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.
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.
What has become of gift Ngoepe? I see he is not even listed on the Altoona roster
He was put on the Temporary Inactive List in late June for personal reasons
The Pirates are allowed to call up a 26th man for Tuesdays double header. I wonder if Cumpton or Pimentel will be called up to serve as the long reliever while Gonez starts. With Oliver moved to the pen, Indy will need a few starters.
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Thornton may get moved back up to Indy next week.
Just by the numbers, Thornton looks much more impressive than Hollingsworth.
What does Thornton need to do to at least stay in Indy? All he’s done is post impeccable numbers (7.6 K/BB) all year.
Something tells me that sometime in the off season we will see that Matt Benedict has retired