Let’s not talk about the Pirates. Let’s talk about the minor leaguers.
Indianapolis: Chase D’Arnaud is off to a scorching start in Indy with his .310/.429/.517 line. Of his nine hits, he’s got two doubles and two triples. Think he knows the shortstop job will be up for grabs by mid-season? Pedro Ciriaco is hitting a Josh-Rodriguez-like 2-for-27 and obviously Rodriguez and Cedeno aren’t really getting the job done in Pittsburgh. It’s too early to talk about calling D’Arnaud up to play for now, but if he keeps hitting …
Beyond him, Alex Presley is also off to a hot start at .424/.457/.606. Justin Wilson has two decent starts under his belt with a 4.50 ERA and 10 strikeouts with five walks in 12 innings. Rudy Owens’ first start was typical Rudy Owens stuff: 7 innings, 5 Ks, no walks, seven hits, one run. I’m with Charlie; if the Pirates are adding a pitcher to the roster to start for Ohlendorf it should be Owens, not Burres. In all reality, though, Brad Lincoln might get that chance first. His first start with Indy was decent: 4 2/3 innings, just two strikeouts but no walks, only two hits allowed (but one was a two-run homer). He’ll probably need another start or two before he’s in Pittsburgh, but if Ohlie’s out for a while it’s Lincoln I’d keep an eye on. Full team stats here.
Altoona: Starling Marte and Jeremy Farrell are off to hot starts with the Curve, hitting .364/.417/.545 and .367/.424/.633, respectively. Marte’s only got one walk and nine strikeouts, though (I guess he’s getting hit by pitches?), which isn’t great. Brock Holt is also getting on base a ton (.405 OBP with his .290 BA), though he’s not showing much power yet. Tony Sanchez is off to a slow start with just five hits in his first 24 ABs, though one was a homer.
On the pitching side of things, waiver-wire acquisition Aaron Thompson is dominating through two starts (he should be, he’s 24 and been pitching in Double-A since 2008). Bryan Morris followed up his rough first outing with a strong one; six shutout innings, four-hits, three-strikeouts, and one walk. Jeff Locke has been excellent through two starts despite his 0-2 record with ten strikeouts, two walks, eleven hits, and four runs (two earned) allowed in 9 1/3 innings. Tim Alderson’s first two relief appearances seem to have gone welll with four strikeouts and a walk in 3 1/3 innings. Full team stats here.
Bradenton Marauders: Aaron Baker (11th round, 2009) missed the first couple games, but is flat out raking since. In his six games, he’s hitting .476/.579/.647 with two doubles and two homers among his ten hits. He flashed some promising power in West Virginia last year (18 homers), though his 115/52 K/BB ratio was not good. Still, if he keeps up his hot start he may be worth keeping an eye on, though at 23 it’d be nice to see him get some time in Altoona if he keeps crushing the ball in the FSL. Speaking of strikeouts and walks, Robbie Grossman is drawing a lot of walks (9) and still striking out a lot (10). Right now, he’s got a ridiculous .462/.310 OBP/SLG split.
On the pitching side, Kyle McPherson continues to be very good (8 Ks and no walks in 9 2/3 over two starts), though Quinton Miller and Nathan Baker are off to slow starts. Full team stats are here.
West Virginia: I mentioned Zack Von Rosenberg’s dominating start the other day (5 innings, 9 strikeouts), but he’s not the only pitching prospect on this club to start 2011 strong. Zachary Fuesser hasn’t allowed a run over two outings (one start, six innings total) and has six strikeotus and two walks. Colton Cain struck out five and didn’t allow a run over a 4 2/3 inning start. Zack Dodson also threw five shutout innings in his only start and though he only struck out one, he also only walked one, which is a nice step forward for him. Trent Stevenson’s gotten hit hard in couple relief outings. As I mentioned last week, I don’t know how they’re handling the starting duties here, but since six guys have made starts already I’ll stick with the guess that they’ll be piggy-backing guys. I’m curious to see how everyone gets innings when Taillon and Allie arrive, because there’s already a lot of pitching talent on this team.
The hitting isn’t as encouraging here. Drew Maggi and Mel Rojas are off to very slow starts. Matt Curry and Justin Howard, first basemen drafted last year, are off to good starts, but they’re also college guys playing in the very low minors (I mean, so is Maggi). Also, Gift Ngoepe has a home run and a slugging percentage way higher than his OBP, which I’m sure won’t last long. Full team stats are here.
Wrap: First off, someone asked in the comments last week if Luis Heredia would be joining the huge rafts of pitching in West Virginia this year. He won’t; the club has said he’ll stay with Bradenton the Gulf Coast League (rookie league) once they open up at mid-season. It’s still a very aggressive placement for a 16-year old. Beyond that, remember that most of these guys have only played six or seven games. We can’t really do much but monitor right now. Even things that seem promising or troubling might just be noise at this early stage of the season.
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