Welcome to the Pirates Prospects daily video rundown, where we pull some of the top videos of the Pittsburgh Pirates across the internet.
Miguel Andujar
He hasn’t had the best of springs, but Andujar got all of this one, hitting a towering home run against the Boston Red Sox on Monday.
No monster could contain this blast by Miguel Andujar. pic.twitter.com/TV8mhRTx1f
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) March 20, 2023
Travis Swaggerty
He’s hit some balls hard this spring. Although the two he picked up on Monday won’t make a highlight reel, they still count, and the second one drove in a run.
Travis Swaggerty with an opposite-field RBI Single! #Pirates pic.twitter.com/vHXbOG4iq3
— Florida Prospect Report (@FLProspectPod) March 20, 2023
Luis Ortiz
The righty made his first appearance back with the Pirates after playing for the Dominican Republic in the WBC. While he allowed some hard contact, this wasn’t one of them.
#Pirates pitching prospect Luis Ortiz strikes out Red Sox superstar Rafael Devers. pic.twitter.com/y1GMB4rC4K
— Florida Prospect Report (@FLProspectPod) March 20, 2023
Ortiz struck out two, walked another two and surrendered two runs in three innings of work against the Red Sox.
Bonus Prospects
Pirates farmhands had some hits today vs Balt. 1st one is OF prospect Josh Broughton (who can play). Next up is C prospect Ewry Espinal, then IF/OF Juan Jerez & finally the electric SS Yordany De Los Santos #Buccos pic.twitter.com/gdMAl2Wm76
— Florida Prospect Report (@FLProspectPod) March 18, 2023
A look a several prospects, including Yordany De Los Santos.
Anthony began writing over 10 years ago, starting a personal blog to cover the 2011 MLB draft, where the Pirates selected first overall. After bouncing around many websites covering hockey, he refocused his attention to baseball, his first love when it comes to sports. He eventually found himself here at Pirates Prospects in late 2021, where he covers the team’s four full season minor league affiliates.
Glad to see the Pirates back in the win column. Won/Loss is not that important, because there were a lot of players who needed to get playing time, but I would hope they can do better between now and the opener.
Last time the Pirates had this bad of a record in ST? I think it was in 2018 and they went on to finish above .500 at 82-79 that year. This team has position player and pitching talent and should be expected to play much better than what has been the case the past 3 years. And, a lot more talent on the way! Choi, Santana, ‘Cutch, Hedges, and Hill can help this team and help the players and pitchers in their MLB development, but 4 of them will probably be gone at the trading deadline.
Can this franchise commit totally to rebuilding? We’ll see
Can they commit totally to trying to win? Reading Shelton’s comments about Jack “earning” his spot on the team with his performance last year leads me to believe the answer is no. Suwinski was putrid away from PNC last year. He struck out over 30% of the time, and was sent down due to his poor play.
If anyone on the team needed to hear you must earn your way onto the roster this Spring, it was him. Yet, he’s being told mediocrity is rewarded in this organization.
Little too harsh on Jack. He hit 19 HRs regardless of which park, had .700 OPS. (decent not great). This team desperately needs offense and I think Jack has earned a spot. His 1.1 bWAR is about 2 bWAR annualized. This isn’t Polanco. Gotta see more of him.
I totally understand what you’re saying, and agree he should be given an opportunity to improve, but not at expense of wins. If there’s a player who is better being held back even though better, then Jack either starts in AAA or is a 4th OF. Under no circumstance should he have had his job given to him based on what he did last year.
Except he’s inarguably done more to earn that spot than any of his competition.
This is the pickle they’ve got themselves in.
99.99% of players they rush to the show like they did with Jack are gonna get their teeth kicked in, much worse than Jack did.
You can’t judge apples to apples when you treat guys so wildly different.
Maybe they ruined Suwinski, it’s quite possible, but he’s undoubtedly shown he has the skill to succeed as much or more than anyone he’s competing with.
It’s an absolutely ridiculous way to run a baseball organization.
A kid comes from AA, gets a few taters and then blows everybody’s mind on Father’s Day. I agree he has earned his spot in RF. And, I think Swaggs has earned his spot on the roster, but can we dump CJ?
If it’s a tossup between Swaggs and Joe, I take the latter. Even without Joe, we have the ability to put 5 or 6 RH hitters in the lineup with ‘Cutch, Reynolds, Hayes, Castro, Hedges, and Santana all able to hit RH.
At this point, it is not necessary to rush CSN to the majors like we had to do with Suwinski.
I hear ya buddy.
If somebody could show that CSN has fixed the flaws in his swing that drastically sunk his future value over the past few years I would be all ears on him “earning” the spot.
But short of that, we’re looking at the definitional example of why you do no award spots on spring training performances. He’s got no shot at being an impact player if he continually punishes the ball on the ground, and history shows he has very very little chance of executing large swing changes in the Show while getting sparing playing time. Prove it in AAA and earn he callup.
Swags does not appear to have much development left in him, for better or worse, and fills a position of need. I think that’s perfectly justified to let him sink or swim in CF from Opening Day.
And maybe they’ve ruined Suwinski by rushing him, but he’s shown every ability to be a high-end big side platoon bat with positive defensive value.
Can Joe say that? CSN? Not to me.