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Posts Tagged Pedro Alvarez

Off Day Thoughts

Jun 14

Posted by Sean H. Steimer | No Comments

I thought I’d take advantage of the off day to ramble a bit on a few various threads of conversation within the fan base.  The team is going through an awful losing streak and hasn’t looked like a legitimate major league team in a few weeks.  Ryan Doumit has been particularly awful, both behind the plate and a first base.  There’s been a bit of talk about him potentially being traded before the July 31st deadline, presumably why he was playing 1st base in the first place.  There’s nothing wrong with the idea of trying to show that Doumit can play a competent first base in order to elevate his trade value, but that clearly has backfired.  So, given the failed experiment, that pretty well limits the trade options to AL contenders willing to give up something for a DH/C, a rather small group.  Whether (and consequently where) Ryan Doumit might be traded at this point is anyones guess, but based on his recent performance, it seems increasingly unlikely that the return will be anything worthwhile.

Moving on from our catcher who can’t catch, lets talk prospects and promotions.  With Walker, Tabata, and Brad Lincoln all called up, the only major piece left at AAA is top prospect Pedro Alvarez.  There’s been quite a bit of speculation about Pedro being called up during the upcoming home stand.  The team could clearly use the help, and from all indications based on his numbers in Indy, Pedro is ready.  The only real question is when?  Given that nothing has been announced yet, I’m gonna guess it won’t happen before tomorrows game.  The Friday night game against Cleveland might be a good choice, but no matter when the call up comes, expect it to come soon.

Finally, I want to take a very quick look back at the Pirates draft.  The Pirates were able to nap the top 2 upside arms in the draft in first and second round picks Jameson Taillon and Stetson Allie.  Those 2 players alone, assuming they can sign them, could make this draft a huge success.  Both can touch the high 90s on the radar gun, and Allie has even been clocked in triple digits.  Taillon is the more polished of the two, with Allie being seen as very raw and with significant command and control issues that will need to be worked out.  Nonetheless, these 2 players would be very significant additions to the system.  As Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus said on Rocco DeMaro’s Pirates extra Innings radio show after the draft, if they can sign both Allie and Taillon, this draft could potentially be seen as the day that turned this franchise around.  Now obviously that assumes a lot in the way of projection and development, but it does show you the potential these 2 prep pitchers have.  They are precisely the kind of high-upside arms the Pirates minor league system currently lacks.

Beyond the first 2 rounds, I can’t claim to know much about the players the Pirates drafted.  There was a heavy focus on right handed prep pitchers, which was seen as the strength of this draft.  Realistically, its tough to evaluate any teams draft in MLB until after the August 15th signing deadline.  Once we find out which players the Pirates sign and which go to college or otherwise go unsigned, it will be much easier to figure out what kind of talent they have acquired.

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New Poll: Cavalry

Jun 10

Posted by Sean H. Steimer | No Comments

With the big league debuts of Tabata and Lincoln (see the post below this one) plus Neil Walker, who made his debut a few weeks ago, the Cavalry (to use Rocco DeMaro’s term) is on its way.  Pedro Alvarez, the last major piece expected to arrive this season, is turning it on at AAA and can’t be far behind.  These players will undoubtedly help the team, but how much?  The team was 23-35 going into last night, but with a pythag record of 14-44.  In the 104 remaining games, how much will the cavalry help?  Vote in the right sidebar.

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Minor League Roundup: Week 1

Apr 11

Posted by Sean H. Steimer | No Comments

A quick programming note.  I plan to normally do these on Sundays, but I’m going to Altoona tomorrow afternoon to see Steven Strasburg’s pro debut, and I don;t think I’ll have time to do it once I get back to Pittsburgh, so I figured I’d just do it tonight.  Normally, expect this to be posted on Sunday evening’s once all the minor league affiliates have finished play for the day.

LowA – West Virginia

3B – Jarek Cunningham:  5/12, 1 2B, 3K

OF – Evan Chambers: 0/8, 4BB, 3K

SP – Nathan Baker: 4.0 IP, 4 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K

There aren’t a lot of real prospects at this level.  These stats pretty much speak for themselves.  The 7 Ks from Baker are nice, as are the hits from Cunningham.  By the way, in future weeks I’m going to try to include stats for both this week and cumulative for the season.  Since its only week 1, that’s not necesary at this point.

HighA – Bradenton

OF – Robbie Grossman: 6/12, 1 2B, 1 HR, 2 BB

C – Tony Sanchez: 4/11, 2 2B, 2 BB, 1 K

OF – Starling Marte: 4/11, 1 2B, 1 3B, 1 BB, 3 K

1B – Calvin Anderson: 3/10, 3 BB, 5 K

SP – Bryan Morris: 4.2 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 5 K

SP – Jeff Locke: 4.2 IP, 4 H 2 R, 2 ER, 4 K

Lots of legit prospects here, including 2 I didn’t mention in 2B Gift Ngoepe and P Aaron Pribanic.  Last years top pick Sanchez is slated to move quickly, so don’t expect him to stay in Bradenton long, especially if he keeps hitting.  One of the big knocks you hear on Starling Marte is that he is a free swinger, so the strikeouts are a bit concerning, but one can hope that will improve with time.  Also worth pointing out that Pirates brass seems high on Morris based on what he did this Spring, and his start this week did nothing to contradict that.

AA – Altoona

CF – Gorkys Hernandez: 3/11, 2 BB, 3 K, 1 SB

SS – Chase D’Arnaud: 3/12, 2 2B, 3 K

SP – Tim Alderson: 5.0 IP, 4 H, 1 BB, 2 K

RP – Danny Moskos: 2.0 IP, 1 H, 2 BB, 2 K

I really like D’Arnaud and Alderson was the big prize in the Sanchez trade last year.  It would be nice to see Moskos start to capitalize on some of his talent and become a valuable late inning relief pitcher, just so passing on Matt Wieters doesn’t end up being a total waste.

AAA – Indianapolis

OF – Brandon Jones: 3/8, 2 2B, 3 K

OF – Jose Tabata: 5/15, 2 2B, 3 K, 2 SB

3B – Pedro Alvarez: 3/13, 3 HR, 3 BB, 4 K

SP – Brad Lincoln: 3.1 IP, 8 H, 7 R, 5 ER, 3 HR,1 BB, 4 K

SP – Donnie Veal: 5.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 1 K

This team is absolutely loaded.  Kevin Hart, Argenis Diaz, Brandon Moss, etc. are also on this team.  If Pedro keeps hitting like this, he’ll be up in Pittsburgh very soon.  Lincoln struggled mightily in his debut, but I don’t wanna read too much into one start.

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2010 Season Preview: Prediction

Apr 5

Posted by Sean H. Steimer | No Comments

Opening day is finally here, and by the time this posts I will probably be on my way to the North Shore.  I’m gonna have a bit of fun with this one, making a few predictions, roughly in chronological order for the 2010 MLB season.

Before I get into it,  I thought it was appropriate to throw out links to all the previous 2010 season preview posts.

Written back in Janury: Prospects part 1 & part 2

Its probably useless at this point, but for the sake of completeness, here is my “very brief” spring training preview

Probably my favorite of the series, Expectations

And finally, the Pitching & Defense and Offense previews

OK, let’s get to the predictions

April 5th, Today:  The Pirates will start the year off 1-0, getting to Vicente Padilla early and often and the bullpen holds on for a 7-5 victory.

April 28th: The Pirates lose the last of a 3 game sweep in Milwaukee, falling to 10-11 and below .500 for good.

June 3rd: An off day.  Aki Iwamura is traded for a mid-level pitching prospect, clearing the way for Andy LaRoche, off to a hot start, to move to second base and Pedro Alvarez to make his big league debut at home the next day against San Francisco.  Alvarez finishes the season with 22 homers.

June 7th: The Pirates select phenom Bryce Harper second overall in Major League Baseball’s first year player draft.

July 13th:  Andrew McCutchen is the Pirates lone All-Star, as the team crawls into the break 10 games under .500.

July 20th: Brad Lincoln makes his Pirates debut by giving the team their first victory of the season against Milwaukee.

July 31st: For the first time in god knows how long, the Pirates do not make a major deadline deal.

October 3rd:  The Pirates beat the Florida Marline to end the season with 70 wins, good for last in the NL Central, 4 games behind 5th place Houston.  Jose Tabata spends the entire year at AAA, and is not called up as many expected when the season began.

October 4th: In a one game playoff, Aroldis Chapman beats Adam Wainright giving the Reds the NL Central crown.

November 4th: AL wildcard Tampa Bay beats NL West champion Colorado to win the world series in 7 games.

Pirates MVP: Andrew McCutchen

Pirates ROY: Pedro Alvarez

Pirates “Cy Young”: Charlie Morton

NL Cy Young:  Roy Halladay

NL ROY: Aroldis Chapman

NL MVP: Albert Pujols

AL Cy Young: Felix Hernandez

AL ROY: Austin Jackson

AL MVP: Evan Longoria

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2010 Season Preview: Offense

Apr 4

Posted by Sean H. Steimer | No Comments

So the other day I talked about the pitching & defense, and now it’s time to talk about the other side of the ball.  I’ve seen the claim in more than one place that your 2010 Pittsburgh Pirates could have the worst offense seen in Pittsburgh since the 50’s.  While I haven’t looked into it extensively, I seriously doubt that claim would hold up from a statistical basis.  No matter, there’s lost of people who think this team won’t be good, and they have very good reason to believe so.  That said, I think the offense could be pleasantly surprising if just a few things fall the right way.

For opening day, and probably until Pedro Alvarez is called up or someone gets traded, the lineup is going to look something like this:

1. A. Iwamura, 2B

2. A. McCutchen, CF

3. G. Jones, RF

4. R. Doumit, C

5. L. Milledge, LF

6. J. Clement, 1B

7. A. LaRoche, 3B

8. Pitcher

9. R. Cedeno, SS

Starting at the top, Iwamura is a solid on base guy who should set the table nicely.  Everyone, myself included expect ‘Cutch will only continue to get better and while there’s certainly room to question Jones (I don’t think anyone expects him to keep up his 21 HR, .938 OPS in 82 games pace he set last year), it’s very reasonable to expect he can hit 30 or so dingers and drive in a bunch of runs hitting in the 3 hole.

The next 4 are the real question marks and will make or break this team from a run scoring point of view.  Doumit has proven over the career he can hit the ball well, especially for a catcher, when he is healthy.  The big question is, can he stay healthy for the full 162 game season, or will he see time on the DL once again in 2010.  Lastings Milledge is probably getting his last shot to prove himself as an every day big leaguer.  He’s been saying all the right things this spring, and one of those things he’s been saying is that he’ll be able to hit for more power now that the wrist injury he had last year is fully healed.  Only time will tell of course, but I believe this is the year Milledge finally breaks out.  Clement is probably the biggest question mark of all, having only played 75 career games in the bigs, none of them at 1B.  Based on his minor league numbers, he’s proven all that he can at AAA, and between his power and the Clemente wall in right field, one can at least hope he can be a productive number 6 hitter.  Finally, we come to Andy LaRoche.  Everyone knows what he did last year, and while that was a massive improvement over what he did in ‘08 after coming over in the Jason Bay trade, he still has a ways to go to be where you want your everyday third baseman to be offensively.  Based on his minor league numbers though, there’s reason to believe he could get there, and what he does will go along way to dictating what the pirates do when Pedro Alvarez is ready.  Even if he doesn’t improve over his ‘09 season, he’s a very solid on base guy, and you could do a lot worse for your number 7 hitter.  It’s probably unreasonable to expect all four of these guys to break out to their potential at one time, but if 2 or three of them can, and Jones can maintain 80% of what he put up in the second half last year, the team should be in good shape offensively.

Finally, the Pirates are all set to bat the pitcher 8th and Ronny Cedeno in the 9 spot to turn the order over.  While I like the idea in theory (see here), I don’t like having a career .280 OBP guy playing that role, and would much rather see Andy LaRoche or Lastings Milledge batting ninth.

Moving to the bench, Delwyn Young has been a solid hitter his whole career except when he is expending all his energy pre-game trying to learn to play second base.  John Raynor is speedy and could be a nice pinch runner and defensive replacement.  Ryan Church is a very solid fourth outfielder and Bobby Crosby was the AL rookie of the year in a former life.

With all that said, I’m probably in the minority here when I say this team could be solid offensively.  They aren’t going to be great by any stretch of the imagination, but I really do believe that offense isn’t what will kill this team, but rather the pitching and defense.  And once Pedro shows up, likely in early June, well let’s just say the offense can only get better when that happens, and this team is going to begin to come together for the future at that point.

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