|
ERIK LUNDE, CATCHER
|
| Born: January 14, 1992 Height: 5’9″ Weight: 180 Bats: Left Throws: Right Drafted: 18th Round, 551st Overall, 2014 How Acquired: Draft College: Lander University (SC) Agent: N/A |
WTM’S PIRATE PLAYER PROFILES |
| Lunde continued the Pirates’ trend of taking college seniors on day three of the 2014 draft. He was an undersized second baseman who showed some pop his senior year, but his numbers came with the caveat that his team put up a .938 OPS. Lunde got on base at a decent clip in college, but doesn’t offer good speed. Baseball America did not rank him either on its list of the top 500 draft prospects or its list of the top 36 prospects in South Carolina. As a college senior, he signed quickly.
2014 Lunde was the starting second baseman at Jamestown. He played well defensively, but struggled at the plate apart from good plate discipline. He struggled against LHPs, posting only a .441 OPS against them, although he didn’t hit RHPs well, either. 2015 The Pirates started working Lunde out at catcher after the season and, after staying in extended spring training, he caught Bristol’s opening game. He ended up catching a third of their games, while playing nine games at second and a dozen as DH. He hit dramatically better than the previous year, but that may just have been a product of moving down a level. He didn’t have any major problems defensively despite his lack of experience, with two errors and a 21% caught stealing rate. Lunde made a good transition to catcher, but he’ll be 24 when the 2016 season starts. It’ll be interesting to see how the Pirates handle him. |
|
CONTRACT INFORMATION
|
| 2016: Minor league contract |
|
PLAYER INFORMATION
|
| Signing Bonus: N/A MiLB Debut: 2014 MLB Debut: MiLB FA Eligible: 2020 MLB FA Eligible: Rule 5 Eligible: 2018 Added to 40-Man: Options Remaining: 3 MLB Service Time: 0.000 |
|
TRANSACTIONS
|
| June 7, 2014: Drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 18th round, 551st overall pick; signed on June 12. |
