The last week has been the first time in a long time that I’ve reported to Spring Training for multiple days in a row. I stepped away in 2019, and while I’ve been back for one or two days, I’ve never really recaptured what it used to feel like.
This week, I had two solo interviews. I talked with Paul Skenes for about ten minutes about the adjustment to the pro schedule, his spring workload, and the pitches he’s throwing. I talked with John Baker for half an hour about maybe 15 players in the system, for stories I’m working on over the next few weeks.
Six of those stories can be found linked below from this week’s premium article drop. To access those stories, you need to be a subscriber. It’s $5 per month to access the premium content each week. Next week will be my Prospect Rankings and Season Previews. The week after will be the second half of my conversation with Baker, looking at the upcoming seasons for six prospects who aren’t inside the top ten.
The players covered this week:
Paul Skenes
Jared Jones
Termarr Johnson
Bubba Chandler
“Z” Cheng
Lonnie White Jr.
I appreciate the time of both Skenes and Baker. I’ve interviewed players for going on 16 seasons now. The interview process is like an at-bat. The person being interviewed is at the plate. They don’t know what question is going to be thrown, and they only have a split second to formulate an attack plan. Skenes and Baker are both great interviews because they’re honest and genuine with their responses. They’re both knowledgable in their fields, which means most of the time what they say is going to be a hit.
From my perspective, all I had to do was prepare for one day. I conducted the 40 minutes of interviews on Friday. I waited around a lot, trying to maintain a consistent energy for the moment that someone was available. I was a starting pitcher. I feel happy about the pitches I threw, and the result this week tries to tell you a bit about each player.
With Skenes and Jones, the focus is to explain their performance, as relative to the strong odds that both will be pitching in Pittsburgh by this summer.
Termarr Johnson and Bubba Chandler are players who are moving closer to the majors, and I wanted to highlight more of what drives each player. The drive to win for Johnson and the maturation growth from Chandler are two factors that could put them in line to join Pittsburgh by 2025.
The stories on Lonnie White Jr. and Tsung-Che Cheng are more to introduce you to the prospects. I have both of these guys in my top ten. I tried to grab an interview with White after the final game of the season, but the locker room was closed after the game with the big league team moving out.
My favorite story this week is the article on “Z” Cheng. This actually stems from an interview I had with him and his interpreter, Charles Chiang, last summer in Altoona. That story has been in my head for about seven months. I wanted to write it when the “Fast Car” commentary was taking place on social media, but my site was offline. I had the site offline for over a month, removing that temptation to write again until I knew I was ready to return to the weekly grind. By September, I’m going to be exhausted. I already know the topics of the article drops every Tuesday of that month. The performance of the Pirates will dictate the content of the articles. The interviews I conduct will dictate the words.
There’s a point where a story comes together for me. From that point, my goal is to extract that story from my head, like an artist producing a song. I have to be in the proper mood that day to be able to extract the story. In this case, Baseball America got my best stories on Skenes and White. I had to create different stories for this site, after writing up and sending the story that first popped in my mind. Both versions of both player stories tell about that person, but they take different angles to telling about the person. For example, with Paul Skenes, I focused on the battle with Jackson Holliday at Baseball America, while I focused on John Baker’s comments on the need for multiple pitches in the big leagues in the Pirates Prospects article.
The result this week, according to the read times on the newly designed Pirates Prospects, is over half an hour of premium content to read this week about six players who will be in my top ten prospects next week.
Subscribe to the site’s content on Patreon, and check out the stories below. Your subscription ensures that I’ll be writing content on this site daily, both for premium and free readers alike.
I thank everyone for the support so far, both free newsletter subscribers and premium content subscribers, with the new approach on the site. The best six articles this week went to the premium subscribers, but I’m hoping to produce at least six more premium quality articles to the daily crowd, to entice you to eventually check out the stories behind that Patreon paywall.
Pirates Prospects Daily
Every Tuesday is reserved for the six premium articles from the drop. Those are linked below. Tomorrow at noon I’ll have my free column previewing the 2024 Pittsburgh Pirates. It will also include thoughts on how they’re fixing the development woes.
Subscribe to Pirates Prospects Daily below for free, and get these Pittsburgh Pirates updates delivered to your inbox.
This Week on Pirates Prospects
**Paul Skenes Predicts the Pirates Will Be Winning For a Long Time
The 2023 first overall pick, number one pitching prospect in the game, and number one prospect in the Pirates’ system is expected to arrive in Pittsburgh this summer. Paul Skenes notes that he’s only one man, and feels the Pirates have enough talent to win for a long time.
**Jared Jones Forces the Pirates Hand
After an impressive Spring Training, Jared Jones has made the Pirates’ Opening Day rotation. This was far from a guarantee at the start of camp, but the performance from Jones and the development of his secondary stuff was enough to force the Pirates to make a decision.
**Termarr Johnson Just Wants to Win, Including One Day in Pittsburgh
The Pirates drafted Termarr Johnson fourth overall in 2022, and the 19-year-old infielder has shown advanced contact abilities, plate patience, and surprising power. He also has a competitive drive, wanting to win everywhere he goes, including one day in Pittsburgh.
**Bubba Chandler Shows Advanced Maturity Entering Third Pro Season
After a break to reset in the middle of 2023, Bubba Chandler had some of the best numbers in the Pittsburgh Pirates system in the second half. The right-handed pitcher continues to progress this spring, working on his changeup while bringing a mature approach to his game.
Tsung-Che Cheng is no stranger to international competition and playing in front of large crowds. He also has some of the best contact skills in the Pirates’ system, and walks to the plate playing “Fast Car” by Luke Combs. Read about the man nicknamed “Z”.
**Lonnie White Jr. Shows a Competitive Drive and Quick Learning Ability
Lonnie White Jr. was drafted 64th overall in 2021, signing with the Pirates rather than going to Penn State as a two-sport athlete. Injuries slowed the start of his career, but he returned in 2023, with some of the best numbers in the system during the second half.
