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Morning Report: Pirates are Seeing a Lot of Offense From Their Lower Level Teams

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For the first time this season, it’s time to look at the team offenses around the minor leagues for the Pittsburgh Pirates. This is a topic I usually hit about 4-5 times a year, each time followed the next day by a look at the team pitching for each affiliate. I’ll probably try to do it (aka hopefully remember) around the end of each month.

We’ve talked a few times already about the age of each team relative to the league and the level. Indianapolis is the youngest team in their league, while West Virginia is one of the older teams in the league. They are on opposite sides of the prospect spectrum as well, so looking at team stats means a lot more in regard to Indianapolis than it does for West Virginia. You expect the Power to do well on offense because they are loaded with recent college players and guys who have been around awhile. For Indianapolis, middle of the pack in stats wouldn’t mean that they are bad. It would mean that the young players are playing up to the level.

We haven’t touched on the same topic yet with Bradenton and Altoona. We know the star players on Bradenton are young. Ke’Bryan Hayes and Cole Tucker would be the youngest position players on West Virginia, but they are a level higher. Altoona has an average age on offense of 23.7 years, which makes them 1/2 a year younger than the league average, and the fifth youngest of 12 teams. Bradenton also ranks 5th out of 12 teams, although they are just barely younger than league average (22.7 vs 22.8). For these clubs, they have some prospects and fillers, they are around average age, so it’s a pretty fair comparison to judge them straight up against the rest of the league.

As for the stats, Indianapolis ranks 13th in the 14-team league in OPS. I’m sure most of you knew already that they were struggling when you read my explanation up top. In this case, even as the youngest team in the league, you can’t sugarcoat a .630 team OPS in a league where the team average is a .700 OPS. The Indians rank last with both a .218 average and a .279 OBP, which has “helped” them rank 12th in the league in runs.

Altoona is 8th out of 12 teams in OPS. Their .686 team OPS is 18 points below league average. They actually do well in some categories, placing second in hits, third in doubles and fourth in both total base and batting average. Their runs total matches the OPS, placing them eighth in the league. They’ve scored 60 runs in 18 games, so while the hits total suggests they are getting on base, they aren’t getting those runners home.

Bradenton has a .756 OPS, which is just two points behind the league leader and 76 points above average in the pitcher-friendly FSL. The offense in the league tapers off as the season goes along. I’m sure you’ve seen the baseballs fly out of the park during Spring Training games, and Bradenton is playing at the same stadium the Pirates use, formerly known as McKechnie Field. That offense carries over into the start of the season, until the Florida summer makes the entire league a place where long fly balls go to die. Despite the high OPS and being near the top in numerous categories, the Marauders are tied for fifth in runs scored.

West Virginia leads the league in OPS with a .771 mark, which is 97 points higher than the league average. The South Atlantic League actually has lower offense than the FSL this year, though that should change during the summer. The 99 runs by the Power are the second most in the league, or third most if you go by a per game average. They are tied for the league lead in homers, which isn’t something you see often with the Pirates and their affiliates.

PIRATES GAME GRAPH


Source: FanGraphs

TODAY’S SCHEDULE

Today’s Starter and Notes: The Pittsburgh Pirates lost 1-0 to the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday night. The Pirates will now send Tyler Glasnow to the mound for his fourth start. He faced the Cubs back on April 15th and allowed six runs (four earned) over five innings, which is his longest start this season. The Cubs will counter with Jon Lester, who threw seven shutout innings against the Pirates on April 16th.

In the minors, Indianapolis was rained out yesterday. They will play a doubleheader on Thursday. As for today’s Indianapolis game, Tyler Eppler makes his fourth start and he’s allowed a total of two runs over 17 innings. Taylor Hearn also makes his fourth start and he’s trying to bounce back from allowing five runs over two innings of work last time out. West Virginia has a morning start time, while Altoona has an early afternoon start.

MLB: Pittsburgh (8-12) vs Cubs (12-8) 7:05 PM
Probable starter: Tyler Glasnow (7.94 ERA, 9:13 BB/SO, 11.1 IP)

AAA: Indianapolis (4-12) @ Pawtucket (7-9) 6:05 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Tyler Eppler (1.06 ERA, 1:11 BB/SO, 17.0 IP)

AA: Altoona (10-8) @ Erie (9-8) 12:05 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Tanner Anderson (2.20 ERA, 8:7 BB/SO, 16.1 IP)

High-A: Bradenton (10-9) @ Ft Myers (9-10) 6:35 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Taylor Hearn (5.27 ERA, 4:16 BB/SO, 13.2 IP)

Low-A: West Virginia (8-12) vs Charleston (11-9) 10:35 AM (season preview)
Probable starter: Cam Vieaux (1.65 ERA, 4:6 BB/SO, 16.1 IP)

HIGHLIGHTS

For a second day in a row, going with a slightly older video because no one (from Pirates teams) has been uploading any videos to MiLB the last few days. Hopefully that changes soon. Here is the third home run from Trae Arbet. He hit his fourth homer on Monday night.

RECENT TRANSACTIONS

4/25: Hector Garcia placed on disabled list. Mike Wallace added to West Virginia roster.

4/25: Jerrick Suiter added to Bradenton roster. Trace Tam Sing assigned to Extended Spring Training.

4/25: Antonio Bastardo placed on disabled list. Pirates recall Johnny Barbato.

4/24: Adam Frazier placed on disabled list. Pirates recall Dovydas Neverauskas.

4/20: Chris Diaz assigned to Altoona

4/19: Brett McKinney assigned to Extended Spring Training. Johnny Barbato added to Indianapolis roster.

4/18: Starling Marte suspended 80 games by MLB. Pirates recall Jose Osuna

4/18: Brandon Waddell placed on disabled list

4/18: Joey Terdoslavich added to Indianapolis roster

4/18: Pedro Vasquez added to Bradenton roster. Julio Eusebio assigned to Extended Spring Training

4/17: Pirates acquire Johnny Barbato from New York Yankees. Barbato optioned to Indianapolis.

THIS DATE IN PIRATES HISTORY

Three former Pittsburgh Pirates players born on this date, including pitcher Francisco Cordova, who pitched five seasons for the team from 1996 until 2000. He took part in the team’s last no-hitter back in 1997, throwing the first nine innings of the ten inning game. That boxscore can be found here. Cordova went 42-47, 3.96 in 166 games, 112 as a starter with the Pirates.

Also born on this date: Infielder Curt Wilkerson, who played with the 1991 club that made the playoffs. He was a backup infielder at three spots that season (2B/SS/3B) and played 85 games, though he had just a .188 batting average. He pinch-hit four times in the NLCS that year and ended up striking out three times. Outfielder Amos Otis, who played for the 1984 Pirates, the last team during his 17-year career. He was a five-time All-Star and won three Gold Glove awards. Otis batted just .165 in 40 games for the Pirates that 1984 season.

On this date in 1995, baseball returned from their last strike and the Pirates opened their season against the Expos with a 6-2 loss. Here is the Pirates lineup from that day:

Jacob Brumfield, cf
Carlos Garcia, 2b
Al Martin, lf
Jeff King, 3b
Jay Bell, ss
Orlando Merced, rf
Rich Aude, 1b
Mark Parent, c
Jon Lieber, p
That 1995 club, playing a slightly abbreviated schedule, finished with a 58-86 record. That record would give them the first overall draft pick the following June, a pick they would use on Kris Benson.
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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