10 Observations: Konnor Griffin catch, Oneil Cruz laser home run, Wilkin Ramos in the backfields
Some observations from the previous week include Konnor Griffin making an incredible catch, Oneil Cruz and Wilkin Ramos, among others.
Murphy 3/10: Abrahan Gutierrez picked up his first extra-base hit of the spring on Monday. He’s gone 4-13 with that double and four RBI during Grapefruit League play.
Injuries have derailed his development path, but even when he’s remained healthy, he has struggled to impact the ball in Double-A. With Carter Bins retiring, that clears some playing time behind the plate in the upper levels, perhaps one last chance for Gutierrez to get things going.
Murphy 3/11: That Konnor Griffin guy sure is something, isn’t he? I don’t want to pin his defense in center field based on a spectacular play, but man, what a catch that was? Anthony Volpe hit a laser to center, 103 mph off the bat and at a 22° launch angle. The way that ball is hit, statistically speaking, should have resulted in Volpe being safe 74% of the time (.740 xBA), but yet Griffin took it away.
I’m interested in seeing how he looks at shortstop, but it is completely natural in center. You could probably have him play only shortstop in the minors until he makes the majors and then switch him to center, and it’d look like he hasn’t missed a beat.
Murphy 3/11: Got a good open stance look at a Matt Gorski hit on Tuesday, and you could really see all the moving parts that are put in motion throughout his set-up.
At this point, my interest is absolutely peaked in seeing just how much it works at the majors. There’ll be some swing and miss, sure, but it’s flush contact when he connects.
Murphy 3/11: That Oneil Cruz home run on Tuesday may have been the fastest I’ve seen a ball leave the park, ever. At least in person it’s probably the hardest hit ball I’ve seen.
If you blinked, there’s a chance you missed it getting out. It was on a literal laser.
Murphy 3/11: First time I’ve seen Paul Skenes live and while it obviously wasn’t him at his best, that splinker is just nasty. Obviously the fastball is going to be explosive, but it was his east/west game that stood out for me. The slider/splinker covering so much space on each side of the plate is tough enough, add in potentially a triple digit fastball on top of that, yeah that’ll work.
WTM 3/11: Minor league exhibitions got underway today. The Pirates played a pair of games against the Braves, mainly using players who figure to go to Altoona or Greensboro, with a few maybe ultimately headed for Indianapolis. For whatever reason, both games were short on prospects.
I did see Wilkin Ramos for the first time since before the Mets took him in the minor league Rule 5 back in 2022. After leaving, he lowered his arm slot to not-quite-sidearm and had a terrific season and a half in AA, but his control disappeared when he got to AAA in mid-2024. IMO, he was one of the Pirates’ better offseason pickups. Of course, that’s a very low bar. Anyway, he had an easy inning today.
Carson Fulmer started one of the games and threw two innings. I got there toward the end of his second inning. From what I gathered, he hadn’t been too impressive. They had to roll over that second inning.
Murphy 3/12: Most of my observations from the backfields will have their own separate article, but Thomas Harrington looked sharp in the intrasquad game they played on Wednesday.
Three innings, five strikeouts and a lot of weak contact (except for the Esmerlyn Valdez double).
He hasn’t pitched in a spring training game since March 1st, and hasn’t been reassigned to minor league camp. Interesting situation.
Murphy 3/15: It’s crazy what the eye test could lead too. There are times watching Kyle Nicolas still and I wonder if he should make the major league team. But he hasn’t allowed a run this spring in eight innings (seven appearances).
A big fact zero for ERA is always nice, but just remember, that has come with seven walks too. The stuff is electric, the control is still a concern.
How the bullpen shakes out is going to be interesting.
WTM 3/16: Fangraphs’ list of the Pirates’ top 38 prospects is very much worth reading. Of course, the writeups of the players themselves are worthwhile, but there’s some more general discussion that makes a good read. Eric Longenhagen makes the point that the middle of the top 38 list is dominated by hitters with “extreme outcome variance.” He adds that the Bucs were the first of the dozen teams for which he’d done prospect lists at that point to have more ranked hitters than pitchers. He refers to an “active volcano full of wild card prospects mostly from Latin America,” and says their approach has been to look for “bat speed mavens,” then to try to get them to tone things down enough to make contact. This stands in contrast to the Red Sox, who target prospects with contact skill and then try to help them add power.
Murphy 3/16: I don’t know how it will be done, and this is something that could drag into a whole article, but what I’ve seen, Ryan Borucki should be on the major league squad to start the season.
Not sure how things shake down, and how many lefties they plan on keeping, but he’s looked good enough to want to keep around.
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Love this feature guys.
So what do we think of the bat speed approach that was referenced here? Seems intriguing to me, as it’s not exactly a teachable skill.
Griffin has piqued my interest too 😀