10 Observations: Konnor Griffin in center field, Hunter Furtado velocity jump, Bubba Chandler's fastball
A look around the Pirates' system this past week.
Murphy 4/22: The Bradenton Marauders have struggled to put runs on the board recently, but one thing that has gone well for them as of late—the defense, especially the infield.
In Tuesday’s game, each infielder made a really strong defensive play. That was without Konnor Griffin in the lineup, too. Yordany De Los Santos is one of the slickest defenders the Pirates have in their system. Carlos Caro has played well too (he got a start at third base on Wednesday, where he started a double play).
If you aren’t scoring runs, at least play defense, and Bradenton is doing that.
Murphy 4/22: Watching Isaias Uribe in spring training put him on my radar going into the season, and he hasn’t done much to turn me away so far. Mid-90s fastball, nice slider. He was really solid this past week, and four of the five earned runs he’s allowed this year were in his first game of the season.
He’s a bit on the older end for Bradenton, but also missed a year due to an injury.
It will be interesting to see how far he can advance this year.
Murphy 4/23: Konnor Griffin got into his first game at center field with Bradenton on Wednesday, and immediately showed why the tools translate so naturally there. He used his speed to cut off a ball in the gap to keep a hit at a single.
Later, he traveled A LONG way from the right center field gap to the other, and could have come up with the catch without the confusion between him and Joel Mendez. Griffin rightfully backed away at the last second because they were heading for a collision. Center fielder has dibs, not sure if there was just a miscommunication or if Griffin didn’t call it because he wasn’t sure if he’d get there in time. Someone has to back off there.
Murphy 4/23: Sean Sullivan made his longest rehab appearance to date, tossing three shutout innings for Bradenton. He didn’t get the swing and miss you’d probably like facing Single-A hitters, but the stuff looked good. Focused primarily on the change-up and sweeper. Did get a miss with the off-speed.
I wonder how long he’ll be in Bradenton rehabbing and how he fits into the Altoona pitching picture once he's healthy. There’s an easy spot for him right now with Anthony Solometo on the IL. When he returns, it’s less clear. I’ve said for a while now that Sullivan’s stuff might pop more out of the bullpen. Maybe when Solometo returns, that’s when you pull the trigger on that.
Murphy 4/24: Man, I don’t hold any rooting interest anymore, but seeing Matt Gorski hit a home run in his debut was good to see. The kid has always had the tools to play in the majors, but injuries and strikeout issues have stalled him out.
He’s still found a way to put together multiple 20/20 seasons.
There’ll be some swing and miss in his game, there always has been, but the Pirates need some pop in that lineup, and he’s got plenty of that.
Murphy 4/25: Bubba Chandler already had an easy ‘70’ grade fastball going into the year. Now with the velocity bump, and the rest of the characteristics, I think we have to talk about whether or not it’s an ‘80’ at this point.
Even when he isn’t getting whiffs with it, hitters can’t square up enough to put it in play. It’s truly an elite pitch.
Murphy 4/25: That home run from Konnor Griffin will definitely end up on the highlight reel, but outside of that, it was another rough game for the 2024 first-round pick. It’s a good reminder that a lot of these kids are going through a certain amount of failure they’ve probably never encountered in their lives.
While he’s sorting it out and adjusting, it’s good to see him capitalizing on any mistake, because after a certain amount of rough at-bats, it could be easy to press and miss the easy stuff. He punished that 1-2 fastball that was left thigh-high.
Maybe something like that can get things rolling as well. (He hit a home run the next night, and then two doubles the following day)
NolaJeffy 4/28: Hunter Furtado is nasty. In the off-season, the NS9 crew had Eric Longehagen on to discuss the rankings for prospects of the Pirates. When speaking about Hunter Barco, he mentioned how the Florida Gators seem to struggle with developing pitchers, with the likes of Barco or Brandon Sproat popping once entering the pro ranks. With that in mind, maybe the Pirates found something similar with regard to untapped Alabama arms? First off, there's 2023 14th round pick Garrett McMillan who largely came out of nowhere late 2024 season. Now, 2023 6th round pick — also out of Alabama University — Hunter Furtado was hitting 97 on the radar Saturday evening, multiple times. Pairing with a slider and change-up that were also looking like very quality pitches. Including Saturday, he has a 2.79 ERA with the Marauders, in seven appearances covering 9.2 IP, while striking out 16. Did I mention he's a lefty? So, maybe they also have something with lefties named Hunter.
WTM 4/26: Joel Mendez was a bit more interesting than the typical minor league Rule 5 pick. He spent four seasons with the Yankees (plus not playing in 2020), never getting out of short-season ball. He did show some power, although it came with the usual contact issues. He finally had a big season last year in the Florida Complex League, and the Pirates acquired him.
Hitters like Mendez — raw power with swing-and-miss issues — aren’t exactly uncommon, but he’s interesting to watch because he gets the bat head out quickly, giving him good ability to pull the ball, and so far this year he’s hitting very few ground balls. He started the season 1-for-12, but since (through April 26) then he’s 11-for-30 with three doubles and a home run. That gives him a line of .286/.388/.429. Considering the sample size and how long he’s been in pro ball, it’s way too soon to read anything into that, but he’s worth keeping an eye on, especially since his OPS is about 200 points above the team average.
WTM 4/26: It’s been frustrating at times the last several years, watching a lot of Bradenton and FCL Pirates games, and seeing the same players struggle, often at the same level, for several years. This is true of hitters and pitchers; in my opinion, the Pirates’ pitcher development has gotten an overblown reputation due to a handful of good draft picks. The prototypes are easily summarized: hitters with raw power and maybe other tools who can’t make contact or read pitches, and pitchers with good velocity or breaking balls who have little or no command. An awful lot of these players are spending 2-3 years at the same, lower levels and making no progress with these issues.
What I’ve started wondering is whether this results in part from a high-risk scouting approach. I suspect it might be an industry-wide phenomenon, but that’s harder for me to say because I don’t follow any other system anything like the way I do the Pirates. I’m inclined, though, to think they’re a fairly extreme example of an industry-wide trend. (I mean “extreme” here not so much in the sense of an extreme approach so much as in the sense of just not being very good at what they do.)
With hitters, the focus is on tools, especially power, and with pitchers on velocity and spin. I’m not sure the missing skills (contact ability and command), can be developed, as the Pirates seem to assume. So a disturbing percentage of the young players keep returning to Bradenton and the FCL, year after year.
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Great observations -- really appreciate this group's attention to the details that we casual fans would never get.
WTM's last observation points out the folly of getting so frustrated with "the lack of development" for player x, especially at the lower end of the minors -- for the vast majority in the minors, their ceilings are organizational depth. Clubs have to throw a lot of mud at the target to find that AA-ceiling guy who can be built into a AAA, or even major league talent (and I, for one, believe it's true in every organization). And I'm sure every team misses in that assessment as well.
This (and $$$, obvs) probably contributed to the reduced reserve lists in the last CBA.
Furtado is a LHP that hits 97 and has a change and slider, move over Barco, I have a new lefty to drool over.