It’s still too early in the season to really dive into any stats, but I wanted to take a quick look at the pitching as a group for Altoona. Writing up several of the game recaps, while also talking to Sean McCool and Wilbur Miller about the games they covered live, Altoona had the feel of a really good pitching staff so far. I looked up their team stats and noticed that they had a 2.67 ERA, which is more than half a run better than the second best team in the Eastern League. They also lead the league with a 1.20 WHIP. They took an interesting route to get to that mark.
That ERA includes 15 innings from Brandon Waddell, Yeudy Garcia and JT Brubaker, who are the top pitching prospects at the level. They have a combined 7.20 ERA. Now, the other two starters aren’t rated as high, though they aren’t slouches either.
Alex McRae made our top 50 list after off-season moves, and Josh Bell losing his prospect status, left three openings. Tanner Anderson isn’t in our top 50, but he was listed in our Prospect Guide as being in the same tier as the players who make up the back-end of our top 50. Anderson would be rated no lower than 54th, since only four of the players in that tier aren’t in our top 50 yet. McRae and Anderson are pitching like the better prospects in the extremely early stages of the season, combining to allowed two runs over 21.2 innings.
The Altoona bullpen is where things get a little strange. Most teams in the minors will have at least one power reliever, but the Altoona bullpen doesn’t have anyone close to that level. Buddy Borden, sitting at 91-94 MPH, is the closest one to that “power pitcher” tag. Indianapolis has four guys in Angel Sanchez, Edgar Santana, Dovydas Neverauskas and Pat Light, who all hit 97+ MPH. They also have Brett McKinney, who has hit 97 MPH occasionally, which is something that no one in the Altoona bullpen can claim.
Between Jared Lakind, Miguel Rosario, Sean Keselica, Tate Scioneaux, John Kuchno and Montana DuRapau, you have six pitchers in the Altoona bullpen who average 90 MPH or less on their fastballs. I didn’t include Austin Coley because he has made two spot starts, but even he said that his fastball was better at 90 MPH the other night because it had more movement. They are good pitchers, but it’s not a high upside group, and if you look through our site, you’ll find the word “deception” attached to many of them.
The thing to note with that group is that four of them have a 0.00 ERA in the early season. Perhaps surprisingly, Kuchno is the only one really have trouble, with four runs in his five innings. He’s the only one with Triple-A experience. The Altoona bullpen is likely to get some reinforcements as well, once some of the players down at Extended Spring Training get assigned to teams.
It’s an interesting group due to the upside of the starting rotation, and don’t forget that Mitch Keller is likely to arrive mid-season. Along with a solid lineup of prospects, that makes Altoona a team to watch (or just a boxscore to check) every night.
** I plan on doing quick updates periodically on the Pirates prospects in the majors and their prospect status. I figured that the day after each Tyler Glasnow start would be the best time to do it. Since Trevor Williams is pitching in relief and Alen Hanson is practically glued to the bench, Glasnow’s starts would usually be the biggest jump towards losing prospect status.
It just so happens that Hanson got his first start of the season yesterday and Williams pitched, so this works out well today. Glasnow went five innings and now has 20.1 more innings before he loses his prospect status. Williams has now pitched five innings this year and still has 32.2 innings before he surpasses the 50 IP limit. Hanson picked up four at-bats and he is now 93 at-bats away from losing his prospect status.
While it’s mostly just for me, since we don’t list an updated top 50 anywhere between now and the mid-season update, I’ll note that Jacob Stallings will move into the 50th spot once someone loses their prospect status. I mentioned above that Tanner Anderson was one of four players who made the final tier, but didn’t make the top 50 yet. Along with Stallings and Anderson, the other two players are Jeremias Portorreal and Cody Dickson. I doubt we will need four more names before our July update, but there’s always a chance of a trade, which would make that necessary.
** Happy Easter!
PIRATES GAME GRAPH
Source: FanGraphs
TODAY’S SCHEDULE
Today’s Starter and Notes: The Pittsburgh Pirates won 8-7 over the Chicago Cubs on Saturday afternoon. Jameson Taillon will make his third start today. He allowed two runs over six innings in his last start. Prior to that, he threw seven shutout innings in Boston. The Cubs will counter with Jon Lester. Both Altoona and Bradenton are off today, so it’s a light day on the schedule. Steven Brault makes his third start for Indianapolis and Matt Anderson goes for West Virginia. Both games are afternoon starts.
MLB: Pittsburgh (5-6) @ Cubs (6-5) 2:20 PM
Probable starter: Jameson Taillon (1.38 ERA, 4:10 BB/SO, 13.0 IP)
AAA: Indianapolis (3-7) @ Toledo (7-3) 2:05 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Steven Brault (3.00 ERA, 6:7 BB/SO, 9.0 IP)
AA: Altoona (7-3) vs Erie (6-3) 6:00 PM 4/17 (season preview)
Probable starter: Yeudy Garcia (27.00 ERA, 2:1 BB/SO, 0.2 IP)
High-A: Bradenton (8-3) vs Clearwater (8-3) 6:30 PM 4/17 (season preview)
Probable starter: Dario Agrazal (1.69 ERA, 2:4 BB/SO, 10.2 IP)
Low-A: West Virginia (3-7) @ Lexington (3-7) 2:05 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Matt Anderson (7.71 ERA, 2:8 BB/SO, 7.0 IP)
HIGHLIGHTS
We don’t get many videos from West Virginia, so here are two homers from them. The first is from Sandy Santos on Thursday night.
On Friday night, Ty Moore also homered
RECENT TRANSACTIONS
4/15: Cam Vieaux added to West Virginia roster. Mike Wallace assigned to Extended Spring Training
4/13: Julio Eusebio added to Bradenton roster. Pedro Vasquez assigned to Extended Spring Training
4/11: Albert Baur placed on disabled list. Ty Moore added to West Virginia roster
4/11: Cam Vieaux assigned to Extended Spring Training. Mike Wallace added to West Virginia roster
4/11: Jordan George assigned to Extended Spring Training. Trace Tam Sing added to Bradenton roster
4/10: Victor Fernandez placed on West Virginia disabled list. Carlos Munoz added to active roster
4/7: Junior Lopez suspended 25 games
4/4: Pirates sign pitcher Yoandy Fernandez
4/4: Pirates release Francis Rodriguez, Adrian Grullon, Robbie Coursel and Nestor Oronel
THIS DATE IN PIRATES HISTORY
On this date in 1903, one of the greatest Pirates players of all-time was born. Paul Waner played 15 seasons in Pittsburgh, hitting .340 during his time in the city. Waner has the highest career batting average among any Pirates player with more than 2,000 plate appearances. He is sixth in OPS, second in runs, third in hits, fourth in total bases, first in doubles, second in triples, third in walks and fifth in RBIs. You can read his full bio here.
There are two other former Pittsburgh Pirates players born on this date and one small trade of note. Also on this date in 1903, the same day Paul Waner was born, the Pirates opened up their season with a 7-1 win over the Cincinnati Reds. This team went on to play in the first World Series and the lineup from Opening Day (which is in the link above) was nearly identical to the one that started game one of the WS. For more information on that first World Series, click this link that recaps game eight of the series. At the bottom of the link, there is an article on the comparison between the Pirates and Boston Americans (Red Sox) along with the recaps of the first seven games.
The two players born on this date are 1942 catcher Babe Phelps and 1891 left fielder Piggy Ward. Their bios can be found in the link above. Phelps came to the Pirates in a trade for for Hall of Fame shortstop Arky Vaughan, then left in the not-so-famous “Babe” trade, going to the Phillies for Babe Dahlgren.
On this date in 1937, the Pirates got pitcher Joe Bowman from the Phillies in exchange for 1B/RF Earl Browne. Bowman ended up playing five seasons for the Pirates, while Browne was out of the Majors by early 1938.
