Battling Bucs : The Sad State of the Altoona Curve

The group of talent the Pirates currently have at the AA level is in a word bad. Those who follow the minors knew that this group probably wasn't going to be all that good but I don't think anyone really felt it was going to be quite as bad as it has been. Currently the Curve are tied for the worst record in the Eastern League (technically their winning percentage is slightly better than the Reading Phillies) so by that measure they appear bad but not necessarily awful. Digging a little deeper let's take a look at the overall hitting and pitching performances. I'll start with the pitching side since it is the Curve's "strong" suit.
Pitching
Last week at this time the Curve's staff ERA was actually quite decent, top 3 in the Eastern League actually but a rough weekend has risen that ERA to 4.28, 10th best (out of 12) in the league. The Curve also ranks 10th in strike outs and have middle of the pack marks in most other categories such as WHIP. Simply put the pitching staff hasn't been great but on the surface it doesn't look dreadful. Let's dig a little deeper and take a look at some individual players.
First I'll start with Jameson Taillion who is the exception to all of this. He has pitched really well so far with a 2.91 ERA and 63:22 K:BB ratio. Also pitching well although not quite as dominant is Casey Sadler who has a better ERA at 2.81 but worse peripherals with a 33:16 K:BB ratio. Moving on this is where things start to turn sour. Stolmy Pimentel started the year off on fire and still holds a decent stat line because of it but since the calender turned to May he has been awful, posting a 7.39 ERA, 1.71 WHIP, .305 AVG and 17:12 K:BB.
Rounding out the rest of the rotation has been a large class of characters including 4 players on rehab assignments (Morton, Karstens, Liriano and McDonald). Leading the way amongst these starters is Davd Bromberg. By n means has Bromberg been awful this season. As a starter he has a solid 3.18 ERA (4.91 as a reliever and 3.77 overall). Bromberg has struck out nearly a batting an inning and is walking only about one every three. He is being hit at a decent clip as his average against is .291. Certainly not bad but he is the highlight of this gorup.
Luis Angel Sanz has started 3 games his ERA as a starter is 10.38 (5.84 overall). Tyler Waldron started 3 games before getting injured and has an ERA of 5.40. Brandon Cumpton started 2 games before being promoted and had an ERA of 7.45 (to be fair he is pitching well in AAA). Hollingswrth started one game and has an ERA as a starter of 7.20 (5.46 overall). The rest of the games have been started by rehabbing pitchers which for this exercise I am going to ignore.
Moving to the bullpen Kenn Kasparek and Nathan Baker have made the most appearances with 15 a piece. Kasparek has for the most part been good with a 2.82 ERA but his 15:7 K:BB ratio in 22.1 IP hardly scream dominating performance. Baker's stat line doesn't look too bad as we see a 2.32 but then we look a little closer and realize that isn't his ERA but rather his WHIP. His ERA is an astronomic 12.23. His strike out to walk ratio on the year in 12:18 (and yes that's the right order).
Other frequently used arms in the pen include Jason Townsend (8.47 ERA, 1.82 WHIP) and Jhnoathan Ramos (8.71 ERA, 2.03 WHIP). To be fair Jeff Inman (2.65 ERA) and Tim Alderson (1.32 ERA) have pitched well but Inman has been injured for about a month and Alderson was promoted to AAA. No one else in the pen has cracked 10 IP. Four arms may seem low but recall Hollingsworth, Sanz and Bromberg have all seen significant time in releif.
Now in all honesty that is a pitching staff that while poor hardly seems to make the team abysmal. However you may recall my referring to the pitching as the stregnth of this team. I wasn't being facetious the pitching really is significantly better than the hitting.
Hitting
The Curve have the worst OPS in the league. Last week at this time there was a actually a larger gap between them and 11th place (next to last) than there was between 11th place and 1st place but a strong weeknd has risen the Curve's OPS to .663 only .036 behind the 11th place team. To put that in perspective that is now roughly the distance between 1st and 9th so they are moving up in the world. The Curve are last in AVG, OBP and SLG. They have the second most Ks in the league and the second fewest walks. They have shown some power as they are tied for 5th in the league in home runs but the extra base hits aren't coming much outside of those as they are last in doubles. I could go on but the easiest way to show how bad they have been is to look at the individual players.
First let's start with the positives. Andrew Lambo has been tearing the cover off the ball. In 181 AB he has an .875 OPS. Of all Curve players with at least 100 AB he leads the way by .150 points (.185 ahead of 3rd). His 9 HR are best on the team (1 HR ahead of 2nd and 5 HR ahead of 3rd) and his 35 RBI are more than 2nd and 3rd place combined. Outside of Lambo the next best position player has probably been the backup catcher Charlie Cutler. Cutler at .905 actually has a higher OPS than Lambo but only has 69 AB. Cutler is known for being a solid offensive catcher but one who isn't all that good defensively.
Moving on Adalberto Santos a utility player who can play 2B, 3B and the OF started off April hot but suffered an injury and has struggled ever since returning with a .596 OPS in May. Still with a .725 OPS he is secon to Andrew Lambo on the team (min 100 AB). Looking at some other semi decent performances Mel Rojas after starting off horribly has gotten on a little bit of a role and now has his OPS at .690. Matt Curry who is currently injured and repeating the level is 4th on the team with a .686 OPS and rounding out the top 5 is another level repeater Jarek Cunningham at .679. Cunningham has displayed some of that power he is known to have by belting 8 HR (.188 ISO) but the rest of his game (.215 AVG, .276 OBP) just isn't there.
In addition to the players I've discuessed there are 6 others who have managed to get at least 50 AB. They are Andy Vasquez (.669 OPS), Alex Dickerson (.633 OPS), Drew Maggi (.627 OPS), Carlos Paulino (.592 OPS), Gift Ngoepe (.531 OPS) and Stefan Welch (.466 OPS). Dickerson, Paulino and Ngoepe have some prospect value the other three at this point really do not. Paulino and Ngoepe's value come via their gloves but even so at this offensive level there is no value and Dickerson is one who's bat s supposed to carry him and obviously it isn't so far (he is currenrtly out with a concussion).
Overall the hitters at AA have simply been terrible and the pitchers truthfully haven't been much better. Taillon, Sadler and Lambo are having good showings but outside of them and possibly a few role players (Kasparek and Cutler) the team is just quite simply bad. Perhaps this is a testament to the poor 2009 draft class but it should certainly serve as proof that not much is on the way for 2014.
Over the last few weeks I have been working on updating my top prospect lists of Pirates and the performances at this level stood out to me because of how nearly everyone was performing poorly. Hopefully at least a handful of players here step up over the remander of the season and show that they have something to prove. I usually go to a few Curve games every year and I still plan on doing the same this season but man there is certainly a lot less to watch for this season (especially when Taillon isn't on the mound).