When the Major League camp leaves Pirate City on Friday to begin Spring Training games, the minor league players will move into the complex. Some of them already reported early, but the first wave of players will report to Pirate City by Sunday.
Minor league players arrive in three groups, with the first classified as early arrivals. On March 4th, the regular camp players will be there, then after players leave for their full-season teams on March 31st, the final group of players arrive. That last group consists of players who will play for one of the three lower level teams and it’s made up of mostly international players.
The Pittsburgh Pirates released their minor league Spring Training schedule on Monday. It begins on March 13th and runs until March 30th. It includes 14 days of games, with two games taking place at home and two games on the road. There are also four camp days when all of the action is at Pirate City and no opposing teams are involved.
I’m posting the schedule below for anyone who wants to attend games. All games begin at 1 PM and what you see below is the schedule for the Triple-A and Double-A teams only. The A-ball teams have the opposite schedule (see March 13th). That means that there are games at Pirate City during all 14 days if you don’t care about which players you go to see.
March 13: AAA/AA @ Braves – A+/A vs Braves
14th: Camp Day
15: vs Braves
16: @ Yankees
17: Camp Day
18: vs Phillies
19: @ Phillies
20: vs Blue Jays
21: @ Braves
22: @ Blue Jays
23: vs Phillies
24: Camp Day
25: vs Yankees
26: @ Blue Jays
27: @ Yankees
28: vs Yankees
29: Camp Day
30: vs Tigers
We will have coverage on the minor league side during many of these days. The later in camp you go to these games, the closer they will resemble the teams they actually represent. Many of the players going to Indianapolis will still be with the Pirates on the Major League side when games start on the 13th, so the Triple-A team will still have many players slated for Altoona. As they begin to get cut on the big league side, that shuffles down players to lower levels. By March 30th, the Triple-A team will look a lot like the Opening Day roster for Indianapolis.
