The Pittsburgh Pirates have announced that eight players have been invited to Spring Training, with some big name prospects among the group. Two of the players invited were pitchers Charlie Leesman and Wilfredo Boscan, both of whom just signed minor league deals. The other six players invited today are pitchers Tyler Glasnow and Adrian Sampson, first baseman Stetson Allie, infielder Gift Ngoepe and outfielders Mel Rojas Jr. and Keon Broxton.
I don’t believe any of them have a real shot to make the team out of Spring Training as Leesman is the only one with any Major League experience and would be the only possible exception. Even he would have to beat out a group of more experienced players fighting for the last spots in the bullpen.
Participating in Major League Spring Training is great for the younger players, even if it is for just a short time at the beginning for most of them. Someone like Glasnow will probably see a couple brief relief appearances before he heads back to Minor League Spring Training, where he will get stretched out for his role as a starter in Altoona. The hitters will likely get a start or two, but mostly finish the games out before the regulars work their way up to playing a full game.
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.
How about nick kingham? Do you think that they believe Glasgow has a higher ceiling?
Everyone publicly believes Glasnow has a significantly higher ceiling. Its not even close as Kingham is a 3-4 SP type at best (the falling K rate isn’t good), Glasnow can be a #2 with flashes of ace.
You think they are slow in bringing Glasgow up? Could he make the jump from double AA to mlb? The only pirates starting pitcher was randy Tomlin in early 90s that I can recall.
Mike Bielecki in the late 80s(?) came straight from AA I think…didn’t work out to well
Kingham is on the 40 man so he will be there. But, are you being sarcastic ?
No Hansen?
Anyone on the 40 man roster is already invited, these invites are for those not on the 40 man.
Look for me to provide as much video and pictures as I can for Pirates prospects too.
Is Brent Morel an invite to spring training? I know he got outrighted off the 40 man in November but haven’t heard if he was extended an invite.
Not yet
Spring training is going to be just awesome this year – all these young guys we’ve been hearing about for years. Can’t wait to see all the guys hit the field. Going to have to to schedule a trip to Bradenton for March.
John, is Taillon an automatic for ST?
Anyone on the 40-man roster is
Had to go to a game in Altoona to hear this correctly……
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N go pA
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(rhymes with just about nothing.)
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Nice glove… popular player…
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There seems to be an even split between N-Go-pay and N-WEE-pay, but he personally told me N-go-pay so I’ll listen to him
I’m always in favor of giving guys a little taste of what they are working hard to accomplish. sometimes it gives them a little better perspective on what they need to do in order to reach the ML level.
John,
Any surprises in non-invitees?
This isn’t the final list, there will definitely be more. At the very least, they will bring in 1-2 more catchers just based on the sheer amount of pitchers there are at the beginning.
John: It is going to be very interesting watching the Catching Group of Cervelli, Stewart, Diaz, and Valle. I know there will be others, but I think Diaz and Valle are two guys who can make some headway during early reports and Spring Training. Valle had a nice Winter hitting .313 with 8 Doubles, 6 HR’s, 24 RBI’s and an .893 OPS. And, defensively, something happened the past few years from being about a 30% CS Catcher to around 50% in 2014. In the playoffs during January that just ended for his team in Mexico, he had 5 CS, 2 Pickoffs, and only gave up 3 SB’s. I wonder if he had any time with AJ in the Philly Camp last year?
I liked Coltrane a lot, but this 4 man group of Catchers has a lot of talent.
Valle did play four Spring Training games last year, but they were all off the bench, so he never caught Burnett in a game(he made five starts).
Not that it makes much of a difference, but I believe one of those caught stealing for Valle in the playoffs was a pitcher pick-off/caught stealing. For some reason, and it’s happened for as long as I can remember, anytime a pitcher picks a runner off that gets throw out at the next base(so it’s actually a caught stealing), MiLB/MLB credits them for a pick-off AND credits the catcher for throwing him out. I have no idea why they can’t fix that after all this time, but they always double-credit it. I always check the play-by-play, which tells the correct story. Happened for Mel Rojas Jr. last night if you check the boxscore.
Is it because the Catcher signals for a pick off attempt?
Nope, just a mistake. They credit it as a pick-off and a caught stealing on the same play all the time. Probably some software glitch, who knows