The Pittsburgh Pirates promoted Altoona Curve right-handed pitcher James Marvel to Indianapolis on Monday. Relief pitcher Blake Cederlind was added back to the Altoona roster.
Marvel has been pitching great as of late. In fact, earlier this morning we wrote about him in The 21 and said “He’s likely going to move up to Indianapolis soon because there isn’t much more to prove in Altoona”. I didn’t exactly mean within a few hours, but it’s nice to see someone get a promotion when they deserve it.
Marvel posted a 3.16 ERA in 16 starts with the Curve this season, with 82 strikeouts, a .228 BAA and a 1.07 WHIP in 99.2 innings, which is tops among all Pirates. The 25-year-old right-hander was a 36th round pick out of Duke in 2015, but he only dropped that far because he was just beginning a recovery from Tommy John surgery, which ended up costing him almost two full seasons. He received an over-slot bonus and has worked his way up the system, adding some velocity along the way and improving his curveball, which is now one of the better ones in the system. He also throws a lot of strikes and uses his changeup effectively, while getting a lot of soft contact on the ground.
Cederlind was placed on the temporary inactive list last week and was only out five days. Between Bradenton and Altoona this season, he has a 1.15 ERA in 31.1 innings over 22 appearances, with a .193 BAA, a 1.24 WHIP and 28 strikeouts. In his last outing, he hit 102 MPH. He touched 101 MPH last year and has consistently reached 100 MPH in games over the last two seasons, but that was the first time we heard him hit 102.
If there are any other moves today, we will add them here.
