A brief update of how the Pirates players are doing down on the farm. This edition focuses on the players at the AAA level.
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With the exception of the recently promoted Alex Presley andthe one 1 PA only Brooks Brown the best hitter on the Indianapolis Indiansroster has been Brett Carroll. Carroll is a 30 year old outfielder who has beenin the majors for parts of the last 6 years accumulating 324 PA of work. He hasshown some power with 3 HR and some plate discipline with 8 walks, however atthis point he is just major league depth who will only see Pittsburgh ifinjuries start to pile up.
Also hitting well down in AAA is Jordy Mercer as hecontinues to make a case that he belongs on the major league roster. Mercer wassupposed to be splitting his time between 2B and SS at the AAA level but withthe exception of 1 game at 2B has been the regular shortstop. Mercer has drawn10 walks and is currently batting .323 given the struggles of Barmes andMcDonald, Mercer is making a strong case to get promoted. The threesome of Jared Goedert, Matt Hague andJosh Harrison have been putting up solid numbers (.748, .734, .772 respectiveOPSs) in AAA giving the Pirates a few depth options at 3B should Alvarez startto struggle again.
Tony Sanchez started off slowly but is beginning to hitbetter. He isn’t exactly tearing thecover off the ball but a .714 OPS to date and a 99 wRC+ is a solid start to theyear. Sanchez is striking out at a higher clip than one would like him to(27.1%) but he is showing some decent discipline with a 8.3% walk rate. BrandonInge has been receiving a lot of playing time all over the diamond in AAA andis hitting poorly as he only has a .158 average but a strong walk rate (16.9%)has given him a decent OBP of .324. As for power it really isn’t there eitheras he only has 4 XBH and an ISO of .140.
Having downright awful starts to the year are Jerry Sandsand Felix Pie. Both players are batting under .150 with OPSs below .400. Pie isshowing some decent speed on the bases having gone 6 for 7 in steal attemptsbut that is about the only positive for either of these two.
On the pitching side Gerrit Cole is obviously the big name. Hehas a nice and shiny 2.76 ERA but the start of the season hasn’t been toosmooth. Cole isn’t striking out the number of batters we want to see from himand has a walk rate above 6 per nine innings. He is proving somewhat hard tohit with a .226 average against but his high walk rate still means he isallowing too many base runners. Cole is going to have to show better commandbefore getting the call to Pittsburgh.
The Curve have already managed to have 8 different startersthis season but of the 5 with multiple starts Andy Oliver has been the best ofthe bunch. He has a nice shiny ERA of 2.11 and while he is walking too manybatters (over 5 BB/9) he is striking out a lot (over 12 K/9) and proving to bevery difficult to hit (.156 average against). At this point Oliver may be nextin line should another starter be needed from AAA. Kris Johnson has also postedsome good numbers with a 2.81 ERA but he hasn’t been dominant as he has struckout just over 6 per nine and walked nearly 4 per nine. He is a serviceablepitcher but expect his ERA to slowly start to climb.
In the bullpen the Pirates have been getting excellentperformances from just about everyone. Of the 5 relievers with 4 or moreappearances Victor Black supports the highest ERA at 3.18. Like a lot ofpitchers here his walk rate is a little but he has a 13.5 K/9 rate and a .158average against which shows he has been dominating. The best reliever of thebunch has probably been Duke Welker who in 5 appearances average 2 innings apiece has yet to allow an earned run, has allowed only 2 hits and has a 4:1strike out to walk ratio. Also performing well are Zagurski, Reid and Brown(who has a spot start).
On the flip side the Indians don’t have many pitchers off to terrible starts. Only three have ERAs above 5. Brandon Cumpton’s ERA sits at5.56 but his secondary numbers suggest that he has been unlucky so far. RomanColon has an unbelievably high ERA of 27.00 but that comes with 0.1 innings ofwork which means he has allowed 1 run. The only pitcher really off to bad startis Kyle McPherson who is now on the DL.