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First Pitch: Time For Some Cuts

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It wouldn’t surprise me at all if the Pirates made a bunch of cuts tomorrow.

Guys like Kyle McPherson, Starling Marte, Tony Sanchez, Jordy Mercer, and others who have no shot at making the majors out of Spring Training are going to start having a hard time finding playing time.

Prior to today, those players wouldn’t have found much playing time in minor league camp either. However, games started up today in minor league camp. Rather than struggling to find playing time in the late innings, they could get regular time in minor league camp and prepare for the season.

Now that minor league camp has started, it only makes sense to get the minor leaguers started on their preparations for the season. The big league players will be adding innings, especially in the pitching staff. It’s to the point where Erik Bedard will have to go to Pirate City to get innings in, just so the club can get a better look at Jo-Jo Reyes.

My Spring Training predictions can always be found on the Spring Training tracker. I would say that Robbie Grossman, Ramon Cabrera, Tony Sanchez, Rudy Owens, Jordy Mercer, Kyle McPherson, and Starling Marte should all be candidates to go down to minor league camp. None of those guys have a shot to make the majors out of Spring Training, so it only makes sense to get them going in minor league camp, so that they can prepare for their 2012 seasons, which in the long run will help them arrive in the majors sooner.

Links and Notes

**The Pirates beat the Orioles 11-5 today. Recap here.

**Garrett Jones is looking for consistency at the plate this year.

**My feature on 2011 draft picks Clayton Holmes and Jake Burnette.

**Here are the rosters for the teams in minor league camp.

**I’ve gotten a few questions about player features in the last few days, with questions about Andrew Lambo, Mel Rojas Jr., and a few other guys. Right now I’m focusing on guys who either weren’t in the system last year, or who didn’t play much last year. Until the games really get underway, there won’t be much to talk about that I haven’t already covered in articles last year, or in the Prospect Guide.

As an example, today I watched Tim Alderson hit 89-92 MPH with his fastball, after dropping to the mid-80s in the second half of the 2011 season. Expect a feature on Alderson soon. As I get to see some of the guys like Lambo and Rojas a bit more, I’ll be writing features on them as well, assuming there’s an update to give.

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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