Wednesday’s winter league action with Pirates’ players and friends:
DOMINICAN LEAGUE
Gigantes del Cibao 1, Toros del Este 0
Matt Hague went 2-for-5 with a double and an RBI. The double was his first extra base hit in his last ten games. On the season he’s hitting for a .303 average. Pedro Ciriaco went 1-for-4 as the starting shortstop for the Bulls.
VENEZUELAN LEAGUE
Tigres de Aragua 3, Leones del Caracas 1
For the Lions, Ramon Cabrera started at catcher and went 0-for-3 at the plate. Ronny Cedeno started at shortstop for the Tigers, going 1-for-4. Former Pirate Lastings Milledge went 1-for-2 with a walk and a runm while former Pirates prospect Hector Gimenez went 1-for-4 with a double.
Cardenales de Lara 7, Bravos de Margarita 0
Jhonathan Ramos pitched a shutout inning for the Braves, allowing no walks or hits and striking out one. Ramos has now made five appearances, throwing 3.1 shutout innings with two walks, three hits, and three strikeouts.
Aguilas del Zulia 5, Caribes de Anzoategui 2
Gorkys Hernandez started in center field today, going 1-for-4 with a triple and a strikeout. Diego Moreno pitched 1.2 shutout innings for the opposition, but was pulled before he could face Hernandez. Moreno didn’t allow any walks or hits, and struck out three. He’s now got a 9:3 K/BB ratio in seven innings this year.
PUERTO RICAN LEAGUE
Criollos de Caguas 9, Indios de Mayaguez 3
Jeremy Farrell started at first base today and went 1-for-4. Farrell now has a five game hitting streak.
Tim started Pirates Prospects in 2009 from his home in Virginia, which was 40 minutes from where Pedro Alvarez made his pro debut in Lynchburg. That year, the Lynchburg Hillcats won the Carolina League championship, and Pirates Prospects was born from Tim's reporting along the way. The site has grown over the years to include many more writers, and Tim has gone on to become a credentialed MLB reporter, producing Pirates Prospects each year, and will publish his 11th Prospect Guide this offseason. He has also served as the Pittsburgh Pirates correspondent for Baseball America since 2019. Behind the scenes, Tim is an avid music lover, and most of the money he gets paid to run this site goes to vinyl records.
Should we consider Hague as an option off the bench? It seems as though there were several guys that were exiled to the minors so far this off-season. There will need to be players to replace them, and maybe it would be a good idea to go with a guy that has shown to produce at the AAA level rather than languishing at the major league level. I suppose the only reservations that I would have with Hague is, we’re deep in the outfield, still eying a starter free agent starter at 1st, we still have G.I. Jones, and he only seems to have relatively limited experience outside of first base. What it boils down to with me is, even though we’re talking about another corner fielder in the system that only has gap power, he has a .302 career average in the minors. I see this as the kind of player that needs to see MLB playing time to show other prospects that don’t have the pedigree of some of our top upside guys in the minors that they have a chance. They have to know that they have the ability to earn their way onto the team via good production over a number of seasons, otherwise why waste their time? A lot of these guys would probably make more money as private baseball instructors based on their pro experience.