2009 Pittsburgh Pirates Season Thread

[BehindSteelCurtain]

Originally Posted by KeiselPower99

Thought Id share with yall the Top 10 prospects in the Pirates system.

1. Pedro Alvarez, 3b
Heating up in Double-A, showing why he got a $6 million bonus.
2. Brad Lincoln, rhp
Has put Tommy John surgery behind him, jumped to Triple-A.
3. Tony Sanchez, c
Hitting .341 in pro debut, but Pirates could have done better with No. 4 overall pick.
4. Tim Alderson, rhp
Scouts question his stuff and delivery, don't love him as much as fans do.
5. Jose Tabata, of
Remains an enigma, and questions about his physique and true age linger.
6. Gorkys Hernandez, of
Won't play center with McCutchen in Pittsburgh, and his bat doesn't profile on a corner.
7. Rudy Owens, lhp
28th-round draft-and-follow used solid stuff, savvy to fashion 32-inning scoreless streak.
8. Zack Von Rosenberg, rhp
Unsigned sixth-round pick had borderline first-round talent.
9. Robbie Grossman, of
2008 sixth-rounder who signed for $1 million is having just a so-so first full season.
10. Starling Marte, of
Previously unknown Dominican has hit .345 with 16 steals in first month in low Class A.

Owens was promoted to Lynchburg and had a good game last night.

I hate when people say Pirates could have done better with the 4th overall pick. Other than Strasburg, Ackely, Tate there really wasnt any "Elite" can't miss guys. They signed a guy who they thought could sign fast and start playing ball right away.

[pittsburghp8baller]

Originally Posted by BehindSteelCurtain

I hate when people say Pirates could have done better with the 4th overall pick. Other than Strasburg, Ackely, Tate there really wasnt any "Elite" can't miss guys. They signed a guy who they thought could sign fast and start playing ball right away.

completely agree. In fact im willing to bet if you could trade your picks we probably would of traded out of that spot and waited a couple picks to take Sanchez. The Pirates got themselves a solid baseball player who looks like he will be able to help out our big league team.

If there were any other player i wouldnt of minded us taking would of been Drew Storen out of Stanford. Kicking major ass in the minors right now, probably will be the first player from this draft class to play in the majors, maybe this year.

But im happy as hell with T Sanchez, the way he is looking, he could be one of those rare two way Catchers.

BTW, i wish Charlie Morton could pitch like this, what i did in a game of MLB The Show

http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/k...4/43630171.jpg

[Pittsburghfan]

Originally Posted by KeiselPower99

8. Zack Von Rosenberg, rhp
Unsigned sixth-round pick had borderline first-round talent.
9. Robbie Grossman, of
2008 sixth-rounder who signed for $1 million is having just a so-so first full season.
10. Starling Marte, of
Previously unknown Dominican has hit .345 with 16 steals in first month in low Class A.

Can anyone provide me with a little bit more info on these 3?

Hopefully Duke can keep up his good pitching tonight at home against the D-Backs at 7:05 I believe.

[pittsburghp8baller]

Originally Posted by Pittsburghfan

Can anyone provide me with a little bit more info on these 3?

Hopefully Duke can keep up his good pitching tonight at home against the D-Backs at 7:05 I believe.

Starling Marte
http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/m...pbp&pid=516782

Robbie Grossman
http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/m...pbp&pid=543257

Player pages and a quick year by year bio at the bottom

[X-Terminator]

Originally Posted by T.Richardson

How would he not be in the rotation in the future? He is the Bucs 3rd best pitcher so far thus far, and has had a better season than Maholm. Alderson is only 20 years old, it'll be at least 2 years before he is called up, and at this point Lincoln has slowly progressed in AAA, I don't think Lincoln will beat out Ohlendorf, and Alderson isn't a lock for the rotations.

Ohlendorf has a better WHIP, and OBA.

Ohlendorf's OBA: .333
Maholm's OBA: .344

Ohlendorfs WHIP: 1.31
Maholms: WHIP: 1.43

Heck, Ohlendorf has done a better job than Maholm in his pitch count.

Ohlendorfs P/IP: 15.31
Maholm's P/IP: 15.78

Im willing to bet Ohlendorfs UZR is better than Maholms this year. So how does Ohlendorf not get into the rotation next year, or in the future, when he has out pitched Maholm, the Bucs "ace"?? I know this is just one year, but I believe Ohlendorf will be in the rotation in the future based on the fact that he is stil young, and can vastly improve his pitching with the help of Kerrigan.

I said Ohlendorf will be in the rotation for sure next year. Maholm has had a down year, but say he gets back to his 2008 form next year. What are they going to do then? Even if Alderson isn't ready by 2011 (which BTW is 2 years from now), I still don't see Ohlendorf in the rotation of the future, especially if Lincoln dominates AAA next season and gets promoted to the big leagues. They could possibly deal Maholm or Duke, but given all of the trades they made this year and over the past year, that would go down about as well as drinking castor oil. And besides, it would help having a couple decent veterans in the rotation to take some pressure off of the kids.

I guess we'll see what happens, but I say Ohlendorf is not in the rotation by the end of 2011.

Originally Posted by KeiselPower99

Thought Id share with yall the Top 10 prospects in the Pirates system.

1. Pedro Alvarez, 3b
Heating up in Double-A, showing why he got a $6 million bonus.
2. Brad Lincoln, rhp
Has put Tommy John surgery behind him, jumped to Triple-A.
3. Tony Sanchez, c
Hitting .341 in pro debut, but Pirates could have done better with No. 4 overall pick.
4. Tim Alderson, rhp
Scouts question his stuff and delivery, don't love him as much as fans do.
5. Jose Tabata, of
Remains an enigma, and questions about his physique and true age linger.
6. Gorkys Hernandez, of
Won't play center with McCutchen in Pittsburgh, and his bat doesn't profile on a corner.
7. Rudy Owens, lhp
28th-round draft-and-follow used solid stuff, savvy to fashion 32-inning scoreless streak.
8. Zack Von Rosenberg, rhp
Unsigned sixth-round pick had borderline first-round talent.
9. Robbie Grossman, of
2008 sixth-rounder who signed for $1 million is having just a so-so first full season.
10. Starling Marte, of
Previously unknown Dominican has hit .345 with 16 steals in first month in low Class A.

Owens was promoted to Lynchburg and had a good game last night.

If Alvarez continues his hot hitting for the rest of the season, he's punched his ticket to Indy next year, and I predict he'll be in the majors by next June.

Brad Lincoln had best get his shit together if he wants to be in the majors next year. He has been a huge disappointment since his promotion to Indy.

I, too, am getting sick of the talking heads saying the Pirates could have done better with the 4th pick. Like what? All of the can't-miss prospects were gone. I think the kid is showing everyone that he was worthy of the pick. We'll see what he does when he gets to Lynchburg, but since he wasn't in the rookie league for very long before heading to WV, I think he'll be just fine and will make Altoona by season's end.

As for Alderson, a lot of those same scouts said similar things about Tim Lincecum, mainly about his delivery. And all he did was win the Cy Young award last year. If Giants fans were pissed that they traded him, then he must be good.

Jose Tabata needs to start showing more power if he is going to play corner outfield. The average is there, though.

I don't know what's going to happen with Gorkys Hernandez with McCutchen blocking him in center and Milledge blocking him in left. Plus, he has been struggling at the plate ever since shortly after the trade.

Owens continues to get very little fanfare - this kid could come out of nowhere and help the Bucs over some of the more highly-touted prospects.

I've liked what I've seen out of Starling Marte so far.

[Pittsburghfan]

Originally Posted by Pittsburghfan

Hopefully Duke can keep up his good pitching tonight at home against the D-Backs at 7:05 I believe.

Uh-oh maybe I jinxed Duke. He has not looked good at all tonight.

[X-Terminator]

Originally Posted by Pittsburghfan

Uh-oh maybe I jinxed Duke. He has not looked good at all tonight.

It was just a matter of time before he had a sucky game. He's had so many good to great games that have ended up with nothing but another L, that I'll give him a pass for stinking up the joint for one night.

[SteelCityMan786]

Misfields a ball then eventually hits game winning homer.

GOTTA LOVE CUTCH!

[X-Terminator]

As my sig says...

Cutch happens. Again.

This kid is a bona fide stud. And when Pedro Alvarez makes it to the majors, that will be 2 star-caliber talents the likes of which the Bucs haven't had since Bonds and Van Slyke.

[SteelCityMan786]

Originally Posted by X-Terminator

As my sig says...

Cutch happens. Again.

This kid is a bona fide stud. And when Pedro Alvarez makes it to the majors, that will be 2 star-caliber talents the likes of which the Bucs haven't had since Bonds and Van Slyke.

There are a couple more coming up in the system for the Pirates.

It appears that there maybe a light at the end of the tunnel. Finally.