Battling Bucs : The Marauder Hitters

Lately I've been trying to branch out and write about other things but my bread and butter and what I enjoy writing the most is about prospects. I'm no expert on them but I like to think of myself as a well informed novice on the subject. No one should take my opinion of a prospect as evidence of anything but I enjoy researching and writing about them and I hope some of you enjoy reading what I have to say about them. Now with that disclaimer out of the way on to the subject at hand.
The hitters on the Pirates A+ level Bradenton Marauders have been an uninspiring group thus far. The lone exception has been top hitting prospect Josh Bell who now finds himself up a level in AA Altoona. With the exception of Bell and the two major league players who rehabbed there the Marauders have seen 17 players register an at bat for them this season. I figured it is time to take a look at those guys and see what the Pirates have with this largely uninteresting crop of talent.
Organizational Depth
Of the 17 players who have taken an at bat at this level, 6 of them are 24 years of age or older which according to my rough age appropriate prospect scale makes them organizational players rather than prospects. This holds quite true as the players in question have all been used as part time players this year meaning the Pirates do not desire to take a long look at them. Making matters worse is that by and large this group has performed exceedingly poorly especially considering their age for the level.
Jordan Steranka: Steranka has received the most playing time of this group and has been a frequent DH as well as occasionally spelling the struggling 1B prospect at this level. He can also play 3B but hasn't done so yet this season. Steranka is a local product coming from Penn State university at the time he was drafted he was thought to be an attempt to appease the State College Spikes franchise who were unhappy with how the Pirates focused so little on winning at their level. He has only modest power and so far has had major trouble with his plate discipline. So far this year he has struck out 4.5 times as often as he has walked.
Jacob Stallings: Stallings has received a lot of playing time at the level essentially splitting the catching duties with a young prospect who received an aggressive push. Of all the players I'm going to mention in this section Stallings probably has the best shot at a major league career due to his exceptional defense behind the plate. To that effect in his junior season of college he set an NCAA record for throwing out the most attempted base stealers. He has very little power and makes very poor contact but he does have a nice knack for drawing free passes. For him to even make the majors in a backup capacity he will need to show improvement in his offensive game.
Jonathan Schwind: Schwind is currently enjoying the best season out of this group and if it wasn't for his small number of at bats one could even say he was having the second best offensive season on the team (behind the recently promoted Josh Bell). He is a converted catcher who due largely to injuries now serves as a reserve outfielder. Up to this year Schwind aside from a decent walk rate had struggled with the bat but in his limited time so far he has been fairly successful making good contact and showing modest power, oddly his walk rate has suffered a bit. He appears to have an ok bat and may be able to carve himself out a niche as a mid level reserve OF for a few years. Schwind is currently on the DL though.
Taylor Lewis: Lewis was drafted in the 10th round of the 2011 draft and was an interesting player to follow. He was noted for his good speed and plus defense but scouts thought his bat had some potential. Well unfortunately he never realized that potential with his bat and now looks like an organizational player. Due to the lack of quality hitters at this level Lewis did receive some regular playing time in LF and CF through the months of May and June but didn't do anything with it. Shortly after he found himself on the DL and has stayed there ever since.
DJ Crumlich: Due to injuries Crumlich has received little playing time this season. The Pirates drafted him back in 2012 as a college senior and even then he appeared likely to be just an organizational guy. Flash forward a couple of years and he is now off the SS position and has shown little to nothing with the bat. Crumlich is probably the least interesting player of everyone who I will mention. His primary position is 3B though he also does play 1B and 2B. Right now he finds himself on the DL.
Justin Howard: Howard is more of an upper organizational player who had some success at AA last year but injuries and the Bell promotion have forced him down to A+. He is primarily a 1B but in order to be a useful bench player the Pirates have had him faking it in the outfield the last few years. Howard's bat is actually quite solid but he lacks power and since he is defensively limited to 1B that makes him not really a prospect. He has just recently joined the team so he has very little playing time thus far. Howard's ceiling as a player is likely something like Chris McGuiness and it seems doubtful he even reaches that.
Age Appropriate Role Players
I eluded to this earlier but I have my own scale with which I make a cutoff between looking at a guy as a prospect and looking at him as an organizational player. For the A+ level it is someone 24 and over is an org guy, someone 23 is probably an org guy but I'll cut him some slack, someone 22 is age appropriate and could go either way and someone 21 or under is a likely a legit prospect. In this group I'm going to take a look at players age 22 or 23 that to me appear to be more organizational player than prospect.
Walker Gourley: Gourley is a good probable organizational guy who was coming off a strong year down in A ball. What makes him a good org player is that he can play pretty much anyone, has some decent speed and isn't a complete zero with the bat. What holds him back from being a legit prospect is that his bat is solely based on contact as he doesn't walk much and he has very little power. He is a fun player to follow as he has played every position in his minor league career and he will go on some nice hot streaks at the plate. So far this year Gourley has primarily been an OF though he has received significant time at both infield corners as well. His bat continues to be solely contact driven though and that limits him. Still I see him carving out a career for himself as a A+/AA utility player.
Raul Fortunato: The Pirates don't have a lot of outfield options for A+ so Fortunato started out as the team's regular LF and has recently slid over to become the regular CF. At one point in his career after posting a strong final season in the DSL Fortunato was an interesting prospect to watch. He came to the states the following year got off to a good start but after 4 games he got injured and missed the rest of the season. He went to full season ball last year and had an ok year keeping him on the prospect fringes. This year with fairly regular playing time he has struggles and shown nothing with the bat meaning his prospect days are likely behind him.
Jeff Roy: Roy is a burner; he plays good defense, runs the bases well and even draws a decent number of walks. All those things are great but the problems are he isn't really much of a hitter, has no power and he strikes out a ton. All of that adds up to a combination that is highly unlikely to make him an effective baseball player. Roy started the year as the regular CF for the Marauders but has since been demoted down to A ball due to how poorly he was hitting.
Ashley Ponce: I feel like Ponce has been in the system forever and indeed it’s been a while as he signed all the way back in 2008. He is a talented defensive shortstop but is held back by his anemic bat. He has great range, good hands and does a good job making contact but he makes mostly weak contact and shows no power. This is Ponce's second year at the A+ level and he has shown no progress with his bat. Chances are he has probably reached his ceiling.
Justin Maffei: The Pirates drafted Maffei last year as a college senior. Like most college seniors he was viewed mainly as organizational depth and that point got reinforced when he struggled in short season ball. He doesn't a tool that makes him stand out. This year the Pirates pushed him up to A ball and he has spent the year serving as a reserve outfield between A and A+. Something a little odd has happened though. His numbers in A ball were pedestrian but since coming to A+ he has flourished in a very limited sample. His play has lead him to get regular playing time in LF and CF. he numbers he is putting up are impressive but seem unsustainable. This short burst aside Maffei is likely to remain an organizational player.
The Actual Prospects
Now we move on to the players that appear to be actual prospects. There are six remaining players I haven't discussed, two of them are 22 and the other four are 21 years old.
Adam Frazier: The Pirates selected Frazier in the 6^th round of last year’s draft. In what was a weak year for college shortstop Frazier was considered one of the better ones. Frazier has next to no power and has no real stand out tool but he is a smart baseball player and does a lot of stuff fairly well. His pro debut went well and due to being an advance college player he started this season in A+. So far his performance hasn’t been that impressive. The Pirates have kept him as the primary SS and he is handling the position fine but the bat remains weak. He has a decent batting average but really isn’t walking all that often and continues to show no power. He does at least do a good job at putting the ball in play. Frazier seems like a relatively safe prospect meaning he looks like he has a reasonable chance of developing into a decent MLB depth player but he comes with little upside.
Max Moroff: Moroff was one of the players the Pirates gave a sizeable overslot bonus too after they failed to sign Appel back in 2012. The Pirates drafted him as a SS who had an intriguing bat but his lack of range at the position meant he was likely destined to move to another position and this year he has became a full time 2B. Moroff is certainly capable of drawing a walk and he has flashed some hints of power of potential but overall he remains a hitter that needs some work. He has done a solid job at 2B this year and should have little trouble sticking at the position long term but the question is will his bat develop. Moroff’s bat certainly has some upside and if it develops he could become a solid starting 2B in the majors but there is also a chance it never really does and he tops off as an organizational player in AA.
Eric Wood: Wood was injured to start the season creating an open spot at 3B that some of the players I have previously discussed tried to fill. None did so well so once he was healthy Wood took over the regular 3B duties. When he was drafted back in 2012 most thought Wood was just a selection to save pool money but despite signing for underslot Wood still received a rather large signing bonus for how scouts generally perceived him. One thing he showed in Junior College and in his first season with the Pirates (though not so much the last two years) is solid power. His defense is questionable at third base but he really doesn’t have the bat for first so he is going to have to try and stick if he has a future in the majors. Since starting his season Wood has performed well but the power numbers he needs to be a legitimate prospect just aren’t there yet.
Jose Osuna: It is difficult to get a read on just what the Pirates have in Osuna. He was part of a quartet of Latin America prospects the Pirates aggressively pushed to A ball back in 2012 and at the time he was considered the most advanced of the group (not necessarily the best prospect but the farthest along) but since then the other three (Polanco, Hanson and Garcia) have all passed him by. He hasn’t necessarily been bad as he had a good season in A ball that year and then struggled as a young player in A+. Osuna has good power and doesn’t strike out a lot. Defensively he started as an OF but is now limited to 1B. This year has went better for Osuna and though he isn’t dominating he has shown flashes of a plus bat with good power and that will probably be enough for him to get a shot at AA next year. He is young enough that struggles there won’t necessarily mark the end of the line for him but a strong showing would be a definite boon for his prospect standing.
Jin-De Jhang: A catching logjam down in A ball forced the Pirates to be creative. One of the moves was to send Wyatt Mathisen to 3B while the other was to aggressively push Jhang past A ball and into A+ ball. For a young hitter Jhang is a fairly disciplined one and it appeared this push had a chance of working out but it really hasn’t. Jhang hasn’t looked overmatched as his strike out rate remains low but his offensive numbers have been far from impressive and he hasn’t shown the power or walk rate of last season. Behind the plate he shows flashes of being a good defensive catcher but he is still relatively new to the position so he still doesn’t look quite as smooth back there as some. He hasn’t shown much progress as the year has progressed so it seems likely he will repeat the level next year. Considering his age, lack of catching experience and the aggressive push he received that isn’t enough to really hurt his prospect status but with McGuire possibly coming next year it will be tougher for him to prove himself.
Barrett Barnes: Barnes is easily the most talented player of everyone I have listed. He has shown flashes of being able to become a good four tool player with the only missing tool being his weak throwing arm which will probably make him eventually move to LF. The Pirates thought highly enough of Barnes that back in 2012 he was a first round pick in the supplemental part of the round. All of this sounds great of course but there is a downside of course and that is Barnes is the most frustrating player of this group. For some reason the man can just not stay healthy. He started his career off in short season ball in 2012 and everything was going well until he suffered a stress fracture in his leg in July that ended his season. Last season a back injury caused him to miss the beginning of the year and then shortly after returning in May he suffered a hamstring injury. He returned in June and was struggling a bit at first but it appeared he was putting it back together when the hamstring injury flared back up in July causing him the rest of the season. This year he started off healthy but after just 4 games another hamstring landed him back on the DL. Once healthy the Pirates opted to just push him up to A+. He was performing alright but after just 6 games he suffered an oblique injury landing him back on the DL and there is no word on if he will return this season. The talent is there for Barnes to be a very good outfield prospect (possibly even a top 100 guy) but in order to have a chance at fulfilling that potential the man has to be able to stay on the field.
Recap
It is probably reasonable to conclude that at least one of the 17 players I mention above will eventually make it to the majors. Who it will be and in what capacity will they do so remains to be seen but when comparing this group to the others in the Pirates organization this one seems comparatively weaker. Among the organizational guys Stallings and Howard have a non-zero chance of one day being able to serve as a major league depth piece and it isn’t out of the realm of possibilities that one of the five role players develop their offensive game to a point where he could be a useful depth player as well but in reality if any of these guys are going to make a major impact for the Pirates it is likely going to be someone from that final group of six.
There is enough talent there for the Pirates to get a complete good starting infield (catcher included) and an All Star left fielder but we all know that won’t happen and in fact the Pirates will be lucky if any one of the six turns into a solid regular. The prospect game is a game of attrition and while the top guys will always get the lion’s share of the attention it is important to remember that it is also a numbers game so stacking up a bunch of decent non-exciting prospects to supplement the Josh Bells of the world is necessary and will bear the occasional fruit. Who knows maybe one day one of these guys will turn into quite an apple.