In Mexico on Thursday night, Stetson Allie went 1-for-3 with two walks, extending his on-base streak to 11 games. That is a streak that started on Opening Day. He is hitting .302 so far, while also drawing seven walks. On the downside, Allie has also struck out 14 times, which is the third highest total in the league. In 43 at-bats, he has a .784 OPS, which ranks him 23rd among all qualified hitters.
In that same game, Dean Anna had his ten game on-base streak broken. He didn’t get the start, pinch-hitting in the tenth inning and flying out to left field in his only at-bat.
In Venezuela, Jose Osuna was back in left field for a second straight night. He went 0-for-2 with a walk. Osuna is 2-for-22 this season.
Junior Sosa was in center field next to Osuna. He went 1-for-4 with an RBI, though he did strike out three times.
Matt Nevarez threw a scoreless inning of relief, allowing one hit. He has made five appearances, allowing one run in 5.2 innings. The one hit Nevarez allowed came off the bat of Ramon Cabrera, who came in as a pinch-hitter in the eighth inning. Cabrera is 5-for-34 this year, with five singles.
Jhondaniel Medina made his third relief appearance and for the third time, he walked three batters. He ended up throwing two shutout innings, with no hits and one strikeout. He has nine walks in 4.2 innings.
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball.
When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.
to any of those who questioned Allie’s commitment to the game when he was drafted, I say fooie
Though most pro scouts I’ve read gave up on Allie, he’s still a fun guy to root for. If all goes well, hope he turns into something like Adam Dunn light with more hits but probably less walks.
Links please ?
Mike. I will kiss your “you know what” if, one scout would admit to what you just said! In the big picture a scout is nothing but a messenger pigeon, period. You really believe that a team would not want that type power and athleticism in their organization- he has (8) power “light tower power”! and athleticism to go with it. In MLB, power is at a premium! Organizations salivate when they see guys with that kind of “power”. Don’t forget he is a conversion player- (2) years as a position player and the Pirates have pushed him- pretty darn good. It is a process and yes he has things to get better on but, “hats off” to him.
Allie has little to no chance.
John, would you say the Mexican League is equivalent to AA? Or is it considered lower competition?
You forget that Indians C Jake Taylor couldn’t cut it in the Mexican League.
But considering he was there after being killed by teammate Ricky Vaughn in Vietnam, I’d call it remarkable he was able to play at all.
It’s probably closer to weak AAA, but it gets stronger as the season goes on. It’s a lot of AAA players with some major league experience mixed in. Dean Anna has played in the majors(Mike Jacobs is there), and if you look at the top of the hitters list, you see a lot of veterans of the Mexican League, so Allie is among the younger players. Only three players on his team are younger than him and two of them only by a few months. It’s a higher offense league than the others, but Allie is also seeing competition that is at least equal to or better than AA every night.
Thanks for the informative response, John! Very much appreciated. With the competition being somewhere between AA-AAA, it definitely validates Allie’s numbers to date. Hopefully the power starts to show up soon.