10 Observations: Greensboro promotions, Charles McAdoo Altoona debut

A look at what happened this past week in the Pirates' system.

Photo Credit: WTM

Murphy 6/17—I’m not sure how much it will translate, being different levels, but this looks like a completely different Yordany De Los Santos compared to what I saw in Bradenton last year.

It could be because he’s facing Complex Level pitching again, but he just looks like a much more solid, all-around hitter. He adjusted and drove a breaking ball away from the other way with an exit velocity of 97 mph.

He’s easily been the best player on a stacked offense for the FCL Pirates. Again, I’m not sure how it translates now that he’s facing worst pitching, but regardless, he deserves another shot in Bradenton.

Murphy 6/18—While he has been struggling with the strikeouts, especially as of late, Esmerlyn Valdez did a great job adjusting in the Tuesday game. After striking out his first three at-bats, he seemed noticeably different once he came up for the fourth time. He took more pitches, worked a count in his favor, and drilled a ball for a home run.

He did an excellent job drawing a walk and getting on base before Shalin Polanco hit a walk-off home run in extra innings. Then, even his next at-bat the following day, he worked a count and drove a ball up the middle for a base hit.

He’s still striking out, but you can see some of the pieces of the plan coming together.

Murphy 6/18—Antwone Kelly is another example of a thrower becoming a pitcher in front of our eyes. When he’s throwing the fastball up in the strike zone, hitters are having a tough time making any contact, let alone anything of quality.

Strikes are the key, with most pitchers, and that’s unfolding over his last couple of starts. The stuff is good enough to play; it just has to be in the zone.

Murphy 6/18—With the recent offensive surge from Javier Rivas, it’s good to see it hasn’t taken away from anything with the glove. He stayed very busy on Tuesday and made things look easier than they should.

Obviously, climbing out of the hole from being the worst hitter in minor league baseball (by wRC+) isn’t going to be easy, but Rivas is getting there.

He’s making all the plays he’s supposed to in the field. If he can become even just an average hitter in the minors, with his glove, the profile completely changes for him.

Murphy 6/18—It probably wasn’t as much of a surprise to see that Patrick Reilly was displaying some of the best raw stuff on the Greensboro pitching staff.

We knew he had that in him.

But his continual progress as a starting pitcher, throwing a career-high six innings and striking out double digits for the first time, has been impressive.

According to FanGraphs’ write-up, he’s putting up a whiff rate of over 30% with the fastball, getting up to 97 mph. The pitch mix is expanding, which would be key for him to stay in the rotation.

WTM 6/19—Greensboro is easily leading the South Atlantic League in home runs with 96 through 63 games; no other team has more than 78, and the third-highest total is 66. In fact, eight of the SAL’s 12 teams have fewer than half as many long balls as the Hoppers. You can’t entirely chalk it up to the ballpark, either. Here are all the Greensboro players with five or more through June 19, including their home/road splits:

Shawn Ross - 12 (5 H, 7 R)
Nick Cimillo - 10 (3 H, 7 R)
Lonnie White, Jr. - 10 (3 H, 7 R)
Charles McAdoo - 9 (5 H, 4 R)
Hudson Head - 8 (5 H, 3 R)
Jack Brannigan - 7 (2 H, 5 R)
P.J. Hilson - 6 (5 H, 1 R)
Luke Brown - 5 (1 H, 4 R)
Termarr Johnson - 5 (2 H, 3 R)
Josiah Sightler - 5 (4 H, 1 R)

There is no pattern here, and more overall on the road, 42 to 35. Of course, we’ll learn a lot more when some of these guys get to Altoona. The Pirates have a history of seeing their hitting prospects crush the ball at Greensboro and hit a wall in AA.

Murphy 6/19—It’s crazy how Axiel Plaz moved up to Bradenton because they needed a catcher, and now he has worked his way into a permanent spot at 18 years old.

He’s now leaning into his power profile, with a 90th percentile exit velocity of over 105 mph. The ball just absolutely flies off his bat, and it’s wild that it took a promotion up to full-season ball for it to be let loose.

Plaz had a sub .600 OPS while playing in the FCL during the 2023 and 2024 seasons. His slugging percentage is over .500 on its own right now at a more advanced level that he is three years younger than the average player.

Murphy 6/19—It’s been much debated on what the best usage for Braxton Ashcraft would be for the rest of the season, but by watching him, it does feel like they are prepping him to start—at least to begin.

He’s throwing the change-up a lot more, sometimes more than the curveball. It hasn’t always been pretty, but he did pick up two whiffs on six swings.

Ashcraft shouldn’t need it too much, but it will help keep hitters off the fastball—which doesn’t have the best shape—if there is at least the threat.

Nola Jeffy 6/20 — Greensboro Grasshoppers clinched the first half North division title Thursday evening, and much of it was due to the usual suspects.

Charles McAdoo went 2-for-4, with an RBI double in the first, followed by stealing third base and proceeding to score on the catcher's throwing error.

Nick Cimillo went 2-for-3 with not one but two solo shots.

Dominic Perachi threw six scoreless innings with only one hit allowed and seven strikeouts. Lowering his ERA to 1.99 with Greensboro.

With a playoff birth in hand, it's probably time to begin considering promotions, with the three above players mentioned specifically on the list (which could even happen by the time this publishes). Obviously, we can't promote half a roster. Still, an argument could be made players such as Hunter Barco, Patrick Reilly, or even Hudson Head and Derek Diamond are ready to move along—especially a reliever with a 0.64 ERA in 28.0 IP, Luis Peralta.

Altoona has been uncompetitive for most of the season. With the first half ending Sunday, they will likely finish with the worst record in the Eastern League and the worst run differential by a wide margin.

WTM 6/21 — FanGraphs published their list of the Pirates’ top 40 prospects on June 19, and it’s not a piece for Pirates fans to get excited about. The summary is “an average, top-heavy system.” With the top two players already in the majors, Ben Cherington’s system will plunge toward the bottom once they're no longer eligible.

One interesting facet of the list is that, with the upper levels of Cherington’s system in shambles, FG has filled out the list with many lottery tickets from the lower levels of the system. A striking aspect of this is that, if you read the writeups of each player, very few of them project as frontline major league players, even if they do succeed. That’s undoubtedly a ramification of the Pirates’ refusal to compete for the top international talents. Instead, they have focused on adding many second and third-tier prospects, a strategy that proved itself a failure many years ago. The result now, if you look at the players who made the FG list, is that the Pirates have a lot of hitters with some power who can’t make contact and pitchers who throw hard but can’t find the plate.

Another lesson from the FG list is that Cherington has left himself in a bad position should he decide to try to improve the major league team for the first time in his five-year tenure. The 40-man roster is a mirror image of the farm system. The Pirates have a small number of players who’d be tradeable, but they can’t afford to part with any of them because there are no replacements. The bulk of the 40-man roster is made up of washed-up veterans and AAA depth guys. The only viable alternative for Cherington to improve the team — as opposed to adding players who make it worse, as he did this past offseason — is to take on salaries from teams looking to shed payroll. Does that sound like a Bob Nutting Production?

Bonus Observation—Charles McAdoo didn’t take long to start making noise in Double-A. He hit two home runs and a double, drew a walk, and made a fantastic play at third base.

I didn’t want to buy too much into McAdoo until he hit Double-A. Well, he’s here, and there isn’t much more you could ask for from his first two games. He’s shown the ability to go the other way, especially with breaking pitches, yet turn on a pitch with authority.

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