Morning Rundown: Prospects shine in Pirates Spring Training loss to Orioles
Several of the top prospects in the Pirates organization play in loss against Baltimore
Four of the last five first-overall picks played in Thursday’s Spring Training contest between the Pittsburgh Pirates and Baltimore Orioles.
Paul Skenes started the game, making his Spring debut, and had a 1-2-3 first inning. It took him 10 pitches to get two flyouts and a ground out, and he reached 102 mph with his fastball.
Carmen Mlodzinski, Thomas Harrington, and Anthony Solometo pitched a scoreless inning on the pitching side.
Colin Selby struggled, allowing three earned runs in his inning, and Connor Sadzeck allowed four in the bottom of the ninth, getting the loss.
Competing for one of the free rotation spots, Bailey Falter allowed four hits - two of which were home runs - across his two innings pitched.
Henry Davis, one of the four former first-overall picks in this game, hit a three-run home run in the first inning off Corbin Burnes. Ke’Bryan Hayes, a first-round pick himself, hit his second home run of the Spring in the third inning.
Oneil Cruz picked up a pair of hits, including an RBI single in the fourth inning.
Other notable prospects to get in the game include;
Tsung-Che Cheng went 1-2 with a run scored.
Jack Brannigan drove in a run and went 1-2.
Termarr Johnson hit an RBI single in the seventh inning.
Nick Gonzales picked up a pair of hits on the day, including a double.
The Pirates played the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday, with first pitch expected around 1:05 pm ET.
There was no available data tracking in the game yesterday, so there were no leaderboards, but I’ve been tallying up everyone’s exit velocity numbers, and here are some of note.
Henry Davis - 93 mph EV
Termarr Johnson - 102 mph EV
Bryan Reynolds - 101.1 mph EV
Ke’Bryan Hayes - 102.3 mph EV
Tsung-Che Cheng - 98.4 mph EV
There isn’t much batted ball data to go on with any of these players, but it’s pretty impressive that some of the bigger names on the team start hitting the ball right out of the gate.
This is another reminder to pick up your copy of the 2024 Pirates Minor League Guide that Draft Nation put out, which some of us here at the site contributed to.
You can get in-depth scouting reports on 50 prospects in the system and information on as many as 75. Plus, some history on the Pirates’ farm system.
Made it out to Sarasota yesterday for the game. A few observations. Nicky G's double down the LF line was one of the hardest hit balls of the day. He smoked it. It was nice to see Oneil get that first SB out of the way and as bad as Jack looked at the plate, that was a heck of a diving catch in left center. Just trying to find some positives outside of the obvious ones.
Heard some interesting discussions yesterday about Skenes’ workload and debut this summer.
While many of us want him up as quickly as possible, it may make sense to hold him down & ease him into the pro routine to preserve some innings for the MLB club in the 2nd half of the year.
Based on the treatment of other top pitching prospects, i’d expect them to try to keep him under 150 IP this year. First 10 starts at AA, 3-4 innings each, ~35 IP. 5-10 starts at AAA, 5-6 innings each, ~45 IP. 10-15 starts in MLB with a “normal” workload, probably 6 innings each on average, ~70 IP.
Final guesstimate: In AA through May, AAA through July. Debuts with the Pirates in August, makes 12 starts in MLB, 4.05 ERA over 72 IP. Mixed results, but lots of Ks and *at least* one gem.