Infielder Jake Elmore has refused his outright assignment to Indianapolis, electing to become a free agent instead. Elmore was designated for assignment when the Pittsburgh Pirates made the Jung Ho Kang signing official back on January 20th. He cleared waivers on Thursday and the Pirates assigned him to Indianapolis. His role was going to be infield depth, but the Pirates also have Pedro Florimon and Justin Sellers on the 40-man rosters and both could fill that same role. Florimon has no options left, so the Pirates could also lose him if he doesn’t make the Opening Day roster.
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.
And we kept this guy on the 40 man, while losing Andy Oliver….unless there were off-field issues that we don’t know about, that move defied logic then and now….
As has been said before, we’re talking about the 40th man. I don’t think Oliver ever really had a shot with the Pirates (he wasn’t even a September call up last year). Maybe Oliver isn’t really that good, or at least not good enough for a team hoping to compete for the NL Central. The Phillies on the other hand are a rebuilding team that will be lucky to win 70 games.
I agree with most of what you said, but i would still protect a LH reliever who has some potential and was a former first rounder – just needed to address control issues – over Jake Elmore – a AAAA player at best who cannot hit and has never hit.
Actually, his ability to hit is why the Pirates were interested in keeping Elmore in the first place. He hit .242 in 132 PA for the Astros in 2013 and has good plate discipline. Also, Elmore has a .290 career BA in the minors, which is better than Justin Sellers (.267 career BA in the minors) and Pedro Florimon (.250 career BA in the minors). Elmore could also hit better than Michael Martinez who has a .265 career BA in the minors.
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Sellers and Florimon are the defense first guys, and Elmore was the bat first guy (who has now been replaced by Steve Lombardozzi). Is Elmore a great hitter? No, of course not, if he were, he wouldn’t be a 40th man, but he is at least competent at the plate unlike Martinez or Nix.
I think the Pirates will survive this loss of depth.
Was’nt he a blues brother? Well either way he’s singin’the blues now, while blubbering in his beer to the waitress about how he was rejected by the mean ole pirates.
I forget, was he the singer or the harmonica player?