The Arizona Fall League begins play on Tuesday. We will have daily recaps from the league during the six-week season, as well as live coverage in November. The Pittsburgh Pirates are sending a talented group of prospects to the league, especially on the pitching side.
Before the Altoona season ended with their Eastern League championship win, Sean McCool was able to talk to four of the Curve players about the AFL and what they planned to work on during the league, as well as their thoughts on being selected for the league. One of those players was shortstop Cole Tucker, who was replaced on the roster by second baseman Mitchell Tolman. That switch happened because Tucker wasn’t going to be ready for the league until the second half due to the hand injury he suffered during the playoffs.
Sean McCool also talked to pitchers Mitch Keller, JT Brubaker and Brandon Waddell. Along with Taylor Hearn, the Pirates are second four pitchers who missed time during this season. So one of the main reasons for sending these specific players is to make up for that lost time. That also holds true for second baseman Kevin Kramer, who will see time at shortstop in the AFL, and outfielder Logan Hill, who missed two months with a hand injury. In fact, Mitchell Tolman is the only player going who was healthy all season.
Mitch Keller is the top prospect in the system, so a lot of the focus on the league will be on him. While he missed a month with a back injury and left three of his starts early due to various injuries, he was still able to throw a total of 132.1 innings this season when you include the playoffs. He has also been pitching in the Fall Instructional League for the last couple weeks, so adding innings isn’t as big of a deal with him as it is for Brandon Waddell.
Keller is going to the AFL for a reason we have seen numerous times in the past. He needs to work on throwing his changeup in game situations and the competition of the AFL provides him with a chance to throw it against some of the best hitting prospects in the game. Keller has always been throwing his changeup regularly in games since he signed, but it’s a clear third pitch for him and one that has gone through some adjustments recently and shown improvements.
“It’s kind of obvious what I need to do to be able to pitch in the big leagues,” Keller said while talking about his changeup. “It’s going to be a huge for me in the fall league, being able to consistently throw it like I’ve been late in the season.”
JT Brubaker wasn’t sure what he would be working on or whether he would be starting or relieving. That second part goes for all of the pitchers the Pirates are sending, although you would expect Waddell to be starting because he missed the most innings. What Brubaker did know at the time, is that he was excited about being chosen for the league and what the opportunity means for him.
“To me, it means a lot that they chose me. It shows that they look at me highly as a guy willing to go out and compete in the fall league. I’ll continue to grow and continue to move up in the Pirates’ organization. I feel like they see me as a Pirate through and through.”
Brubaker finished the regular season with 129.2 innings, which is the same amount he threw last year during the regular season. That’s despite missing a start early in the season this year with a blister problem on his right index finger, then pitching in the bullpen right after he came back because he had to build his pitch count back up. When you add in the playoffs from both years, he ended up throwing four more innings in 2016.
While he didn’t impress with his stats, the scouting report on Brubaker became better this season. He went from a pitcher who sat 90-94 since being drafted, to sitting 93-96 on the slow gun in Trenton during his final playoff start, maintaining that velocity through the eighth inning. According to the scouts there, he was actually throwing 2-3 MPH faster the entire night, which was better than what Mitch Keller was doing there weeks earlier in his impressive Double-A debut. If Brubaker is able to air it out as a reliever in the AFL, you can bet that the scouts will take notice this fall.
Adding velocity doesn’t automatically make you a better pitcher. In Brubaker’s case, he also became a better ground ball pitcher. He had an 0.83 GO/AO ratio last year and allowed 15 homers. That’s while spending half of his season in Bradenton, where fly balls go to die in the summer. This year in Altoona, which is a better home run park, he posted a 1.38 GO/AO ratio and allowed nine homers. So adding a lot of velocity while becoming more of a ground ball pitcher is a nice combo of improvements.
As for Brandon Waddell, he is the one who needs the AFL innings more than anyone. Two forearm injuries during the season, limited him to 78 innings during the season and six in the playoffs. He threw 147 innings last year. Waddell had a lot to say about the honor of being selected and making up for extra work.
“I thought it was awesome,” Waddell said about being selected. “There will be a lot of talented guys, just look at the group of guys that the Pirates are sending. It will be a great experience to be able to play a bunch of good guys, but it also extends the season for me. I missed a lot of innings, so it will make up for that. We’ll get in as much of a workload as we can.”
That makes it sound like he will get a starting role, although things weren’t set in stone at the time. As for what specifically he can work on, Waddell knew right away what he needed to do to get better, a little bit of everything.
“I think you can always work on something, you can always get a little better,” he said about his focus in the AFL. “The more you throw, the more reps you get and the better feel you get. You can work on secondary stuff, fastball command, and also ways to be more efficient. That’s my total view into it. I want to put all of those things together. I’m getting more of a feel as we go through being injured. I want to continue to work on efficiency.”
When you include Taylor Hearn in with Keller and Brubaker, you have three guys who hit 99 MPH numerous times this season. Waddell is the finesse pitcher in the group, although he can still get in up to 94 MPH. He relies more on control, changing up speeds, commanding his fastball and keeping the ball down. Due to his injuries costing him four weeks the first time this year and six weeks the second time, he never really had a chance to get on a roll this season. He finished strong, allowing three earned runs over his final 24.2 innings, but he needs to use instructs and the AFL to build off of that finish and go into next year strong.
The pitching side is going to give you something interesting in almost every game during the AFL season. Not only do you have three hard-throwers, but you have four starters who will all pitch at one of the top two levels for the Pirates next year.
