The West Virginia Power made a couple roster moves on Tuesday afternoon, with their second injury in two days and and an overworked bullpen gets some help.
We mentioned this morning that outfielder Victor Fernandez was placed on the disabled list on Monday and Carlos Munoz was added to the roster. Munoz was with the team since Opening Day, but not on the active roster. He wasn’t originally in Monday night’s lineup, but first baseman Albert Baur was a late scratch and Munoz replaced him at first base. On Tuesday, Baur was placed on the disabled list and the Pirates added outfielder Ty Moore to the roster in his place. Moore has been in Extended Spring Training. He split last season between West Virginia and Morgantown.
The Power had to use utility fielder Logan Ratledge as a pitcher last night. That was due to an extra inning game last night and a doubleheader on Friday night. That led to right-handed pitcher Mike Wallace being added to the West Virginia roster to help out with innings. He was down in Extended Spring Training. The 22-year-old Wallace started at Bristol last year, where he posted a 3.61 ERA in 52.1 innings. He also made a brief appearance for Morgantown during the last week of the season, throwing two shutout innings.
To make room on the roster, Cam Vieaux was assigned to Extended Spring Training. That is just a paper move and Vieaux isn’t going anywhere. He started last night’s game and won’t be needed again until his start comes up later this week, making him the perfect player to replace.
Abigail Miskowiec will be covering tonight’s game live and we will try to get injury reports on Fernandez and Baur.
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.
I’m happy see that Hughston has gotten off to string start – he has the tools to be a real position player prospect. He seems to have cut down on the K’s some, although its only been 4-5 games….
Anything better than a Golden Sombrero is good for him. 🙂
That WV team is VERY weak….maybe the weakest in recent Pirates memory.
A couple of questions…why would Munoz not be on their active roster to begin the season? Injury? Conditioning?
Good news regarding Moore, as he can help that team and will get plenty of opportunities. The bad news is…what does that say about his prospect status, that he is still in Low A – for the 3rd year?
When I spoke to Toregas on Friday, he said they kept Munoz with the team at the start of the season as the 26th man but ultimately decided not to add him to the roster because they wanted to carry 13 pitchers and 12 position players. He would have been with the team eventually (when someone was called up, maybe), but the injuries forced their hand a bit.
I’m interested to see Ty Moore. He had some growing pains when he was called up to West Virginia last year, and as John Dreker mentioned above, it is a little telling when a player of his age starts the year in Extended Spring Training.
Yeah, doesn’t look good for Moore….I could him see being let go after this season, unless he pulls an Alex Presley.
Considering he would have been no worse than their second best hitter and only guy with power, that is a very curious decision.
So is Ty Moore pretty much a non-prospect at this point? Wasn’t he a guy that a lot of people had higher expectations for when he was drafted?
Moore outhit Kevin Kramer at UCLA, though you have to figure in that one is a corner outfielder and the other is a middle infielder, plus Kramer missed time due to injury. Moore did a decent job at Morgantown last year, though you would expect a major college player repeating a low level to put up big numbers. He has some work to do before he becomes a prospect, and starting the minor league season at age 23 in Extended Spring Training isn’t a good start.