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Three Young Pitching Prospects Use Instructs to Work Towards a Common Goal for 2018

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The Pittsburgh Pirates drafted a trio of high upside pitchers in the 2016 draft. They took Travis MacGregor in the second round, lefty Braeden Ogle in the fourth round, and Max Kranick dropped to them in the 11th round, then agreed to an over-slot deal.

The three of them were each slated for Bristol this season after pitching in the GCL last year. They ended up having three completely different seasons.

Ogle established himself as one of the top pitching prospects in the system. In our Bristol recap from yesterday, he was named the top prospect. Ogle’s season ended with a minor knee surgery in mid-August. It was an issue he had before signing, although it didn’t really bother him until a few days prior to his surgery.

Kranick was shutdown with shoulder soreness at the end of Extended Spring Training. That caused him to stop pitching for just a short time, but he had to slowly work his way back from the injury. He ended up making just five starts this season, although he also pitched two simulated games right before his first game back. It was still well under the amount of innings they expected him to get during the season, with some coming at a lower level than expected.

MacGregor didn’t miss any time this season due to injury. He did however miss some innings during Extended Spring Training because he was taken out of games while the Pirates worked on his mechanics. He made 12 starts for Bristol and had some struggles, but he also worked on improving his fastball command and his changeup. There was progress, though not the results you want to see.

Three young prep pitchers all took different paths to the Fall Instructional League (FIL). They also went there with three different goals for their extra four weeks at Pirate City. Instructs wrapped up on Saturday and I was able to talk to all three of them this weekend about their last month in Bradenton and plans for the off-season.

Kranick Adds Innings and a Pitch

Max Kranick had a simple goal going into the FIL. He needed to add to his innings total so he wouldn’t be limited next season. He had just 24.1 innings on paper, but he put in much more than that this year.

Kranick was one of the first minor league pitchers to see action this spring, arriving at Pirate City in February and getting into his first game by mid-March. He continued to pitch in Spring Training and Extended Spring Training games until he his shoulder injury near the end of May. On top of those two months of pitching, which probably amounted to about 40 innings total, Kranick was also throwing for about a month before his season debut. Those 24.1 innings also don’t include the two simulated starts, one of which was supposed to be a real game, but a GCL rain out changed it to a sim game.

He got his extra innings in during instructs, starting four times and adding one inning to his total each time. He went two innings in his debut, then worked up to five frames on Friday, giving him a total of 14 innings. If you add up all of those innings throughout the year, then 24.1 innings on paper turns into approximately 83 innings during the year, which doesn’t include the month of bullpens after his injury.

Kranick had a second goal given to him in the FIL, and that was to add a slider to his three-pitch mix. He was only working on it during bullpens between starts over the last four weeks, but on Friday, he broke it out during the game. Kranick noted that he only threw a few of them and the pitch had mixed results. It wasn’t really game ready, but if he didn’t throw it Friday, then he wouldn’t get a chance to use it in a game until mid-March.

Adding the slider is a good sign for his progress because the Pirates usually won’t let someone add a fourth pitch at the lower levels until they have solid fastball command and a usable changeup. Kranick had a fairly simple answer for why he added a slider, which gives him a pitch with more of a fastball feel, but a different break than the changeup.

“They told me I’ll be a four-pitch guy, so it was time to add one,” Kranick said.

While he was working on adding that slider, Kranick also noticed improvements with his curveball. He was already strong with his fastball command and had an advanced changeup coming into this year, but the curve was clearly his third pitch.

“My curve is getting so much better,” he noted after his third FIL start. “It’s coming along nicely, the velocity is up on it.”

The curve continued to look good during his Friday start. That’s an important development, because it gives him a nice three-pitch mix going into next year, when he could begin the season with the West Virginia Power. If he can turn the slider into a strong fourth pitch, then that just helps his case for a full-season spot.

Ogle Continues His Rehab

Braeden Ogle obviously had a much different goal in the FIL than the other two young pitchers. He had knee surgery on August 22nd and wasn’t pitching at Pirate City this fall. He was using his time there to strengthen the knee and begin his off-season workout routine. Ogle actually left Bradenton a week early because his rehab was going so well.

“I’m already back home crushing weights, I’ve been lifting the last four weeks.” Ogle said of his current status.

He then went on to talk about how his knee feels now and how it won’t limit his plans this winter.

“Back to normal, feels like nothing ever happened,” Ogle said of the knee. “Just a normal offseason of getting bigger and stronger from here on out.”

That’s a great sign for his offseason. There is now no worry about the knee and they have moved on to building up his frame to handle a full workload next season. Ogle saw regular action from mid-March until mid-June at Pirate City. Besides three months of innings you don’t see on paper, he also threw 43 innings during the regular season.

The Pirates felt comfortable that he put in enough innings this season and he should be able to go without an innings limit next year. He will probably have breaks like we saw this season, where he pitches an inning of relief in place of a start or skips 1-2 starts throughout the season. They did that will almost every starting pitcher this year, so it wouldn’t be specific to his case. Other than that though, Ogle should be getting regular starts for West Virginia in 2018.

MacGregor Continues to Work on Mechanics

When Travis MacGregor was shutdown for a brief time during Extended Spring Training, it was to make a change to his mechanics. He wasn’t having success during games in May, so the Pirates made some changes. He gave the following summary to John Eshleman back in mid-July:

“I made a couple changes early on in Spring Training, and that was a little tough. The coaches ask me to stay back more over my back foot and to keep my arm moving in a continuous motion through my back-swing. I used to bring my arm down and it would ‘sit’ a little before I’d bring it through. That was a difficult change but it’s something I’ve adapted to.”

The Fall Instructional League was an extension of cleaning up his mechanics. While at Pirate City, MacGregor made three starts and pitched a total of eight innings. The extra innings he received this fall will help him going into next season, but his overall goal this fall was another adjustment to help with his pitching.

“I worked on staying back over my back leg more,” MacGregor said of his work at instructs. “It was a minor adjustment but I think it has really benefited me in just the few weeks I have been working on it.”

Unlike the other two young pitchers, MacGregor won’t be leaving Pirate City for the winter. He plans to spend the majority of his off-season there just like he did last year. The reason for staying in Bradenton is to add more muscle to his 6’3″ frame, which could help him add to his low-90s velocity and increase his stamina. That would allow him to pitch a full season next year. The cleaned up mechanics should also contribute to better results.

The results in Bristol can be deceiving because the Pirates care more about what the pitchers are working on at the lower levels than they do about results. A 5.49 ERA and 2.08 WHIP with Bristol in 2015 didn’t stop Mitch Keller from beginning the following year in Low-A. I won’t guarantee that MacGregor (who turns 20 years old today) will begin next season with the West Virginia Power. However, that is his goal for the 2018 season, just like it is for both Ogle and Kranick.

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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