Morning Rundown: Pirates have struggled at drafting/developing pitching, MLB execs poll
Baseball America talks drafting/developing pitching, MLB execs polled on prospects
JJ Cooper of Baseball America released an article on Monday that didn’t entirely paint the Pirates in the best of pictures regarding their development history.
It looked at who had done the best in drafting and developing pitching since 2012, when the current draft bonus system began.
Based on their metrics, the St. Louis Cardinals have done best under the draft bonus system, selecting players such as Michael Wacha, Marco Gonzales, Jordan Hicks, Zac Gallen, and Ryan Helsley.
The San Diego Padres, Atlanta Braves, Cleveland Guardians, and Milwaukee Brewers have also been highlighted as successful at drafting and developing pitchers since 2012.
On the flip side, the Pittsburgh Pirates quite easily finished towards the bottom of their graph, which measured innings pitched by runs allowed per nine innings.
Pirates drafted pitchers finished dead last in FIP and were among the bottom regarding innings pitched and runs allowed per nine innings.
Despite the success from Keller this past season, his slow development and the lumps he took to begin his career, as well as Quinn Priester, really hurt them.
The Pirates finished 30th in ERA, 29th in RA/9, and 30th in FIP. Not exactly a good look.
They have the chance to change that, with most of their top prospects being pitchers, including a first-overall pick in 2023, Paul Skenes.
MLB Pipeline polled MLB Executives on some prospect-related questions, and to no surprise, the Pirates were mentioned a couple of times.
The first came when asked who the best pitching prospects were in the game, with Paul Skenes overwhelmingly receiving most of the votes. It is unsurprising for the former first-overall pick, dubbed the best pitching prospect since Stephen Strasburg.
Andrew Painter came in second with 12%, followed by Cade Horton at 7%.
It wasn’t the last time Skenes was mentioned, as he also received votes for ‘best amateur prospect you’ve ever seen.’
Oddly enough, he received 5% of the votes in the ‘Best Future Closer’ category, which has to be a little bit of a surprise for someone who is seen to have already such a high floor for what he did in college.
Oneil Cruz also received votes for ‘Best Minor League Prospect You’ve Ever Seen,’ and Termarr Johnson showed up twice.
He received 5% of the votes for ‘Best Baseball IQ’ and then was mentioned in ‘Breakout Candidate.’
A little bit of an update: as I write this, I am looking at the key to the house that we have been waiting forever to be finished.
It’s been a long, exhausting process that is finally in the last stage. We are probably looking to move in this weekend or early next week.
During that time, depending on how things go, there may be no Morning Rundown, but there will be a daily feature. I’ve been working hard over the last couple of days to try to build up some extra content to schedule, and Ethan came in clutch with another fantastic feature that will be posted later this week.
This will open the door back for podcast appearances, as I’ve had quite a few reach out hoping to get me on, but I haven’t had a reliable internet source. It will also open the door for some video content for the site.
I’m excited and nervous but mainly happy to leave the hotel room.
I’ll have a daily feature out every day, but bear with me when it comes to everything else while we get everything moved in, and I adjust.
Every Monday during the offseason, we will be doing a mailbag article. Please send in your questions to have them answered! Either comment below with ‘mailbag’ entered in the message or email us at bucsondeckqa@gmail.com.
I look forward to answering what you guys have!
Congrats on getting into your new place and out of the hotel. Your productivity is going to skyrocket after settling in. Your content has been outstanding and now you'll have some comfort, space and some seclusion when needed. Thanks and best wishes to a great new home.
Some thoughts that should not change anybody's opinion but I think are worth mentioning. As reported on PP a while ago the development process was overhauled basically in year 2 under Ben which would be 2020. This report goes back 2012. This does not change the historical perspective (spending is a part of this equation and the person with the $ did not change in 2019) or why the Pirates are where they are. But whether it is using rose colored glasses or just trying to realistically view the future we need to examine progress since 2020 IMO which is a mixed bag. I personally think the current AA projected rotation shows a decent success rate for draftees. However, going from AA to MLB one can easily argue is the REAL test. Personally I don't think this view point drastically changes the overall grade, but we can rightly bitch about the past but must also view present trends as maybe a better gauge.