In late results from Colombia on Thursday night, shortstop Francisco Acuna made his second playoff start and went 2-for-4 with two singles. He went 0-for-5 with a walk in his first two playoff games, one of them coming off the bench.
From Friday in Australia, Michael Suchy was ejected for arguing balls and strikes in the fifth inning. He was still in the game long enough to extend his on base streak to 17 games. He went 1-for-3 with a single and a run scored. Suchy was back in center field again. As mentioned yesterday, he has been playing there a lot recently despite manning center field just seven times in four seasons with the Pirates. He is hitting .280/.363/.486 through 29 games.
Robbie Glendinning cooled off on Friday, going 0-for-3 with a walk and a run scored. He’s now hitting .359 with a double, two homers, 14 runs scored and eight walks in ten games. Glendinning has played all ten games at shortstop, where he has committed one error in 52 chances.
In Puerto Rico, 2017 32nd round draft pick Hector Quinones made his second appearance this winter. After allowing one run over 1.1 innings in his debut, he allowed two runs over 1.1 innings in his second game. Quinones gave up two hits and two walks, with no strikeouts.
In Venezuela, Elvis Escobar had a rare quiet playoff game, going 0-for-4 with a strikeout. He went 2-for-4 in the opener of the second round on Thursday.
In the Dominican, Richard Rodriguez threw a shutout inning, retiring the side in order, one by strikeout. Before signing with the Pirates on December 7th, he had made seven straight appearances without an earned run. Since signing, he has extended that streak to 18 games. The last six games of that streak have been in the playoffs.
On Friday, we lost one of our article fillers. Anderson Feliz signed a minor league deal with the Baltimore Orioles, so we won’t be covering him in the winter articles anymore. I expected him to sign somewhere soon because he’s still relatively young and putting up solid stats this winter. Plus he plays multiple positions and he’s a switch-hitter, so there’s still a lot to like about him. His upside would be a bench player in the majors, so it’s not a real loss for the Pirates. They have a crowded infield set for Indianapolis already and Altoona looks promising as well, leaving no role for him with the Pirates in 2018.
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.
Oh my, the Pirates lost a potential super utility player!
Since the Winter League updates have a minor league spin to them, I was wondering if John or Tim knew when the Pirates would be announcing their minor league staffs?
Andy Barkett, the manager at Indianapolis, has moved to the Red Sox and Kevin Riggs, hitting coach at Altoona, has moved to the Phillies organization. Justin Meccage, the minor league pitching coordinator, has been moved up to the ‘Burgh.
Do you know who will be replacing them? If the promotions are from within the organization, those being promoted would need replaced also.
Were there any new coaching faces at the Mini Camp?
Edgar Varela also moved on to the Twins, so they lost three good people this off-season. Minor league coaching staffs could be announced any day now. They’re always right around this time of year and I know that some of the minor league media guys know them already, but can’t announce them until the Pirates do. They’re told in advance to get press releases ready. No one new at mini-camp.
Riggs did a nice job at Altoona.
Feliz navidad!
Article filler!
He was the last of the article fillers still playing. The seven Pittsburgh Pirates still active in winter ball are all in the system still. My favorite part about Anderson Feliz was that when I needed to use Google translator for some stories, his name always said Happy Anderson.
Richard rodriguez always makes me think of serial killer Richard ramierez for some reason. Can we call Rodriguez “The Night Balker” if he makes the team?
He makes me think of Rich Rodriguez, they MLB reliever for 13 years. Would be nice to get similar results from RichRod 2.0
Rich spent the off-seasons working with youth groups, Boys and Girls Clubs, around Knoxville/Oak Ridge, TN. I remember one such camp for youth at the Oak Ridge Boys Club around ’92/’93 where he and Atlee Hammaker worked with the kids. And former pitching coach Jeff Andrews, was also a part of the group.
Hilarious.