In Colombia, Tito Polo hit his first two homers of the winter, continuing his strong off-season. On Thursday night, he went 1-for-3 with a solo homer and a walk. On Friday, he had an 0-for-4 night. Polo capped off the weekend with a solo homer and a walk, scoring both runs in a 2-0 win. He also picked up his second stolen base. Polo is hitting .327/.417/.551 in 49 at-bats. He has seven walks, two HBP, ten runs scored and five extra-base hits. His .968 OPS is second in the league and he is tied for the league lead in both homers and triples.
Harold Ramirez had a nice end to the week as well, going 3-for-4 on Thursday, with a triple and an RBI. On Friday, he went 1-for-3 with a single. Ramirez went 1-for-2 with a walk and HBP on Saturday. He is hitting .370/.434/.522 in 46 at-bats. He would rank third in the league in OPS, but he is currently a few plate appearances shy of qualifying.
In the Dominican, Mel Rojas Jr. went 0-for-4 with a strikeout. He is hitting .230 through 28 games, with five doubles, six homers and 14 walks.
Pedro Florimon went 1-for-5 with a single and an RBI. He is hitting .211 through 21 games.
Gustavo Nunez went 1-for-4 with a run scored and stolen base. He has a .202 average through 29 games.
In Mexico, Carlos Munoz went 1-for-4 with a strikeout and a caught stealing. His only hit was an infield single to first base and the pitcher was Dennys Reyes, who pitched for the 2003 Pirates. Reyes was also playing A-ball when Munoz was born.
Sebastian Valle went 1-for-4 with a homer, his first of the year.
In Puerto Rico, Danny Ortiz went 0-for-4 with a strikeout. That gives him a .187/.279/.209 slash line through 28 games. He has the third lowest OPS among qualified hitters, one point ahead of former Pirate farmhand Benji Gonzalez.
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.
Does anyone know how many TJ surgeries in the Pirates org last season ?
You can search articles on here for all the details. We reported every single one they had, most of which you can’t find anywhere else. It seemed like more because some were players recovering from TJ surgery such as Taillon and Holmes. There have been 16 total cases since March 2014
I think I read 10, including non-prospects and position players
Not sure if that picture of Polo is recent, but he appears a bit stronger than I thought when I last saw a picture of him. Solid upside perhaps?
Moving on to the Rule 5 draft this Thursday… 10 players made rosters and stuck last year including a reliever who pitched in the world series. Is there an arm in the mix of players that can help the PBC in the rotation or from the pen?
Polo is a beast in the gym. I’d venture to say that no minor leaguer they have is in better shape than he is. That is why he is considered to have power potential despite his size and not hitting home runs yet. He is a very strong kid
Benji gonzo. That’s a blast from the past.