37.9 F
Pittsburgh

Monthly Archives: January, 2011

The Pittsburgh Pirates won in extra innings on Opening Day, beating the Miami Marlins by a 6-5 score after a Jared Triolo RBI single in the top of the 12th inning. The Pirates played comeback the entire...
Normally, I do a pre-season analysis, where I fill in my own depth chart and playing time estimates for the upcoming Pittsburgh Pirates season, along with ZiPS projected WAR totals. This year, I'm looking at the...

Vote: The Next Video Recap

Last week I did a video recap of new Pirates prospect Aaron Thompson, showing him going up against his new teammates from the 2010...

Caribes Take Venezuelan Championship

The final playoff game of the Caribbean winter leagues was played on Sunday, finishing up the Venezuelan League championship.  The Caribbean Series begins on Wednesday and lasts six days (Feb 2nd - 7th), and from there, spring training will be right around the corner.

VENEZUELAN LEAGUE
Caribes de Anzoategui  8,  Tigres de Aragua  7  --  
Los Caribes held on for the win in Game 7 of the Venezuelan championship series, despite a 9th inning rally by Los Tigres.  Los Caribes had an early 6-0 lead, thanks to back-to-back homers (2-run and solo) in the 1st inning, and a 3-run homer in the 2nd inning.  Los Tigres got onto the scoreboard in the top of the 3rd, using only one hit.  A single, a hit batter, and a walk loaded the bases.  Two runs were forced in, on when LF Lastings Milledge was hit by a pitch, and one when 1B Hector Gimenez walked.  A wild pitch and a missed catch error by Los Caribes' pitcher allowed 2 more runs to score, and the score was 6-4.  Los Caribes gained more ground in the 4th with two singles, a walk, and a 2-RBI single.  A solo homer by Los Tigres in the top of the 5th put the score at 8-5.  Los Caribes threatened in the bottom of the 6th, with a single and a double, but an on-target throw from Milledge in left field to C Raul Chavez let Chavez tag the lead runner out at the plate.  Wil Ledezma came on in relief at that point.  He walked the first batter he faced, then got a fly out.  Ledezma was relieved, and after another walk to load the bases, a pop out ended the inning without a run scoring.  Los Caribes also loaded the bases in the 7th inning, but a strikeout ended that inning and left all three on base.  Los Tigres rallied in the top of the 9th, with two singles, including one by Chavez.  Chavez was replaced by a pinch-runner.  Two singles drove in two runs, bringing Los Tigres within one run of Los Caribes.  That was as far as Aragua could get, though, and the game ended with runners on the corners.  Los Caribes will advance to the Caribbean series.

2011 Top Pirates Prospects: #10 – Colton Cain

The Pirates Prospects 2011 Prospect Guide was released last week, featuring 237 prospect reports, interviews with Jameson Taillon, Stetson Allie, Zack Von Rosenberg, and...

Hall of Fame Push for the Deacon

The following is from Pirates Prospects contributor John Dreker, as part of his ongoing Pirates History feature. The feature focuses on the history of...

Winter League Playoff Wrap Up

Catching up with a few days' worth of winter league playoff results:

PUERTO RICAN LEAGUE
Criollos de Caguas  7,  Leones de Ponce  5  --  
Los Criollos won the Puerto Rican League championship with a win in Game 7 of the series.  Los Leones got onto the scoreboard first, scratching out a run in the top of the 1st.  Los Criollos took a 4-1 lead in the 3rd, with an RBI double and a 3-run homer.  Ponce answered with their own 3-run homer in the top of the 4th, tying the game.  Each team scored one run in the 5th.  Ponce loaded the bases with a walk and two singles, then had their run forced in with a walk.  Los Criollos scored when SS Luis Figueroa led off with a single, raced to third on another single, and scored on a sacrifice fly.  After two quiet innings, Los Criollos rallied again in the bottom of the 8th.  A single and a fielding error put two runners on base, and a fly out and a stolen base moved both runners into scoring position.  A line drive into right field for a single drove in the go-ahead run and an insurance run.  


MEXICAN PACIFIC LEAGUE
Algodoneros de Guasave   5,  Yaquis de Obregon  4  --  
Los Yaquis took the early lead with a 2-run homer in the 2nd and a solo homer in the 3rd.  They scored a 4th run in the 5th inning.  Guasave got their offense going in the 5th inning with 2 runs, then tied the score with a pair of solo homers, including one by 1B Yurendell de Caster in the 8th.  De Caster also singled in the game.  In the top of the 9th, Gusave scored the winning run on a throwing error by the Obregon shortstop.  That tied the series at 3 games each, and forced a seventh game.

Yaquis de Obregon   5,  Algodoneros de Guasave  2  --  A 4-run 4th inning pushed Los Yaquis over Guasave.  A lead-off homer, plus 3 more runs and a 2-RBI single drove in those 4 runs.  Both of Guasave's runs came on solo homers by Marshal McDougall.  The win gave the championship to Obregon.  

Meeting with Maholm, Huntington and Coonelly

As I am sure you have seen on a few other sites, the Pirates invited a few of us bloggers to PirateFest Friday night for a chance to pick the brains of Frank Coonelly, Neal Huntington and Paul Maholm. I am not going to go too in-depth, but I thought I would touch on a few subjects that came up.

Piratefest 2011 – Backstage Blogger Q&A (2 of 2)

Click here to read part one. As the 7 p.m. General Public Q&A was starting to wind down, I made my way to side of...

Piratefest 2011 – General Public Q&A (1 of 2)

On Friday, I went down to the Convention Center to represent Pirates Prospects at Piratefest 2011. The goal was to take in the general...

Luis Heredia to Start in GCL

Dejan Kovacevic reports that top Mexican pitching prospect Luis Heredia will start his career in the Gulf Coast League in 2011.  That's a somewhat...

Pirates to Sign Joe Beimel

The Pittsburgh Pirates have been looking for left handed relief, although the market is currently very thin, with very few options remaining.  One of...

I Just Realized…

This past Sunday, January 23rd, marked the second "birthday" of Pirates Prospects.  On January 23rd, 2009, I opened the site, which at the time...

Keith Law’s Prospect Rankings

Keith Law has released his top 100 prospects in baseball, along with his organizational top 10 prospects, both on ESPN Insider. In the top 100,...

Recent articles