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Morning Report: How Did the Pirates Acquire Their Minor League Hitters?

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Yesterday’s Morning Report focused in on the 2017 minor league starting pitchers for the Pittsburgh Pirates, and how they were acquired by the team. It was a follow up to the same article a year earlier, giving a comparison between the two seasons. Over the previous two years, I have done the same thing for the position players on Opening Day. So today’s Morning Report will be a comparison between the last three seasons and how the minor league hitters were acquired.

The 2015 list included numerous players on the disabled list, so there were 63 total players for the four teams. It included 34 draft picks, 14 international free agents, 14 players acquired via free agency and one player signed as a non-drafted free agent.

In 2016, there were 56 players on the Opening Day rosters. Of those players, 35 were draft picks, 14 were international signings, four were free agents, one was a trade, one a non-drafted free agent and one minor league Rule 5 pick. With seven fewer players, the Pirates still had one extra player who was originally signed by them, meaning they were much more homegrown than the previous year.

I won’t mention the players individually like I did yesterday, mostly due to the amount of position players. Here are the individual breakdowns by each team’s Opening Day roster, followed by the totals. The Pirates didn’t have anyone on the disabled list this year, so there are fewer total players.

Indianapolis: 5 draft picks, 3 international, 2 trade, 2  free agent

Altoona: 7 draft picks, 4 international, 1 free agent

Bradenton: 10 draft picks, 1 international, 1 minor league Rule 5 pick

West Virginia: 8 draft picks, 3 international, 1 non-drafted free agent

The combined breakdown for the 48 players has 30 draft picks, 11 international signings, three free agents, two acquired via trade, one non-drafted free agent and one minor league Rule 5 pick. That gives them 42 out of 48 players who would be considered homegrown talent. The percentages are comparable to last year and it shows that the Pirates are doing a better job of advancing their own talent to the upper levels, especially compared to the 14 minor league free agents in 2015. The Pirates didn’t even sign 14 minor league free agents total this off-season (including pitchers).

PIRATES GAME GRAPH


Source: FanGraphs

TODAY’S SCHEDULE

Today’s Starter and Notes: The Pittsburgh Pirates lost 9-2 to the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday night. The Pirates now travel to Boston for one game, which is a makeup of the postponed game from opening week. Chad Kuhl will start this afternoon. In his first start, he allowed two earned runs over five innings, though that came with six walks. The Red Sox will counter with 24-year-old lefty Eduardo Rodriguez. Bradenton has a doubleheader today, one of the rare scheduled doubleheaders you will see in the minors. Almost all doubleheaders involve a makeup game being played. Tyler Eppler makes his second start, trying to build on five shutout innings in his debut. Mitch Keller makes his second start, and shouldn’t have trouble improving on five earned runs over 2.1 innings in his debut.

MLB: Pittsburgh (3-5) @ Red Sox (4-4) 2:05 PM
Probable starter: Chad Kuhl (3.60 ERA, 6:5 BB/SO, 5.0 IP)

AAA: Indianapolis (2-5) @ Toledo (5-2) 4:05 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Tyler Eppler (0.00 ERA, 0:4 BB/SO, 5.0 IP)

AA: Altoona (4-3) vs Akron (2-5) 6:00 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Brandon Waddell (9.00 ERA, 1:5 BB/SO, 4.0 IP)

High-A: Bradenton (7-0) @ Tampa (4-3) 5:00 PM DH (season preview)
Probable starter: Mitch Keller (19.29 ERA, 0:3 BB/SO, 2.1 IP) and Logan Sendelbach (0.00 ERA, 0:5 BB/SO, 4.1 IP)

Low-A: West Virginia (1-6) @ Lexington (2-5) 7:05 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Oddy Nunez (15.00 ERA, 1:2 BB/SO, 3.0 IP)

HIGHLIGHTS

From Tuesday night, two fine defensive plays by Indianapolis. First up is Austin Meadows in center field

Next is Steven Brault on a slow grounder to his right. This one even includes a nice pick at first base by Jose Osuna

RECENT TRANSACTIONS

4/11: Albert Baur placed on disabled list. Ty Moore added to West Virginia roster

4/11: Cam Vieaux assigned to Extended Spring Training. Mike Wallace added to West Virginia roster

4/11: Jordan George assigned to Extended Spring Training. Trace Tam Sing added to Bradenton roster

4/10: Victor Fernandez placed on West Virginia disabled list. Carlos Munoz added to active roster

4/7: Junior Lopez suspended 25 games

4/4: Pirates sign pitcher Yoandy Fernandez

4/4: Pirates release Francis Rodriguez, Adrian Grullon, Robbie Coursel and Nestor Oronel

THIS DATE IN PIRATES HISTORY

There have been six former Pittsburgh Pirates players born on this date. Included in the group is a catcher for the 1909 World Series champions, one of his teammates for three seasons and someone who is now in the front office.

We start with catcher Mike Simon, who spent five season with the Pirates, the first as a rookie during the 1909 season when the Pirates won their first World Series title. The most impressive thing about that season for Simon is the fact he caught just 50 innings all season, and that is because starting catcher George Gibson caught 150 games. Simon actually had a third catcher behind him (Paddy O’Connor) and between the two backups, they batted 38 times all year. Simon spent five seasons with the Pirates before jumping to the Federal League in 1914. Like most players that decided to jump to the new league, Simon was without a Major League job when the league folded after two years.

For Simon’s last three years in Pittsburgh, he caught pitcher Claude Hendrix, who was born exactly six years after Simon. In 1912, Hendrix, in his second year in the Majors, won 24 games and lost just nine times. He pitched almost as well the following season, posting a similar ERA and WHIP, but finished with a 14-15 record. Hendrix also made the jump to the Federal League and led the league with 29 wins and a 1.69 ERA. Unlike Simon, Hendrix was able to get a job in the NL after the FL folded. He finished his career playing his last five years (1916-20) with the Cubs. Despite putting up a decent ERA each year, he had a losing record in four of those seasons.

Also born on this date is Doug Strange, who played for the 1998 Pirates and has been in the front office for the team since 2002.

On this date in 1955, the Pirates lost their season opener by a 6-1 score to the Brooklyn Dodgers. Sitting on the bench that day, four days away from his big league debut, was Roberto Clemente. You can see the boxscore here, which is loaded with Hall of Famers on the wrong side.

Exactly 101 years ago, Babe Adams threw a one-hit shutout against the Cardinals and the only hit was very controversial. The Pittsburgh Press called the only hit “an easy roller that second baseman Joe Schultz just booted and only the official scorer thought it was a hit”. Adams never threw a no-hitter in his career.

This isn’t really old enough to be history, but still it’s an interesting note. Jameson Taillon made his return from a two-year absence on this date last year and allowed one run over six innings in a win over Toledo.

John Dreker
John Dreker
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball. When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.

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