The Pittsburgh Pirates are on the road for three against the Washington Nationals this weekend. Friday’s game has been postponed due to rain. The two clubs will play a split doubleheader tomorrow. Game one will be at 1:05 PM. Game two at 6:05 PM.
It’s just the minor league side tonight, which had five games until Altoona got rained out. Greensboro has a doubleheader.
**Anthony Murphy looked at the Pirates using depth prior to this season to acquire big league players.
INDIANAPOLIS VS COLUMBUS
Game Time: 7:05 PM EST
Projected Starter: Osvaldo Bido (1-1, 2.81)
Osvaldo Bido is off to a strong start this season, which could lead to his first big league appearance this summer. The Indianapolis lineup certainly hasn’t been as prospect packed as we hoped going into the year, but Endy Rodriguez, Travis Swaggerty and Nick Gonzales should all be back soon.
ALTOONA AT READING
Altoona was postponed due to rain. They play a doubleheader tomorrow
GREENSBORO VS ROME
Game Time: 5:00 PM EST DH
Projected Starter: Valentin Linarez (0-1, 6.75) and Braxton Ashcraft (0-0, 0.00)
Greensboro has a scheduled doubleheader after a rain out yesterday. Valentin Linarez will make one of the starts. The other starter is Braxton Ashcraft in game one. He hasn’t allowed a run in three starts, with 17 strikeouts in 10.1 innings. Linarez has been a pitcher the Pirates really liked as far as potential upside since his DSL days. He has put up solid results throughout his minor league career. Jase Bowen leads the South Atlantic League in homers, and he ranks seventh with a 1.055 OPS. Mike Jarvis is second on the team in OPS, nearly 200 points lower.
BRADENTON AT DUNEDIN
Game Time: 6:30 PM EST
Projected Starter: Thomas Harrington (1-0, 4.26)
Thomas Harrington makes his fourth pro starts today. He was strong in his debut and his last start, but got hit hard for three innings in his second outing. Bradenton has the most potential for any current active lineup right now, but it’s a very raw group overall. Low-A in general has looked rough the last two seasons, so the Pirates aren’t alone in that raw group of players. With smaller rosters for organizations, teams might be holding on to tools more than the fillers who make the lower level games better quality, but don’t have big league upside.
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.
Game two for Greensboro is postponed tonight. Doubleheader attempt #2 tomorrow
Braxton Ashcraft is starting game one for Greensboro. He has been impressive in his return from Tommy John surgery. The start I watched, I’ve never seen someone so locked in to the catcher. His outing could have been the video guide to show someone attacking the strike zone
Ashcraft aside, it’s really painful watching so many of these guys bat. A dog chasing its tail makes more sense. Just watched Siani and Jarvis chase multiple pitches out of the zone, well out in some cases, and strike out.
Gorski last night had one of the worst ABs I’ve ever seen. Bases loaded, two out, against a pitcher who was throwing curves almost exclusively, almost none of them in the zone. As Gorski came up, I literally thought, “He’s going to see nothing but curves.” Sure enough, first two pitches were curves well outside and he chased them. Next two were curves even further outside and he managed to lay off, but he chased the fifth pitch, yet another curve outside. Never came within a foot of hitting anything. The word “blockhead” barely suffices. Maybe it’s just not possible for a coach to get through to some guys, but it was clear watching that AB why Longenhagen basically dismissed Gorski as a prospect.
Greensboro without Cheng in the lineup is really tough to watch. At least they have interesting starting pitchers
Really, all the affiliates’ lineups are tough to watch. Bradenton a little less so, but that’s because those guys haven’t had enough time to flop. At best, the other teams will have 2-3 actual prospects in the lineup and most of them are struggling. Development is not a word I’d associate with this management team.
Postponed…….Noooooooooo!!!!
The 2023 Pirates are so good that weather is the only thing that can stop them 😁