10 Observations: Young pitchers in spring games,back fields update, Jared Jones change-up
Some observations from around camp the past week
Murphy: Mike Burrows was consistently at 94 mph in his start against the Braves. As always, it seemed to have good life on it. He allowed a two-run home run against Matt Olson but otherwise didn’t pitch poorly.
It's almost like he was throwing a shorter cutter, or at the least figured out how to manipulate the shape of the slider. That’ll be something to monitor going forward.
Murphy: Didn’t get to see the Thomas Harrington inning, but the slider graded out among the best you will probably see. A nasty sweeper that averaged over 16” of horizontal movement.
The fastball continues to disappoint, and I wonder if a two-seam/sinker would help, especially with the sweeper movement. That’d be a lot of east/west to cover at the plate.
Editor’s note: Alex Stumpf had a fun article on MLB.com where he asked pitchers what pitch they could steal from others on the team. Harrington mentioned that he thought a sinker would fit in his arsenal well. This is obviously coming out after that, but I just thought I’d note that I wrote this down BEFORE that came out, for what it is worth.
Murphy: So, I didn’t believe it at first but Eddy Yean was 97/98 at one point with Bradenton in 2021. The issue was, he couldn’t keep it in the zone consistently.
Since then, he has been in Greensboro and Altoona, so it was easy to forget he dialed it up that high.
Yean dialed the fastball up to 97 mph in his spring debut, and did a good job keeping it in the zone.
Certainly an interesting development if he maintains that and keeps it in the zone.
Murphy: It was a rough stretch regarding consistent streams last week, but at least we got a look at Hunter Barco. If there is a guy that could be set up for a big step forward, it’s Barco.
Another year removed from Tommy John, Barco sat 95/96 with his fastball against the Braves and struck out two of their better hitters: Marcell Ozuna and Austin Riley.
The splitter really has a chance to be a nasty pitch. Next step would be to get some data tracking on the stuff, but 95/96 from the left side seems likely to play well.
Murphy: If you are on Twitter, you have probably seen me talk about this before but wanted to mention this again. This is disappointing in how limited we get sometimes in how much spring training is streamed. There were 16 games this past Wednesday and only half of them were televised. Thursday (the 27th), less than half the games were streamed.
It’s just frustrating to be in the year 2025 and not have most of these games televised. Put a simple camera up and stream it. Offer a college credit to a local school and have them put up their own broadcast.
WTM 2/26: With the major league team moved to LECOM, things are pretty quiet now at Pirate City. As of Wednesday, probably somewhere around half the minor leaguers are there. Of course, a lot of the upper level minor leaguers are in major league camp now. Many lower-level guys, especially whoever is moving up from the DSL, aren’t there yet, although more may be by the time you read this.
The minor league roster on Wednesday (this gets updated a few times during spring training) had two of last year’s DSL players on it. It’s significant in a small way because DSL guys in camp in March usually, although not always, will be promoted to the FCL. The two were Edward Florentino and Jonathan Rivero, and their situations are very different.
Florentino made his pro debut last year and had a big year. He put up an .891 OPS, hit for good power, and walked more than he struck out. He played a little in center, but long-term he’s probably a first baseman or corner outfielder.
Rivero, a catcher, had the Pirates’ largest international bonus two years ago. His first year was rough, with a .498 OPS, and the Pirates sent him back to the DSL in 2024. He was hurt at the start of the year and served strictly as a DH when he played. His hitting improved to the tune of a .691 OPS, but he still hit for very little power, which was supposed to be one of his strong points.
Murphy 2/27: Anthony Solometo pitched and while the game wasn’t televised, we got to see the velocity through statcast. He got up to 92.7 with the fastball after averaging under 90 mph last year.
So, seeing if he maintains the velocity, and keeps it in the zone, will be important going forward.
WTM 2/27: Still not much happening at Pirate City, but I did see an infield drill covering double plays and throws home. Participants were Jesus Castillo, Carlos Caro, Keiner Delgado, Wyatt Sanford and Justin Miknis. It was interesting because all but Sanford played for Bradenton last year. Probably doesn’t mean anything, but it’s fun to imagine Sanford (and a certain other guy) opening this year with the Marauders.
Murphy 3/2: After a rocky start, Jared Jones really dialed in and worked quickly through the rest of his start on Sunday. He started the game with a get-me-over curveball for a called strike one.
The main point of focus was the change-up, which showed some promise, getting a couple of whiffs. He did miss his spots a few times, which led to some solid contact but it’s encouraging to see him focus on it the way he did there.
There was one sequence where he threw two change-ups to a lefty (fading away) before coming back with a back-door slider (breaking in) to get a strikeout.
For pitchers with elite fastballs, I love to see them be able to do stuff like that without having to include their best pitch. Makes them harder to gameplan for.
Murphy 3/2: The home run is nice (although it had an expected batting average of .170) but what really stood out for Endy Rodriguez on Sunday was the nine pitch walk he drew in the eighth inning. He fouled off four pitches, three of which came after there were two strikes, fighting back from 1-2 to draw the free pass.
I still like the idea of having him play a bit in Triple-A to get in the flow of playing again, but you get the feeling he’s going to make it as hard as possible to leave him off the opening day roster.
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Let’s try this in three categories:
Locks: Bednar, Holderman, Santana, Ferguson
Near-locks: Mayza, Mlod, Nicolas
Out of options: Wentz, Strzelecki, Lawrence
That’s ten, without Burrows or Ashcraft or any NRIs.
Hope the pirates are a bit aggressive with the placement of Sanford and Griffin. Did it look like Sanford put on some weight?
Indy and Altoona should be loaded with starting pitchers. Indy could have Bubba, Harrington, Ashcraft, Burrows, and Oviedo. Altoona could have Barco, Solometo, Chen, Sullivan, and Reed (more likely someone other than Reed, just my want).
This is the deepest I can remember the upper levels and the big club having this many quality starters with others that have potential to come into the mix. Dotel, Ecrolani, Diamond etc....