The Week In Bradenton: Recently Promoted Hitters
Some injured pitchers return
Bradenton has some newly promoted hitters who’ve been getting settled in. The results have been variable, which isn’t surprising.
Edward Florentino has been getting the bat going after starting slowly in his first few games. Last week, he went 6-for-16 with three doubles, three walks, and just two strikeouts. In the FCL, he seemed to gain confidence and improve almost daily. It’ll be good to see where he goes from here, as he should be getting more to hit instead of just being pitched around. (Yesterday, Florentino went 3-for-3 with a home run, a double, and a walk.)
Richard Ramirez has had a good start, going 4-for-16 with a double and his first full-season home run. Coincidentally, he also had three walks and two strikeouts last week. The strikeout part is important for him because he was chasing and fanning a lot in the FCL. You wonder whether a guy who’s still a teenager (for a couple more days) will be more patient at a level where pitchers are around the plate a bit more.
It’s been more of a struggle for Wyatt Sanford. Last week, he went 2-for-16 with two walks and ten (!) strikeouts. He’s been swinging through a lot of pitches in the strike zone, which is surprising given that his strength is supposed to be making contact. Hopefully just a bad week.
The Marauders’ patchwork pitching staff got two key prospects back from the IL. Zander Mueth and David Matoma each made one appearance last week. Those appearances didn’t go well, but that’s better than being out of action.
Mueth and Matoma both also pitched yesterday. Mueth looked impressive, allowing just one hit and one unearned run in 3.2 IP. He walked two and fanned five. In the first inning, he was sitting at 96-98 mph. His velocity steadily dropped until it was 92-94 early in the fourth inning, but his last four pitches came in at 96. Matoma retired all four of the batters he faced, striking out one.
Soft-tossing lefty and converted reliever Victor Cabreja continues to get batters out. Last week, in his start, he threw five shutout innings, allowing four hits and two walks. He still doesn’t strike out many, but his ERA is 2.97. He sports a 6-1 record, which gives him two more wins than the team’s other regular starters combined.
Bradenton pressed Dariel Francia into starting duty in his second game since being promoted from the FCL. He’d been that team’s most reliable reliever. In his relief outing for Bradenton earlier in the week, he threw three scoreless innings, allowing one hit. In the start, he got knocked out in the third. It’s hard to say yet whether the Pirates really see Francia as a real prospect, but he’s still only 18. He throws around 93 and goes a lot with both a slider and a curve.
Finally, Carlos Castillo had his best outing of the season, allowing one run over six innings in relief. He gave up four hits and no walks, and fanned four. Castillo has had an uneven season, but he’s probably the team’s best starting prospect apart from Mueth and is still only 19, so it’d be good if he could get on a run.
The FCL Pirates also got a pitcher back, as Gavin Adams appeared for the first time in several weeks. He wasn’t on IL, so I’m not sure whether he was injured. Last year’s 8th-round draft pick, Adams, is coming off Tommy John surgery. He has a great arm, reaching triple digits, but control was a known issue, and the surgery obviously isn’t helping. In his first game back, Adams threw two hitless innings, his longest outing so far, and managed to walk only two, which was an improvement over his earlier pitching. He pitched again yesterday, allowing a run on two hits in one inning. For the first time, he didn’t walk anybody and fanned three.
Lefty Ronaldys Jimenez had a pair of scoreless outings, walking only one and fanning three over 4.1 IP. Both were low totals for a guy who still has a BB/9 of 8.1 and a K/9 of 13.5. He and Adams give the FCL team two relievers with real ceilings if they can get the ball in the strike zone enough.
Among the hitters, Michell Ojeda started to get his numbers out of the hole they were in following a 1-for-24 start at the level. He went 4-for-12 on the week with a double and a home run, the latter a grand slam. Ojeda isn’t the typical slap-hitting middle infielder who “needs to get stronger.” He has the ability to drive the ball — that was his second longball in 17 games — and he won’t turn 19 until January.
With Florentino, Sanford, and Ramirez gone, nobody left on this team is hitting especially well, unless you go with Ojeda’s last week. The best hitters have been Cristian Jauregui (.694 OPS), Kendrick Herrera (.670), and Carlos Caro (.696), who spent part of the season with Bradenton. Ojeda is the only player currently with the team who has more than one home run.
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Murphy - why all of a sudden do the Pirates have a ton of hitting prospects in A ball and now advanced to AA? How did they go from no hitters in the system to a log jam of hitters, at these levels, mostly all in one year? Better development, better scouting? What was it?