are not off to a great start of spring training games while other are playing well?
I don’t put much stock in Spring Training stats. Last year with Andrew Lambo was an example. He struggled in Spring Training and was sent to Triple-A. Travis Ishikawa had a good Spring and won a spot. A month later, Ishikawa was out as the starter, the Pirates traded for Ike Davis, and Lambo was hitting just fine with Indianapolis. Maybe Lambo doesn’t do well in the majors if he gets the job over Ishikawa. But Ishikawa showed that Spring Training success doesn’t guarantee regular season success. And he’s not the only example. Remember a few years ago when everyone thought Matt Hague was suddenly becoming a power hitter because of his Spring Training numbers? You could probably spend all day finding examples of guys who had unexpected numbers during the Spring, then righted the ship in April.
Lee Young: If Allie does his 3 outcome ‘thing’ at Indy, does his MLB chances go up? And secondly, Glasnow said that Allie’s defense is the best he’s ever played with. Is Allie’s defense that good?
I don’t know if his MLB chances go up, because he would still need to make the jump to the majors and have the same stats. It seems very unlikely that he sees no drop off from his Double-A stats to his MLB stats without an improvement to his strikeouts.
As for the defense, Allie’s defense has been surprisingly good, considering how new he is to the position. That said, I don’t think Glasnow’s statement is strong praise. Here are some of the other first basemen he has played with in pro ball.
Samuel Gonzalez – Converted from catcher that year after having labrum surgery.
Jared Lakind – He’s now a pitcher.
Edwin Espinal – Converted from third base, and horribly out of shape at the time he played with Glasnow.
Jose Osuna – Converted from the outfield, and doesn’t have strong defense.
I’d say Allie is the best of the group, but it’s not a good group. That doesn’t diminish his defense. It’s good, but still needs improvement, which is to be expected considering how new he is to the position. Ultimately, his hitting is what will matter, and the defense will be a bonus.
