10 Observations: Looks from Greensboro, power hitters in Bradenton
Observations from Greensboro, Esmerlyn Valdez and Jhonny Severino going home run for home run
Murphy 9/3—That was a rough first night for Lonnie White Jr. He went 0-4 with four strikeouts. What stood out was the scout behind me talking up White so much from back in his prep days. I’ll go into more details later, but I heard some interesting stuff from a few of the scouts in attendance for game one.
The kid is super talented—that’s obvious. The Pirates must find a way to translate that talent into results.
Edit: He finished the week on a four-game hitting streak, so a nice little bounce back from that first game.
Murphy 9/3—Game one was a mixed bag for Omar Alfonzo. He hit his third home run with Greensboro, picked up another single, and drew a walk.
Defensively, he threw out a pair of runners at second but allowed a passed ball that eventually cost the Grasshoppers the game. He has 13 passed balls on the season now, three already with Greensboro in nine games behind the plate.
Part of it could be familiarity with a new pitching staff, but something to monitor going forward. The arm won’t be in question, he’s throwing out over 50% of the attempted base stealers since being promoted to Greensboro (as of Tuesday’s game).
Murphy 9/3—Duce Gourson has the frame where it wouldn’t surprise me if he had a little more pop in his bat than he’s shown so far. He has a solid base and has a clean swing.
That said, I would like to see him swing the bat more. He seems patient, almost to a fault.
Walks are good, but let’s see what he can do and put the ball in play more often. It’s almost like Termarr Johnson at times, in that his strike zone awareness is so good that it leaves him with so few opportunities to swing in the lower levels.
Murphy 9/3—First game reaction of Mitch Jebb in center field with limited plays available for him—he looked good. The arm is fine for the position, and he moved well around there.
I don’t feel like there’s a reason to see him in the dirt anymore, center field is a better fit.
Edit: He played five games during the week, four were in center field.
WTM 9/5—In the last several drafts, one of the Pirates’ favorite demographics has been college pitchers with good arms but histories of control problems. They’ve gotten some widely divergent results from that demographic, as you’d expect. Here’s an illustration: Carlson Reed (2023 4th round) vs. Tyler Kennedy (2023 19th round).
After a brief tuneup in 2023, Reed opened 2024 with Bradenton. He got good results from the start, but his control was holding him back. In his first 39.2 IP, he walked 26. In his next 38 innings, though, he walked just 16. That helped earn him a promotion to Greensboro, where he’s taken off. In 31 innings at the higher level through September 4, he’d allowed a paltry 11 hits and nine walks, while fanning 34. On September 4, he took a perfect game into the seventh.
Kennedy’s been a different story. He threw three innings in his 2023 tuneup, walking nine. Like Reed, he went to Bradenton in 2024, but the progress hasn’t been there. In 22 innings, he’s walked 43, hit nine, and thrown 13 wild pitches. There’s been no sign of progress. The Pirates put him on the development list for most of August, but in his second game back, he failed to retire any of the four batters he faced.
Varied results like that no doubt come with the turf, but for one Reed (based on what he’s done so far), you’d no doubt take a bunch of less successful guys.
Murphy 9/5—A follow-up on a previous comment on Jebb about not seeing him in the dirt anymore—he played second base on Thursday, booted a ball (wasn’t called an error, which was fair, as it was a tougher play) and then got an error later on.
Jebb is a much better center fielder, and when I talked to him during the week, he mentioned that the outfield allows him to ‘run free’ and take advantage of his speed.
Murphy 9/5—It wasn’t a pretty night defensively for Greensboro, who committed another two errors (Mitch Jebb and Kalae Harrison) and a passed ball.
They also got a bit risky in a first-and-third situation. The runner at first took off for second, and Shawn Ross threw him out but allowed the runner to score from third in the process. They got the runner out and ended up closing the game out, but it could have been ugly if they hadn’t gotten the out.
It’s been a sloppy defensive season throughout the minors, with some of the routine plays looking much more difficult than they should be.
WTM 9/6 — Some more Omar Alfonzo: An interesting aspect with him is his platoon split. Through September 5, at both levels, he had a .792 OPS against RHPs and .592 against LHPs. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. Not many catchers start more than 4-5 times a week. A catcher who hits RHPs and doesn't play much against LHPs can be very valuable. Just ask Mike Lavalliere and Ed Ott.
WTM 9/6 — Jhonny Severino has been matching Esmerlyn Valdez's power output lately. They each hit a pair in Bradenton’s win on Sept. 4, then hit one in the suspended game on September 6. Hopefully they’ll get enough of that game in for those long balls to count in the stats. Valdez, through September 6, has a league-leading 22. Severino has six in just 26 games (really 25+). He’s batting 245/288/528, which looks good for the power, but Severino had a .373 OBP in the FCL before being promoted. His walk rate has dropped from 11.8% to 6.3% since the promotion, while his K rate has increased sharply from 15.9% to 28.8%.
Murphy 9/7—Although First National Bank Field is known for offense, it’s been the pitching staff for the Grasshoppers doing most of the work lately. More specifically, the new additions up from Bradenton.
Of the five games I attended this past week, two players who started in Bradenton pitched a no-hitter deep into the game.
Garrett McMillan, another player promoted from Bradenton, threw five perfect innings.
Alessandro Ercolani found a new rhythm out of the bullpen. Patrick Reilly was dealing before getting traded.
There was a lot of good coming out of Greensboro right now, and I think a lot of that has to do with pitching coach Matt Myers. He seemed super involved and detail-oriented from beginning to end during the pitcher warm-ups.
Whatever they have going seems to be working.
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