Morning Rundown: Jase Bowen picks up another hit, Salt River loses
When looking at the Salt River Rafters roster, there was an opportunity for Jase Bowen to get in some extra games, as they only had three outfielders listed on the roster.
Obviously players can move around a bit, the AFL is sometimes a place we see prospects working on new positions, but at the end of the day, Bowen had an opportunity to log plenty of at-bats with three natural outfielders on the roster.
Even considering that, Bowen has surprisingly played in every game this fall, logging games in the infield and outfield.
Bowen is currently in the lead when it comes to at-bats, and in a tie for second for hits, behind Jakob Marsee.
He picked up another hit on Thursday, going 1-for-3 with a run and RBI, also walking and picking up a sacrifice bunt as well.
The RBI single came in the fourth inning, scoring Hao-Yu Lee and putting the Rafters up 5-3 at the time. They scored once the rest of the night, losing 7-6.
‘State of the System’ recap
Yesterday we wrapped up our ‘State of the System’ series, look at four different position groups - infield, outfield, catcher and pitcher - and how the Pirates stack up at each.
Follow the links of each to read the article.
With that series wrapped up, Monday we will be starting a new one, and I’m excited about this one. We have one of the best collection of people here at the site that are really around the system, and log some of the biggest collection of hours when it comes to watching the minors.
As far as the rest of the weekend, WTM will have an early look at some potential lineups/rotations for 2024 at each affiliate later today. Then that’s followed up with another breakdown article by me on Saturday, and Ethan jumps back on Sunday going over the Pirates 2023 payroll.
Jase Bowen continues his Swiss Army Knife routine on both sides of the ball. On defense he was in RF last night which is the 3rd game in RF, and he also has 3 games at 1B, 2 games in CF, 1 game in LF, and 1 game at DH. I liked the description of everything he did on offense in last night's game with a hit, an RBI, a Walk, a run scored, and a sacrifice bunt. If needed, he also played 2B, and 3B at Bradenton in 2022.
His strongest possibility of moving quickly through AA and AAA would be as a CF. Not like the Pirates do not have CF's like Gorski, Fraizer, Sanchez, and Scott, but none of them has really separated from the pack. Fraizer and Gorski will both be 26 entering the 2024 season, Sanchez will be 25, and Scott will only be 24, but has not shown very much at the plate since coming over from the Marlins. Two years ago Fraizer looked like the answer at CF, but has struggled lately, and Gorski being a RH hitter had the opportunity in 2023 but could not get the bat to work.
if it werent for all the heartfelt videos of Keller hugging Shelton, we could trade for a franchise centerfielder in Drew Jones