The Pirates Prospects 2012 Prospect Guide has been released and most of you have received the book. If you ordered last week, you should get the book today or tomorrow (if you haven’t already gotten it), and if you ordered on Friday or later, you’ll get your copy by the end of this week. For those of you who haven’t placed an order, you can do so on the products page of this site.
Tomorrow I will hold a chat at 2:00 PM EST. The chat is on the 2012 Prospect Guide, so most of the questions I’ll take will be on the projections of individual prospects. That’s not to say I won’t take questions about the free agent market or the Pirates’ off-season. If you’ve got any questions about the book, or if you haven’t bought the book and you have any questions about the contents, this is the time to ask those questions.
You can submit your questions for the chat below, then stop by tomorrow at 2:00 for the answers.
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.
I wonder about Navarro too in that KC didn’t give up much to get him.
On the other hand Pounders has some potential so the Bucs paid a decent price to get someone so KC could clear a roster spot. Why didn’t the Royals just release someone like Jaramillo?
Anyway if he was 41st person on KC’s roster what is realistic expectations?
Two questions:
A.) Looking at Yamaico Navarro’s stats, he seems like a good pickup. We have tons of Brooks Pounders type guys and very little depth at SS. Still, he isn’t head and shoulders above d’Arnaud or Mercer. He’s about the same age as them and has seen similar struggles to d’Arnaud’s in his first few shots at the majors. Where do you think he ranks among Pirates SS prospects as a potential future starter?
B.) The Pirates have a lot of outfield depth in their system. It’s really the only area of the field where they don’t have a serious lack of hitting for the long term. Assuming neither Hague nor Curry step up and surprise us, what do you think about converting Josh Bell into a first baseman? I know he’s far farfarfarfar away from the majors, but he has the right kind of bat for 1B, and we have not only enough bats for the outfield, but seemingly better/faster fielders than Bell, who isn’t exactly raved about defensively. All of our other options may be around for a long time, barring trades (Marte, Grossman, Tabata, Presley, McCutchen if he gets extended, etc). Could the Bucs groom Bell to play first?
If it were up to you, at which level would you start Cole in 2012?
Do you think the Pirates are going to run into a playing time probably at the low levels because they have drafted so many young pitching prospects in the last four years?