The Altoona Curve roster for the 2011 season was announced today by the Curve and the Pittsburgh Pirates. The breakdown is as follows:
C – Tony Sanchez
1B – Miles Durham
2B – Brock Holt
SS – Jordy Mercer
3B – Jeremy Farrell
OF – Quincy Latimore
OF – Starling Marte
OF – Brad Chalk
Bench – Eric Fryer, Kris Watts, Shelby Ford, Jose Hernandez
SP – Bryan Morris
SP – Jeff Locke
SP – Aaron Pribanic
SP – Brian Leach
SP – Aaron Thompson
Bullpen – Tim Alderson, Tom Boleska, Anthony Claggett, Mike Colla, Michael Dubee, Jared Hughes, Noah Krol
I’ve previewed most of the roster in the past month (infield, outfield, rotation, bullpen). A few notes on some of the differences between my projections and the actual roster:
-Jeremy Farrell will make the jump to AA, despite missing a lot of time in 2010. That’s not a huge surprise, since Tony Sanchez, Brock Holt, and Starling Marte are basically doing the same thing.
-Brad Chalk will round out the outfield. Chalk was a Rule 5 pick in the minor league phase of the draft this year. Jose Hernandez will skip over high-A, moving right to the AA bench. Those two moves demonstrate that the outfield is an area of weakness in the upper levels of the Pirates’ system, at least as far as prospect depth goes.
-No word on who will start between Aaron Thompson and Tim Alderson. I saw both of them being used as starters in Spring Training, so there’s a chance that they could piggyback at the start of the season. They could both get starting time once Morris and/or Locke move up to AAA. UPDATE: Cory Giger reports that Alderson will start out the year in the bullpen. I guess he could still be in a spot starter role, or manage to get a lot of innings in that scenario.
Tim is the owner, producer, editor, and lead writer of PiratesProspects.com. He has been running Pirates Prospects since 2009, becoming the first new media reporter and outlet covering the Pirates at the MLB level in 2011 and 2012. His work can also be found in Baseball America, where he has been a contributor since 2014 and the Pirates' correspondent since 2019.