Murphy 8/11 — Chris Rembert put together his first multi-hit game on Tuesday, including a lead-off double. Both hits went to the opposite field. It’s a quick bat, and he shows great patience at the plate, waiting to drive the ball the other way. It will be interesting to see how quickly he adjusts to the level.
Murphy 8/11 — You can say that a hitter has power ‘to all fields,’ but Axiel Plaz went out there and showed it Tuesday. Hit a pair of home runs and literally went foul pole to foul pole. He took a breaking ball away the other way for his first home run of the night, then ripped a fastball to left in the eighth inning.
It’s such easy power. His first home run was such a smooth swing that just left the park easily. He’s three home runs shy (as of Tuesday) of tying his career high, but more importantly, he’s still hovering around .300.
Murphy 8/11 — With injuries as well as Johan De Los Santos being sent back to the FCL, Antonio Pimentel has been called upon to handle the majority of the work at shortstop. They called up Kendrick Herrera to be the backup, but you would have to figure that he gets a game, maybe two, per week. Pimentel made quite a few strong plays on Tuesday, showing some good feet, smooth actions, and a strong arm that perhaps you didn’t realize were there.
It’s been a fairly close split between the infield positions this year, but shortstop has been his least-played position, and it seems like he’s going to get a decent run here.
Murphy 8/13 — Levi Sterling struck out a career-high 11 batters against Lakeland. We’ve seen him take gradual steps this year, leading into this start. The biggest thing that stood out about this game was the fact that he led with the slider as his primary pitch. He threw the slider over 40%, getting a whiff rate right at 50%. He also mixed in the four-seamer much more than usual. The sinker was a new addition this season, and it was the fastball he was throwing the most for the majority of the season. Seeing these kinds of minor adjustments pay off is exactly what you want to see out of a young prospect.
WTM 8/14 — The Pirates have gotten some attention, in a minor way, for having some guys who were previously singles hitters suddenly start producing power. Most notably, there’s Wyatt Sanford, the now-departed Sammy Stafura, and Mitch Jebb. Of course, we don’t know where it’s all going to lead just yet, because we have to account for Greensboro and for Jebb’s very small sample size. Whatever the explanation, though, it doesn’t seem to be some one-size-fits-all coaching.
A couple of power hitters have started hitting for average. Axiel Plaz has always drawn notice for high exit velocities, but through last year he hadn’t hit for average stateside. This year he’s been over .300. The power hasn’t changed; his ISO and home run rate are about the same as last year. His K rate hasn’t changed much, either, going from 19% to 17%.
Jared Jones made only a brief debut last year at Greensboro after being drafted and had a rough time, going 8-for-50 and striking out in over half his ABs, although he DID have four long balls. (Back in the days before Rob Manfred took over everybody’s player development, a few weeks in short-season ball might have made for a better transition.) That was in keeping with the scouting on him from his college days. This year, through August 13, he was hitting .312 and still had 16 home runs despite a chunk of missed time. The K rate remains high at 30%.
So these guys aren’t fitting into the usual patterns of contact-oriented singles hitter, all-or-nothing power hitter, or whatever. They seem to be addressing specific issues with some success, although getting a bigger sample will help, especially one that doesn’t involve Greensboro so heavily. (Bear in mind, the ballpark there inflates home runs but doesn’t inflate other offensive stats.) Could the Pirates be contemplating something like this with Derek Curiel?
Murphy 8/14 — Irwin Ramirez was electric in the first, striking out a pair of hitters in a 1-2-3 inning. He’s starting to lean into the four-seamer more, attacking at the top of the zone and throwing the change-up off that. For as good as things went in the first, he lost feel for the zone after that, walking six batters the rest of the way. It’s a very extreme profile right now, a lot like Reinold Navarro, but both are young enough to take that step with the control needed.
Murphy 8/14 — We had a good reminder of just how strong an arm Richard Ramirez has, all within a few innings of each other. He threw out one runner trying to steal third, and then had a back pick at second after a pitch to catch another Lakeland player leaning too far out. It’s not the first time Ramirez has created multiple outs with his arm, and he has perhaps the strongest arm in the system right now.
Murphy 8/15 — The Greensboro Grasshoppers, like more of the affiliates, are struggling to fill innings right now. With so many injuries to starters, Greensboro have had relievers start most games this week. Jacob Bimbi began the year as a reliever, but has slowly built up recently. On a night when you wanted the starter to get as deep as possible, not only did Bimbi complete five innings, he kept Winston-Salem off the board. It’s been a very quiet, solid year for Bimbi, who mixes his pitches well, hits his spots, and has enough funkiness to keep hitters off-balance.
Murphy 8/15 — Reinold Navarro was fantastic on Saturday, allowing one hit and striking out six over five innings pitched. The biggest stat, however, was the zero walks he allowed. Navarro has taken the system lead in strikeouts over Seth Hernandez. It does feel like he’s operating with just the fastball right now, as he’s struggling to land the secondary pitches. The fastball was the pitch he landed in the zone the most, and it also got nine of the 10 whiffs he generated on the night.
If you don’t take command into account, it’s an 80-grade fastball, so he’s going to have a lot of success in the lower levels. We’ll see how much the secondary stuff starts to land here down the stretch as he continues to raise his career high in innings pitched.
Murphy 8/15 — There weren’t many players in need of a multi-hit game like Murf Gray was entering Saturday’s game. He had five hits in total during August, one through the first part of this series against Akron.
Gray finished 4-for-5 with four runs scored and an RBI on Saturday. All were singles, but he put the bat on the ball and got the ball into play, reaching safely four times. He’s still expanding the zone a bit more than you would like, which could be playing a big part in his recent struggles, but he was able to dial it back enough on Saturday to have a big game.
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