Back on September 9th, we reported that the Pittsburgh Pirates made major changes to their Arizona Fall League roster, pulling three of their seven players from the league. The replacement players for Austin Meadows, Trevor Williams and Dovydas Neverauskas were named today.
Joining Eric Wood, Montana Durapau, Jin-De Jhang and Edgar Santana on the Surprise Saguaros will be pitchers Alex McRae and Tanner Anderson, along with Connor Joe.
Joe is the now the best prospect going to the AFL for the Pirates. While he put up strong numbers on offense during the second half of this season for Bradenton, he also committed 25 errors in 96 games at third base. He finished with a .277/.351/.392 slash line, which are solid numbers for the pitcher-friendly Florida State League. Joe had an .824 OPS in the second half of the season. He then hit three homers during the playoffs, helping Bradenton win the FSL title.
Anderson got stronger as the season went along, with is a theme with the three new players. He was sitting 92-94 MPH with his fastball on Monday when Bradenton won the FSL title. While the scouting report improved, the stats took a little bit of a hit with the mid-season jump to High-A ball. Anderson finished the season with a 3.58 ERA over 88 innings between West Virginia and Bradenton. He only had 50 strikeouts, but his pitch-to-contact ability led to many quick innings and an incredible 3.39 GO/AO ratio.
McRae split this season between Bradenton and Altoona, pitching well for most of the season, though he had a lot of trouble early on with the jump to Double-A. The 23-year-old righty finished with a 3.88 ERA in 155.1 innings, with 102 strikeouts, a .285 BAA, a 1.40 WHIP and a 1.31 GO/AO ratio. During the month of August, he had a 2.48 ERA and then threw six shutout innings in his last regular season start on September 1st. McRae struggled badly in his lone playoff start, giving up six runs on 12 hits in six innings.
The league begins play on October 11th and we will have daily coverage, including live coverage during the first week of November.
