BRADENTON, Fla. – Today’s Pirates game was canceled due to rain, which means it ended up being a slow day for news. On these types of days, when there is almost guaranteed rain set for 1:00 PM, the minor league game gets moved up to the morning, and turns into an intrasquad game.
The minor league game today was supposed to be the A-ball teams throwing against Toronto’s farm system, with Mitch Keller making a start. The schedule changed, with the upper level guys playing an intrasquad game, and the lower level guys getting pushed back a day. It was also a race against the weather, as a storm was rolling in quickly, with thunder in the distance around the time of first pitch.
Steven Brault was pitching for the Triple-A squad, while Clay Holmes was throwing for the Double-A group. I say “Triple-A” and “Double-A”, but the truth is that there were guys from every team playing today. I only saw two innings of work from each pitcher, so there aren’t many notes.
Brault looked good, getting a lot of swings and misses and a few strikeouts. He was mostly sitting 89-91 MPH with his fastball, getting most of his results on that pitch. His slider didn’t work well today, giving up a hard hit fly ball out to the deepest part of the park on one hanging pitch, and leaving one over the plate for Kevin Kramer to take the other way on a perfectly executed hit and run. Kramer lined the pitch through the left side of the infield, right where the shortstop previously was, before breaking for the bag.
I’ll take a moment to say that Kramer has been impressive this week. He’s not a flashy player by any means, but he’s an excellent hitter with gap power and speed. He could be an impressive guy to watch in Bradenton this year.
Clay Holmes displayed an easy delivery today, while hitting 93-94 MPH a lot with his fastball. He mostly threw the fastball, working in a few curveballs. Holmes is slated to start in Altoona this year, which will be a nice jump for him after getting barely half a season in Bradenton in his return from Tommy John surgery. He had middle of the rotation upside before the injury, and still has the stuff after the injury.
The action was limited in Bradenton today, but John Dreker did follow the World Baseball Classic qualifiers, where a few Pirates Prospects were playing this week.
World Baseball Classic Qualifiers
By John Dreker
The World Baseball Classic qualifier got underway on Thursday in Panama, with three players from the Pirates taking part in the tournament. Harold Ramirez and Tito Polo are there representing Colombia, while Dario Agrazal Jr. is on Panama. Colombia won their opener on Thursday over Spain by a 9-2 score. Ramirez went 1-for-6, scoring two runs. He hit the ball hard three times, but was robbed of two hits. On Friday, Ramirez went 1-for-5 with a run scored in the 6-3 victory over Panama. He wasn’t making good contact in game two, with a fly out to right field and four ground balls, including an infield single. Ramirez played right field in both games.
Polo has come off the bench in both games. He replaced Ramirez in right field on defense in the ninth inning of Thursday’s game. He pinch-ran for the DH in the ninth inning of Friday’s game. Polo attempted a stolen base and was called out, but replays showed that he was easily safe, reaching the bag well ahead of the tag.
Agrazal hasn’t played yet, but expect him to pitch tonight when Panama faces France, with the winner of that game going up against Colombia on Sunday for the finals. Sunday’s game will determine which team from this bracket goes on to the 2017 WBC tournament. If Agrazal doesn’t pitch tonight and Panama wins, then that sets up an interesting match-up between Pirates’ prospects tomorrow. The final game will air on MLB Network at 8 PM tomorrow night.
