10 Observations: Po-Yu Chen surging, Miguel Sosa, Raymond Mola

A look at the previous week in the Pirates system.

Photo Credit: WTM

Murphy—While he hasn’t hit much yet so far, Miguel Sosa has impressed with his patience at the plate. He’s walked in nearly a quarter of his plate appearances through Friday’s game. He gets lost in the shuffle, but he’s been a solid hitter in the lower levels and is finally getting a chance in Bradenton.

The approach has been there; the next step is starting to string some hits together (he’s also hit his first home run of the season in Bradenton).

Murphy 7/9—I get the upside is limited on someone like Mitch Jebb just because of the lack of power, but he’s generally a fun player to watch when he has things going. He’s walking a lot this month and doesn’t waste any time trying to swipe a bag. Through July 11 he has 13 walks and eight stolen bases on the month.

He’s scored 30 runs in a month and a half. An incredible stretch.

Murphy 7/10—Talk about hitting the ground running coming back from injury for Esmerlyn Valdez. Three home runs in his first two games back. He’s among the slugging leaders in the Florida State League right now.

There is a lot of talk about the shortage of first-base prospects in the system, but he seems to be someone who could be of note. He’ll have to hit his way up the system, which means cutting back on the strikeouts, but he continues to be one of the more impressive power bats in a system that could really use a few.

Murphy 7/10—Not sure he is in the traditional prospect category, but Aaron Shortridge keeps impressing and improving the more he is on the mound. Nothing really stands out, but there is something to like when it comes to his fastball shape, as well as his control and secondary stuff.

With injuries in Bradenton mounting, he’s been stuck there helping to fill innings, but it will be interesting to see what their plans are with him once they are able to move him up.

Murphy—Speaking of rehabbing pitchers in Bradenton, that was easily the closest to the old Mike Burrows than we have seen previously. It looked like he was going a little change-up heavy, probably to work on getting the feel back of it. But we saw the elevated fastball with the 12-to-6 curveball off of it a few times.

It’s easy to forget about Burrows, especially with so many other pitchers performing in the system, but there was a time when he made a very strong argument for being the best pitcher in the system.

Nola Jeffy 7/11 — A name we haven’t heard too often since his time in Bradenton is Po-Yu Chen. He has become somewhat of the forgotten pitching prospect with all of the other hyped-up big names in the organization. That hasn’t stopped him from going on a very strong stretch as of late, as brought up by our beloved John Dreker the other day.

Chen had a 7.98 ERA in four April appearances, including three starts (14.2 IP), a 4.38 ERA in five June starts (24.2 IP), and a 2.95 ERA in six appearances, five of which were starts (36.2 IP) in June. He carried the June stretch into July with a 1.29 ERA so far through two starts and 14.0 IP.

He has also been going against some of the better offenses in the Eastern League while also seeing his strikeouts tick up lately. From his May 26th start (some numbers included in the John tweet), he has pitched 54.2 IP with a 2.47 ERA, striking out 47 and walking 17. Chen won’t wow anyone with stuff, but he has a large pitch mix that as he learns to sequence and tunnel them

WTM 7/12 — All season, the FCL Orioles have been trying to run on Richard Ramirez, and they’re not learning. In the game I’m watching now, he just threw out two in the first. On the year he’d caught 25 of 51 at that point.

Then, in the 2nd, he picked a runner off third.

In the third, he threw a guy out by 20 feet. I've never seen anything quite like this. And, good grief, the next guy walked, and Ramirez picked him off first. So the catcher accounted for five of the first nine outs.

WTM 7/12—The Pirates have two pitchers in the minors now whom they acquired in minor trades: Scott Randall and Connor Oliver. Randall came from Arizona in exchange for Diego Castillo, who started Castillo on a tour of six organizations in the past year and a half. Oliver came from the Royals for Colin Selby, who’s now moved on to the Orioles. Neither pitcher has had a strong 2024 season so far.

Randall, to be fair, is coming off Tommy John surgery, which cost him the 2023 season. He was most recently with Greensboro, where he allowed 13 earned runs on 21 hits in 12.1 IP. The Pirates just moved him up to Altoona anyway.

Oliver is making his full-season debut this year with Bradenton at age 23. He’s had a rough time, with a 5.28 ERA in 44.1 IP. Walks have been the biggest issue.

WTM 7/13—Outfielder Raymond Mola was one of the Pirates’ top international signings in January 2023 at $600K. He then suffered a wrist injury in spring training and got into just seven games. This year, he opened the season back on the IL for unknown reasons. He finally appeared on July 13, going 2-for-3 with a walk.

WTM 7/14—The Pirates acquired RHP Drake Fellows in the Joe Musgrove trade back in January 2021, and he’s hardly pitched since then. Between the pandemic (the Padres drafted Fellows in round 6 in 2019 and he never threw a pitch for them) and injuries, Fellows threw just 23.2 IP as a pro before this year. The big injury was Tommy John surgery in 2022, and he didn’t have a smooth recovery.

So considering how little he’s pitched, Fellows has advanced quite a ways this year. He started off at Greensboro, then went to Altoona after just four outings. He made two spot starts for Indianapolis in June, neither of which went well due to control problems. He went back to Altoona and pitched reasonably well, including a seven-inning, nine-strikeout start on July 1. Then he came back to Indy when Braxton Ashcraft went on the IL. On Saturday, Fellows threw four shutout innings with two hits, no walks, and five strikeouts.

Fellows’ performance overall this year has been a little erratic, mainly due to control issues, but considering how little he’s pitched as a pro and the fact that he’s spent most of the year at the upper levels, he’s done surprisingly well, including a 3.35 ERA and 1.27 WHIP in AA. It’s also very surprising to see the Pirates move him so quickly; they typically are very cautious with pitchers coming off major injuries. It’s not always easy to tell whether they regard a guy as a serious prospect or more of an organizational player, but Fellows has two more months this year to create an impression.

Nola Jeffy 7/14 - Tyler Samaniego is a name that hasn’t been tossed around lately, the other player drafted out of South Alabama (two years after Travis Swaggerty). After ascending to Double-A rather quickly in 2022, he ran into some struggles and still finds himself in Altoona.

Samaniego hit the injured list in April of this year and returned on June 4th. Including his scoreless 0.2 IP on Sunday afternoon, he has given up only three earned runs across 16 IP since he returned. Over that stretch, he has also struck out 21 batters while only walking six. He looked like a possible left-handed option as early as 2023 before struggling, but he might be re-establishing himself as an option to at least be promoted sometime soon.

In addition to Samaniego, the Pirates have a bit of a boom in left-handed relief options. Just in Altoona alone, you also have Luis Peralta, who has yet to give up a run in Double-A, bringing his season ERA down to a minuscule 0.48 when combined with his time in Greensboro. Still hanging out in Greensboro is a left-hander and 2022 draft pick Cy Nielson, who has an ERA of 1.87 in 33.2 IP this year. Making his first start of the year on Friday, recently promoted to Altoona reliever and 2023 draft pick Jaden Woods has a combined 2.70 ERA between High-A and Double-A. We’ll see if that’s a sign of things to come or if it was just a case of limited arms rolling into the All-Star Break.