Pirates Love The Sinking Feeling Of Aaron Pribanic

Aaron Pribanic was

acquired in the Jack Wilson/Ian Snell deal.  He was a third-round draft pick in the 2008 draft.  Pribanic was a stud for Bradenton down the stretch when he allowed two earned runs or fewer in nine of his last 10 starts.

He got the first ever playoff win for the Marauders by pitching even better than that.  Facing the Tampa Bay Rays affilitate in the playoffs, Pribanic struck out four, walked one intentionally, and allowed no runs.

Pribanic is well known for his sinker. In the recent Baseball America, Dejan Kovacevic wrote about the optimisim the Pirates management feels in the ability the 24-year old Pribanic possesses.

In DK’s article,

"“You’re looking at it like it’s a fastball, and then boom, it’s under you,” said Andrew Lambo in Kovacevics’ story when talking about Pribanics sinker."

The right hander was solid for Bradenton, with a 3.33 ERA over 154 innings. The numbers looked nice, but the best number might be the 1.9 to 1 GO to AO ratio.   He kept the groundball ratio up when pitching in the Arizona Fall League this year when in 11 appearances he posted a 1.7 groundout rate.

"From DK in that BA article:Pribanic’s sinker has been good enough–only Mike Crota in AAA is seen internally as having that pitch more refined—that the Pirates have bucked the usual policy of prohibiting pitchers in the low minors from using it until they fully establish four-seam command."

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