The Pirates had high hopes heading into 2014 that they could potentially have two guys competing for the Rookie of the Year in Gregory Polanco and Jameson Taillon.
In early spring training, Jameson Taillon underwent Tommy John surgery thus putting him out for the entire season.
Polanco tore up AAA pitching hitting .347 with a ridiculous .540 slugging percentage and 49 RBI over 60 games. The Pirates waited until June 10th to call Polanco to the majors and hit the ground running with an 11 game hit streak before he went into a 20 game slump.
Last week, three Pirates players were awarded player of the week awards in the Minor Leagues. They included Tyler Glasonw (FSL Pitcher of the Week) for his dominating performance where he struck out 11 batters in 6 innings while allowing only 2 hits and no runs. Austin Meadows and Buddy Borden represented the West Virginia Power as SAL Player of the Week and SAL Pitcher of the Week respectively. Meadows batted .500 for the week with 6 extra base hits and 7 RBI in 25 plate appearances. Borden went 2-0 with only 1 earned run allowed in 13 innings while striking out 14 and allowing only 6 baserunners in 2 outings (4 hits and 2 walks).
It's hard to talk about small sample sizes in the minor leagues, but the Pirates have done a fantastic job getting quality out of their recent draft picks. For two decades, it was grim times but thanks to Neal Huntington and the scouts and the minor league development it is a much brighter future in the steel city.
Cool autographed jersey letters. Bay was one of those guys who sort of fell off the face of this planet after the Pirates traded him. Well... at least to me. I just looked at Baseball Reference and noticed he played all the way into last season. If I had guessed, I would have said he retired in 2010.
ReplyDeleteYeah, his first year with the Mets in 2010 was pretty much the downfall of his career. He put up solid numbers with the RedSox in 2009.
DeleteIf Glasnow controls the walks he is going to be a force. I'm really excited to see how he continues to progress.
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