A few quick GCL related topics for the holiday. Thoughts on a player making his debut today. Scouting report on a recently signed player, and another Tommy John patient makes his return this week.
** Second round pick Travis MacGregor will be on the mound today making his pro debut. Unfortunately, it’s on the road, so Tim Williams won’t be there to get this game. If MacGregor goes on regular rest, he will start on the road Saturday as well, so there might not be any video or live reports for him for a couple weeks. Tim had an article on MacGregor today explaining why he is more interesting than he first appeared. The first impressions were of course based on his draft rankings, which made him look more like a 4th-5th round pick. Part of the problem with that is almost unavoidable with high school players.
We went by the draft rankings and scouting reports we had at first. Those reports were put together mostly early in the season and MacGregor really kicked it up a notch in the last few weeks heading into the draft. It was after the dust settled from draft day (the dust of writing up 41 draft picks over three days), we were able to look further into him and found reports from Prep Baseball Report that didn’t match everyone else’s reports. In fact, it didn’t match their own earlier reports. MacGregor’s best games were within three weeks of the draft, which kept him off some radars leading up into the draft.
It is a small sample size to go on compared to his high school career, but those late starts that most people missed, to go along with the information Tim was able to get from him, it looks like MacGregor wasn’t much of an overdraft after all. Of course, he will now have to prove on the field he was worth a second round pick. His pro baseball career gets underway at 10 AM today. No word yet on when Braeden Ogle or Max Kranick begin their careers, but there will be an article up on them soon with some very interesting information on each player.
**I talked to Chris McDonald last night, who the Pirates purchased from his Indy ball team on Sunday afternoon. His own scouting report has him as a three-pitch pitcher, with a sinker, changeup and a slider. The sinker is 88-91, touching 93 MPH. The changeup is his best pitch, with great separation from the sinker, sometimes getting it down into the high-70s. The slider is 81-83 MPH. He called himself a strike-thrower, which matches up with the stats of nine walks in 41 innings during his senior year of college. He will report to Bradenton tomorrow along with Evan Piechota (the other indy ball player signed yesterday) and it looks like at least at first, they will be helping out with the shortage of pitching in the GCL. Once the three over-slot HS signings of the Pirates extend their innings, then the team shouldn’t have to use two outfielders and a coach to fill in for innings like they did this weekend. Usually college pitchers aren’t assigned to the GCL, but there is obviously a need there and they could move up later in the season.
**Speaking of the GCL, they got good news and a little bad news for their pitching staff. Eduardo Vera will return from his Tommy John surgery on Tuesday and will pitch for the first time since August 2014. He is expected to go a couple innings, as he continues to build up. I got a report that Vera is throwing better than he was pre-surgery, so that’s good to hear. As Tim Williams mentioned, Nick Kingham will also make his first appearance since his Tommy John surgery, pitching on Friday and Tim will be there covering the outing.
The bad news isn’t about Kingham though and it isn’t really that bad. Reliever Francis Rodriguez is currently out with a minor injury, so that may have hastened the need for help from the Indy ball pitchers. I had a feeling something could be wrong with him after he left his relief appearance on Thursday after one scoreless inning and wasn’t available Saturday when the Pirates got three innings from coach Drew Rossi.
**In case you missed my tweet last night or the update in the transaction section below, Curtis Partch cleared waivers and was sent outright to Indianapolis.
** If you want some good news about the Pirates being .500 at this point, here you go. The 2015 Mets had a 41-41 record on July 4th last year and they went to the World Series. Enjoy your holiday.
PIRATES GAME GRAPH
Source: FanGraphs
TODAY’S SCHEDULE
Today’s Starter and Notes: The Pirates won 6-3 on Sunday over the A’s. They now travel to St Louis for four games, starting this afternoon with Jon Niese on the mound. He has not had success in his last four starts, giving up a total of 21 runs in 21.1 innings during those outings. His worst game during that stretch was eight runs on 11 hits in 5.1 innings against the Cardinals. St Louis will go with Carlos Martinez, who has a 2.83 ERA in 95.1 innings, with 73 strikeouts and a 1.11 WHIP. He has faced the Pirates twice this season, allowing two runs over 12.2 innings.
In the minors, Frank Duncan gets his tenth start for Indianapolis. He has allowed three runs or less in every start and he put up a 1.76 ERA in June. Brando Waddell looks to keep his last start from snowballing into a bad streak again. After struggling through late May and early June, Waddell threw seven shutout innings on June 24th. He followed that up with five runs over five innings in his last start. JT Brubaker makes his fourth start for Bradenton. He has struggled in two of those three outings, leading to a 6.46 ERA.
Travis MacGregor will start for the GCL Pirates, while Nicholas Economos will likely start for Bristol. No starter has been named for Morgantown.
MLB: Pittsburgh (41-41) @ Cardinals (43-38) 2:15 PM
Probable starter: Jon Niese (5.07 ERA, 33:65 BB/SO, 92.1 IP)
AAA: Indianapolis (44-40) vs Louisville (41-42) 6:05 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Frank Duncan (2.42 ERA, 6:46 BB/SO, 52.0 IP)
AA: Altoona (46-35) @ Akron (45-38) 5:35 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Brandon Waddell (4.88 ERA, 23:38 BB/SO, 51.2 IP)
High-A: Bradenton (41-37) vs Charlotte (39-40) 12:35 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: JT Brubaker (6.46 ERA, 6:11 BB/SO, 15.1 IP)
Low-A: West Virginia (42-38) @ Greensboro (46-35) 7:00 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Dario Agrazal (4.79 ERA, 12:44 BB/SO, 77.0 IP)
Short-Season A: Morgantown (9-8) @ Aberdeen (6-11) 7:05 PM (season preview)
Probable Starter: TBD
Rookie: Bristol (6-5) @ Pulaski (6-5) 4:00 PM (season preview)
GCL: Pirates (2-5) vs Phillies (6-1) 10:00 AM (season preview)
DSL: Pirates (9-16) vs Cubs1 (11-14) 10:30 AM (season preview)
HIGHLIGHTS
Here is the ninth strikeout from Clay Holmes on Saturday.
RECENT TRANSACTIONS
7/4: Erik Lunde activated from disabled list. Assigned to Bradenton.
7/4: Elias Diaz assigned to Bradenton on rehab.
7/3: Pirates sign Chris McDonald and Evan Piechota.
7/3: Pirates sign six international free agents.
7/3: Yunior Montero promoted to West Virginia.
7/3: Curtis Partch sent outright to Indianapolis.
7/2: Pablo Reyes activated from temporary inactive list. Trace Tam Sing placed on temporary inactive list.
7/1: Julio Vivas promoted to West Virginia.
7/1: Rinku Singh assigned to GCL Pirates on rehab
7/1: Pirates sign Andrew Walker.
6/30: Jorge Rondon sent outright to Indianapolis.
6/30: Erik Lunde assigned to GCL Pirates on rehab.
6/30: Raul Hernandez assigned to Bradenton.
6/30: Jose Regalado placed on disabled list. Tanner Anderson promoted to Bradenton.
6/30: Tomas Morales assigned to Indianapolis. Ed Easley released.
6/30: Jose Osuna promoted to Indianapolis. Jhondaniel Medina assigned to Altoona.
6/29: Pirates sign Nick King and Daniel Cucjen.
6/28: Trevor Williams activated from temporary inactive list.
6/28: Carl Anderson assigned to GCL Pirates on rehab.
6/28: Pirates sign Max Kranick. Assigned to GCL Pirates.
6/27: Pirates sign Buddy Borden. Assigned to Bradenton.
6/27: Jeff Roy assigned to Bristol.
6/27: Erik Lunde placed on the disabled list.
6/26: Pirates purchase the contract of Chad Kuhl. Kyle Lobstein optioned to Indianapolis.
6/26: Pirates designate Curtis Partch for assignment.
6/26: Pirates unconditionally release Cory Luebke.
6/26: Trevor Williams placed on bereavement list.
6/26: Tomas Morales sent to Bradenton.
6/25: Justin Maffei assigned to Altoona.
6/25: Luis Paula and David Whitehead assigned to Bristol on rehab.
6/24: Pirates purchase the contract of Adam Frazier. Designate Cole Figueroa for assignment.
6/24: Juan Nicasio activated from restricted list. Designate Jorge Rondon for assignment.
6/24: Jacob Stallings optioned to Indianapolis.
6/23: JT Brubaker added to Bradenton roster. Colten Brewer placed on temporary inactive list.
6/23: Tito Polo assigned to Bradenton.
6/22: Pirates recall Kyle Lobstein. Wilfredo Boscan optioned to Indianapolis.
6/22: Jhondaniel Medina assigned to Indianapolis.
6/21: Pirates recall Wilfredo Boscan. Curtis Partch optioned to Indianapolis.
6/21: Pirates sign Braeden Ogle.
6/20: Trace Tam Sing and Erik Lunde added to Bradenton roster. Pablo Reyes placed on temporary inactive list.
THIS DATE IN PIRATES HISTORY
Seven former Pittsburgh Pirates players born on this date , plus a famous manager was born on this date as well. Going quickly through the players, as bios of each can be found in the link. Starting with the most recent first we have 2010 relief pitcher Brendan Donnelly, left fielder Wayne Nordhagen, who played for the Pirates on June 19, 1982. We also have pitcher Jim Minshall (1974-75), pitcher Jim Nelson, who was a member of the 1971 world champs, 1929 pinch-runner Mel Ingram, 1912 right fielder Stump Edington, and 1906 pitcher Lou Manske. Ingram was a four-sport star at Gonzaga and was signed to a unique contract, one that started on June 18th and guaranteed he would be released by September 1st so he could return home to his job.
Chuck Tanner was born on this date in 1928. He managed the Pirates from 1977 until 1985, leading them to their fifth World Series title. Tanner was a Major League outfielder for eight years, but he is better known for his work as a manager. He was managing the Oakland A’s when the Pirates traded Manny Sanguillen and cash to Oakland for Tanner. In his nine seasons in Pittsburgh, which included the dreadful 1985 season, he had a 711-685 record. He led the Pirates to one title and three second place finishes. Tanner finished with 1352 career wins.
The link above also contains a noteworthy trade from 1905, plus a recap of a doubleheader from the 1902 season, when the Pirates were the most dominant team in baseball. In that 1905 trade, the Pirates sent shortstop George McBride to the St Louis Cardinals in exchange for infielder Dave Brain. The significant part of the deal is that Brain was soon traded to Boston as part of the deal to acquire Vic Willis, who would go on to have four straight 20-win seasons with the Pirates, including the 1909 World Series winning season.
