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First Pitch: There’s No Shortage of Games to Cover in the Off-Season

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Whenever I tell someone that I write about baseball, one of the questions they are guaranteed to ask is: So what do you do in the off-season?

My answer is that there is no off-season in baseball. And I’m not talking just the off-season transactions. I mean the game literally never ends.

The Pirates are wrapping up their minor league season this week. Altoona was eliminated from the playoffs tonight. Bradenton won to take a 2-1 lead in the Florida State League championship. They can win the title with a win tomorrow or Tuesday. After that, the 2016 season will come to an end, preferably tomorrow, but no later than Tuesday.

On Wednesday, the off-season leagues pick right up. The Fall Instructional League (“instructs”) starts this week, and the first game is on Wednesday. The Pirates won’t be playing any other teams (except two Friday home games versus Phillies), instead playing intrasquad games. That works well for me, because it guarantees that I’ll see two pitchers and two lineups each time I cover the games. And since the Pirates at the big league level aren’t contending this year, it’s going to be a lot of minor league coverage from Pirate City for me over the next month.

Here is the schedule for instructs, along with the rosters below. Scroll down below those lists for more.

2016instructsschedule

PITCHERS (42)
Anderson, Matt (21)
Beddes, Daniel (21)
Bingel, Brandon (21)
Brentz, Jacob * (21)
Brubaker, Jonathan (22)
Cederlind, Blake (20)
Cesar Toribio, Joel (20)
Coursel, Robert (22)
Cubilete, Sergio (21)
DuRapau, Montana (24)
Eckelman, Matt (22)
Economos, Nicholas (20)
Escobar, Luis (20)
Frawley, Matt (20)
Garcia, Yeudy (23)
Hartlieb, Geoffrey (22)
Hearn, Taylor * (21)
Helton, Bret (22)
Hernandez, Miguel (20)
Hinsz, Gage (20)
Jess, Jordan (23)
Kranick, Max (18)
MacGregor, Travis (18)
Manzanillo, Yeudry (17)
Mazzocoli, Pasquale (24)
McRae, Alex (23)
Neverauskas, Dovydas (23)
Ogle, Braeden * (18)
Oller, Adam (21)
Pina, Leandro (17)
Pomeroy, John (21)
Prohoroff, Dylan (21)
Robles, Domingo * (18)
Santana, Edgar (24)
Santana, Roger * (18)
Schlabach, Isaac * (19)
Scotti, Claudio (17)
Sendelbach, Logan (22)
Shields, Austin (18)
Taylor, Jacob (20)
Vasquez, Pedro (20)
Vieaux, Cameron * (22)
CATCHERS (9)
Bormann, John (23)
Brands, Paul (19)
Brito, Gabriel (18)
Gibbs, Brent (21)
Hernandez, Raul (20)
Jhang, Jin De * (23)
Kelley, Christian (22)
Pabst, Arden (21)
Synek, Boomer * (23)
INFIELDERS (12)
Alemais, Stephen (21)
Castro, Rodolfo # (17)
Craig, William (21)
DeJesus, Johan # (19)
Herrera, Jhoan * (20)
Joe, Connor (23)
Kramer, Kevin * (22)
Leffler, Tyler (21)
Mahala, Kevin (21)
Mepris, Francisco # (18)
Ngoepe, Mpho “Gift” (26)
Ngoepe, Victor (18)
Perez, Cristofer (18)
Reyes, Alfredo (22)
Tucker, Cole # (18)
Valerio, Adrian (19)
Wood, Eric (23)
OUTFIELDERS (9)
Brown, Garrett (23)
Contreras, Yondry (18)
de la Cruz, Michael * (19)
Diorio, Matt * (20)
Eagan, Clark * (21)
Fernandez, Victor (21)
Hughston, Casey * (22)
Owen, Hunter (22)
Portorreal, Geremias * (18)
Sanchez, Lolo (17)

As you may notice, the last game is on October 8th. The Arizona Fall League is scheduled to begin on October 11th. I’ll be covering that live again this year during the first week of November. We will also have daily off-season reports on the AFL, along with daily reports on the rest of the winter leagues. Those leagues will run through early January, and some into late January. The early January period is when the Pirates hold their mini-camp. And then early February is when Spring Training begins.

Somewhere in there, I’ll actually find time to write a book, known as the 2017 Prospect Guide.

So as you can see, the off-season is still a very busy time for us, and there’s still plenty of live coverage. The actual minor league season is ending this week, and the Major League season has about three weeks left. But baseball is a 12-month thing for us.

As usual, on Sunday night I recap the ten biggest stories of the week. You should sign up to read these, most of which include exclusive information that you can’t find elsewhere. By subscribing, you’ll also get all of our live reports throughout the off-season.

10. Elias Diaz was shut down for the year with a leg infection. This ends a season filled with injuries for the catcher. Fortunately, the Pirates don’t need him in a big role anytime soon, as they’ve got Francisco Cervelli as their catcher. Diaz will provide strong depth out of Triple-A, to take over for injuries next year.

9. Alex McRae had a good season with Altoona. Sean McCool talked with him about how he turned his season around, going from initially posting poor numbers, to putting up some of the best numbers on the team down the stretch.

8. Barrett Barnes had a huge second half, and it was good enough for him to win our Player of the Month award for August. He also won in July, making him the first player to win in back-to-back months for us since we started the monthly honors a few years ago.

7. Connor Joe has been on fire in the playoffs, and that follows a big second half for the third baseman. I wrote on Thursday about some of the changes he made that led to the better hitting.

6. Yeudy Garcia had his best start of the year in the playoffs on Friday night. He hasn’t had the best overall season this year, but has made some progress, and is going from being a thrower to a pitcher.

5. Neal Huntington discussed how the Pirates were going to manage their young pitcher’s workloads down the stretch. He also analyzes what went wrong this year with the team now looking out of contention.

4. Trevor Williams made his MLB debut this week, and it was a big one, getting his first career win after three solid innings. Alan Saunders talked with Williams after he got called up, looking at what adjustments he made to put up strong numbers the final two months, and earn the promotion.

3. Ivan Nova has been a huge addition for the Pirates since the deadline. I broke down his numbers with the team, looking at why he’s been such a successful reclamation project, and why he should be an extension candidate. Alan Saunders will have a lot more on Nova early this week.

2. The Pirates don’t look like they’re in contention at this point, which means the focus now goes toward the future. Despite a poor season with a lot of underperformers, this team still has a bright future, with a lot of young talent already on the roster, and a lot of young talent still on the way.

1. One of the best stories this year in the minors, or the entire organization, has been the emergence of Mitch Keller as a top prospect. Keller was our Pitcher of the Month for August. He also made a big start today, throwing eight shutout innings for Bradenton to lead them to a 2-1 series lead. I had a full recap in the Prospect Watch (also includes Sean McCool’s live recap of Altoona’s loss and Brandon Waddell’s game). I’ll have a lot more on Keller tomorrow.

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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