ALTOONA, PA – The Pittsburgh Pirates chose seven players to go to the Arizona Fall League, including three plays who are currently chasing a division championship and playoff spot for the Altoona Curve — Eric Wood, Jin-De Jhang, and Montana DuRapau.
The Arizona Fall League, which begins on October 11th this year, announced their rosters on Wednesday afternoon. Other players selected to participate this year include Austin Meadows, Dovydas Neverauskas, Edgar Santana, and Trevor Williams.
After the Curve defeated the Binghamton Mets on Wednesday in Altoona, the three current Curve players and their coaches reacted to their selection.
“It’s a great honor for those guys,” Curve manager Joey Cora said. “Obviously, when they select you, it’s saying that you have a shot at the big leagues. Hopefully, they can keep going. They are having a good year or obviously they wouldn’t be going there.”
Eric Wood is one of the most interesting selections this season, as he made great strides this season to improve on his prospect status. Last year, Wood .237 with a .608 OPS for the Altoona Curve while playing a suspect third base. This year, Wood repeated Double-A, still a year younger than the league average in age, and he made great strides both at the plate and in the field.
Wood is hitting .255 with a .805 OPS this season, while greatly improving his defense at third base. He has 16 home runs for the Curve this season, more than he had total in his career leading into 2016.
Wood was thrilled to be asked to play in the fall league, saying that the competition in the league is what excites him the most.
“It’s another opportunity to keep playing,” Wood said. “Obviously, it’s against great competition, and that’s where I want to be. I want to be playing against the best there is.”
Wood most importantly wants to improve upon his consistency, and he believes that playing in the AFL will help him find that consistent play in his game.
“It’s pretty much a separator from the minors to the majors,” Wood said about being a more consistent baseball player. “I need to be able to do it consistently every night. That’s my objective. That was my objective for the season, but it will continue down there.”
In the forefront, Wood said that the team needs to finish their business in the Eastern League, as they are up by one game in the Eastern League Western Division.
“It’s one of those things where we are trying to finish strong here and take care of business this season,” Wood said, “but it will be very exciting to get down there.”
Jin-De Jhang said that he was pretty surprised to be selected to participate in the AFL. He was mostly a backup to Reese McGuire through the first half of the season, and he has been essentially splitting time with Chris Stewart this month as the major league catcher was rehabbing with the Curve. Jhang, who is currently batting .301 for the Curve, can benefit from the extra playing time in Arizona.
“I was very surprised, you know,” Jhang told me on Wednesday night. “When they told me to go, I’m very happy, and I’m ready to play in the league.”
Jhang said that he wants to work on his receiving, blocking, and throwing while in the AFL, as he is pretty confident in his hitting currently. The one positive of Chris Stewart rehabbing in Altoona is the fact that Jhang has been able to learn from major league catcher, as Stewart talked about working with Jhang a few weeks ago.
The Altoona coaching staff have raved over Jhang’s defensive improvements over the course of the season, saying that he has been able to work on some of the little things to help his catching. Even so, Jhang still knows that his defense is what needs to continue to improve.
“I feel confident with my hitting,” Jhang said. “I just need my defense to get better to help the team win.”
Along with Eric Wood, Jhang will get to continue working with his current hitting coach down in the AFL. Altoona’s Kevin Riggs will serve in the same capacity for Surprise. Riggs will also get a chance to reunite with Austin Meadows down in Arizona.
Lastly, Montana DuRapau said that his reaction was “hell yeah” when they asked him to participate in the Arizona Fall League.
“I’m just going to go there and test myself, because this is another opportunity to see how good I can be,” DuRapau said. “I definitely have things I need to work on, which I will try to work out, but overall, I just want to perform and see what I’m made of.”
DuRapau, who has been used in mostly a closer capacity this season, has allowed a few more hits of late, but he is still has a 2.81 ERA and leads active players in the Eastern League in saves at 22.
His pitching coach said that it will be a great opportunity for DuRapau to face some upper level hitters.
“The biggest thing is getting him some more upper level experience against some of the best hitters in the game,” Justin Meccage said. “We just want to be able to challenge him where he’s at. That’s the biggest thing. Much more than a certain pitch or needing more innings, he just needs to see some more upper level hitters and see how he plays.”
DuRapau said that he does not want to let the organization down in their decision to choose him.
“I’m very excited for the decision that they made, and I’m not going to let them down.”
As for Wood, he really feels that this season and his selection for the AFL could continue this fantastic turnaround season.
“This year has had its ups and downs,” Wood said. “I won’t look into the rearview mirror anymore; rather, I will look ahead. I’m hungry, and I want to get to the big leagues. I just have to keep moving forward.”
