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Live From Pirate City – 3/24

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Nothing but morning workouts and batting practice here today so far.  Jameson Taillon, Victor Black, and Tyler Waldron each threw side sessions, with instruction from Jim Benedict (pictures below).

Black working with Jim Benedict
Waldron working with Benedict.

I watched Elias Diaz take batting practice.  Diaz was signed out of Venezuela in 2008, and while his numbers weren’t impressive in his jump to the US last year, he does look promising.  He started out hitting nothing but opposite field shots.  None of his hits even went up the middle.  In his second go round, he hit a few grounders to the left side, but still had trouble pulling the ball.  That went away in his third turn in the batting cage, when he not only started pulling the ball, but did so with some pop, including a launch to the warning track, about 360 feet away.  Diaz could become the number two catching prospect in the organization, although there aren’t many options behind Sanchez.

They are getting the fields ready for some games today.  The AAA and AA teams are here, playing Toronto.  The A-ball team is on the road.  I believe Stetson Allie will be pitching today, but since the A-ball team is on the road, I might not see it.  I’ll update this post later with more pictures and reports.

UPDATE 4:39 PM: Allie did pitch today, and I got video of him and 2010 41st round pick Bryton Trepagnier.  I also got a ton of radar readings, and spoke with Neal Huntington for about 45 minutes at the end of the day on a variety of topics, including the draft, Andrew McCutchen, and the shortstop position.  The interview will take some time to transcribe, so they probably won’t be on the site until Sunday evening.  They will also be broken up in to a few parts.

The video of Allie should go up on the site later this evening.  Jameson Taillon is pitching on Saturday, so I should get something on him as well.

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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