Age in parentheses is the players' 2010-age and the level is my projected starting assignment for that player.
21. Nelson Pereira (21) LHP, A -- I had some high hopes coming in to the season for this undersized lefty. As a 20-year old, I envisioned him starting in Low A after a very dominant 2008 GCL season. However, he was placed in short season State College and got rocked early on. Pereira did rebound strongly and managed to still strike out over a batter an inning. Reports on his fastball improved, with the gun now getting him consistently in the high 80's. He is in danger of getting passed by some of the 2009 HS talent (Dodson, Stevenson) and some of the college guys drafted in 2009 (A. Baker, Inman) if his 2010 doesn't pick up.
22. Brock Holt (22) 2B, A/A+ -- Everytime I look at Holt's stats from State College this year, where he played after getting drafted in 2009, and I see Chase D'arnaud. D'arnaud was criminally underrated by most Pirates fans after his 2008 debut and Holt is no exception. I think his ceiling is lower than D'arnaud, but he could break out big just like Chase did this year.
23. Brian Friday (24) SS, AA/AAA -- Friday got off to a red hot start this year, but unfortunately his bugaboo kicked in...his injury prone nature. Friday had an inner ear problem for some time and battled minor injuries throughout the year, but he still finished with a 747 OPS, which for a SS is not bad. The upper minors are getting jammed with players playing either SS or 2B (Cruz, Friday, Bixler, Ford, Negrych) that are not going to be impact players. Plus with Mercer and D'arnaud rising fast, it will be difficult to slot everyone. But I feel that Friday will not be the odd man out, even if he has to shift to 2B.
24. Zackary Dodson (19) LHP, R/SS -- Dodson is another 2009 HS pitcher drafted by the Pirates. The only pitcher not on the 30 is Trent Stevenson, who had a very respectable debut, but I feel could be a project because of his beanpole-like height-weight. Dodson is a very projectable lefty and is getting this spot on pure projection.
25. Nathan Adcock (22) RHP, A+/AA -- Adcock came over with Lorin and Pribanic in the Snell/Wilson trade with SEA. Interestingly, Adcock was the one that went to A+ post-trade and not Lorin or Pribanic, which is why he is here and Lorin is at 29 and Pribanic is not ranked. Adcock also has one year of age (for the positive) on both of them, as well. His stuff is pretty standard, so 2010 may see a rearrangement in their ranking, but for now this is how it is.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment