When the Major League Spring Training camp moves across town this Saturday, Pirate City will be taken over by the minor leaguers. The minor league schedule was released today and it runs from March 12th until March 29th, with something going on at Pirate City every day.
The Pittsburgh Pirates split their minor leaguers into four teams, as they work to figure out the Opening Day roster for each of the four full-season minor league affiliates. The Pirates will have six camp days, which is when all of the players stay at Pirate City and play “Pirates vs Pirates” games.
For the other 12 days, two of the teams stay home and the other two go on the road. In the schedule below, I list the teams that will be home. If you’re going to be in Bradenton during this time, the games are free on the minor league side and begin at 1:00 PM each day. We also have a handy “Things to Do in Bradenton” article, in case you missed it.
I’ll note that the team designated as the “Triple-A/Indianapolis” squad will include a lot of players who won’t be in Triple-A to begin this season. That’s because many of the Triple-A players are in the Major League camp now, so as they slowly return to the minor league camp after being cut, the “Triple-A” team will look more like what we will see in Indianapolis this year. That obviously goes for the three lower levels as well. Every group of cuts from the Major League camp sends a chain reaction down the system, with the guys who are being bumped from the “Low-A” roster, going to Extended Spring Training to begin the season.
March 12: Blue Jays AA/AAA
March 13: Phillies Low-A/High-A
March 14: Yankees AA/AAA
March 15: Braves Low-A/High-A
March 16: Camp Day
March 17: Camp Day
March 18: Phillies Low-A/High-A
March 19: Camp Day
March 20: Yankees Low-A/High-A
March 21: Blue Jays Low-A/High-A
March 22: Phillies AAA/AA
March 23: Camp Day
March 24: Tigers AAA/AA
March 25: Blue Jays AAA/AA
March 26: Blue Jays Low-A/High-A
March 27: Yankees AAA/AA
March 28: Camp Day
March 29: Camp Day
