Minor Moves: Hollingsworth and Bromberg Promoted To Indianapolis

There was a lot of roster shuffling going on today in the Pittsburgh Pirates minor league system involving all four full-season teams.

Indianapolis sent catcher Ali Solis and pitcher Zack Thornton to Altoona. Taking their place on the Indianapolis roster is a pair of starting pitchers, Ethan Hollingsworth and David Bromberg.

Bradenton sent pitcher Thomas Harlan down to West Virginia and activated pitcher Matt Benedict.

Indianapolis is getting a pair of veteran pitchers that have been doing well recently. Hollingsworth started off slow, then had an 0.71 ERA in the month of June and in his most recent start, he threw four no-hit innings during Altoona’s no-hitter on Thursday night. Bromberg is 5-8. 3.71 in 16 starts and five relief appearances. He has 100 strikeouts in 104.1 innings this season. He has spent parts of two seasons in the International League already(2010, 2012) while in the Twins organization, making a total of 11 starts and three relief outings.

Ali Solis missed the beginning of the season and has played just 13 games this year. He started with Altoona, recently getting called up to Indianapolis, where he played two games. Thornton has bounced all around the minors, starting in Bradenton and then making multiple stops in Altoona and Indianapolis. He has gone a combined 5-2, 2.94 in 31 relief outings this year. In 52 innings, he has a .204 BAA and 61 strikeouts. Thornton has issued just eight walks all year.

Thomas Harlan pitched three times for Bradenton, allowing one unearned run on nine hits in six innings. He has spent most of the season in the West Virginia bullpen, where he put up impressive numbers. In 49 innings, he had 49 strikeouts, a 2.20 ERA, .215 BAA and a 1.91 GO/AO ratio.

Matt Benedict missed the last two weeks of action. He has gone 0-9, 4.78 in nine starts and ten relief appearances for Bradenton this year. Last season with the Marauders, he went 0-8, 8.08 in nine starts and five relief outings, giving him a 17 game losing streak to open his High-A career.

* The Pirates have released pitcher David Jagoditsh, who had some horrible control problems in his limited mound time this year. Jagoditsh hit six of the 12 batters he faced over three appearances with Jamestown recently. He had pitched earlier in the year with West Virginia and had the same problems in six appearances. In 6.1 innings, he issues 17 walks and gave up 14 runs. Jagoditsh was a 32nd round draft pick in 2011, who spent his first two seasons in the GCL. He had trouble throwing strikes each of those seasons too, but nothing nearly as bad as his recent issues.