Pittsburgh Pirates: Top Five Prospects LHP

Over the next few weeks the site will be sharing the top 5 prospects at each position in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization.

The minor league season is now one month in and, for the most part, one can start to see who is really producing.  Thee Pittsburgh Pirates have one of the best farm systems in the major leagues.  No matter how many prospects they graduate to the major leagues they seem to be able to replenish them with another young prospect.  With that the players at the top of these lists maybe recognizable, but the ones towards the bottom maybe newer names that are gaining prospect recognition.

The first list will be on the top-5 left-handed pitchers.  The reason is because the Pirates have made two recent roster moves with left-handed pitchers.  With that it only seemed natural to start this series with the left-handed prospects.

If you would look back to just a few years ago the Pirates system was very thin with left-handed pitching.  This was due to the Pirates draft strategy of taking tall, projectable, right-handed pitchers. However, that draft strategy seemed to change somewhat in 2013.

The Pirates selected two left-handed pitchers within their top four picks in that draft.  Blake Taylor was a lefty who was their second round pick that year and at the time rated their best left-handed prospect.  The Pirates moved him the next year for Ike Davis.  With that being said, they have been starting to stockpile lefties after that deal.

As of 2016 the Pittsburgh Pirates have built up some left-handed prospects.  The system itself is not fairly deep still, but it is better than it was.  As mentioned above, they really have acquired a lot of talent at this spot in just a few years. In this article I will give a short bio on each player, their season stats, and their career stats.  So who is the top left-handed prospects in the system right now?

Next: An Unknown Dominican

#5: Hector Garcia

Hector Garcia signed with the Pirates in 2013 out of the Dominican Republic. The Pirates organization gave him a 190,000 dollar signing bonus suggesting that they did believe he could be crafted into a potential prospect.  The 20 year-old stands at 6’0″ and weighs about 170 pounds, so he is not completely filled out yet.

Garcia projects as your prototypical left-handed pitcher.  His fastball currently sits in the from 89-92 miles per hour.  As mentioned above he does not possess a big, work-horse frame, being that he is just six-foot.  He has a three pitch mix his four seam fastball, a classic curve-ball, and a change-up.  He is still very young and still needs to work on all his pitches.  His curve-ball is a slow, looping pitch that he needs to learn to throw harder and sharper.  Meanwhile his change-up  is average.  It has good fade at the end and is deceptive, but he needs to work with it more and continue to grow more comfortable with it.

In 2013 Garcia pitched out of the bullpen in the Dominican Summer League.  Starting in 2014 the Pirates skipped the Gulf Coast League and sent Garcia to Short-Season A ball to start. He was very successful there throwing 48 innings and posting a 3.38 ERA.  He held batters to a .222 batting average and struck out 50 batters while only walking 19.

In 2015 Garcia had an opportunity to really put his name on the Pirate’s prospect radar.  He came out pitching very well, but toward the end of the season started to get hit around.  His final stat line for the year was a 1-2 record with a 6.91 ERA in just 14.1 innings pitched.

This was because he was sent to the disabled-list, and later found out that he would be needing tommy-john surgery.  When reading this one can realize why he struggled in his limited time in 2015.  Most of the time when pitchers need to get TJ they tend to struggle in their starts before hand (i.e. Nick Kingham last year).

With all that being said, Garcia will not pitch this year.  He received Tommy-John surgery in late 2015 and will be working back over this season.  Although he is missing a full season, Garcia is still very young.  He still has plenty of time to get back on track and keep developing.  Expect to see Garcia start the 2017 season in Low-A West Virginia next year.

Next: Justin Wilson, Tony Watson, and maybe this lefty?

#4: Cody Dickson

Cody Dickson was a fourth round pick in the 2013 draft.  He was selected out of Sam Houston State. During the draft he was rated at the 157th best prospect in the draft.  He entered the Pirates’ system as the 2nd best left-handed prospect right behind Blake Taylor.  Once Taylor was dealt he became the Pirate’s top left-handed prospect.

Dickson is not your generic left-handed pitcher.  He possesses great size at 6’3” and 180 pounds.  The now 24 year-old is being used as a starter at AA Altoona.  In fact, he has been used as a starter in his whole career with the Pirates’ organization.

The Sam-Houston State product has been fairly inconsistent in his minor league career thus far.  This was a big knock on him coming out of the draft in 2013.  Dickson throws relatively hard for a lefty, his fastball sits 92-94 and has touched 95 at times.  His curve-ball and change-up are considered to be above average pitches.  This issue with Dickson is his command.  He will lose the strike zone at times and throws a lot of pitches every start.

On the year Dickson is not off to a good start.  In his four starts thus far he has a 0-2 record with a 6.23 ERA.  Batters are posting a .300 average off him while his WHIP is at a high 1.96.  He also has walked more batters than he has struck out with a ratio of 13/10.  Lastly, he has given up three home runs in four starts.  All around, not a good year for him.

On his minor league career, Dickson owns a 3.86 ERA and a 1.47 WHIP.  All of these numbers project that Dickson may not be a very good starting pitching prospect to rely on down the road.  However, his numbers and profile fits a similar left-handed pitcher that the Pirates had in their organization a few years ago.  Justin Wilson was very similar to Dickson. Both possessed good size and good stuff, but had trouble harnessing their pitches.  The Pirates gave Wilson plenty of opportunities to start, but were able to translate him into an effective reliever.

If the Pirates decide to go this route with Dickson he very well could find himself a new opportunity.  This is why he is on this list.  Dickson’s fastball out of the pen will sit around 95 miles per hour and he will be more likely to trust his stuff and go right at hitters.  The Pirates took this approach and philosophy with Justin Wilson and Tony Watson and both have become very good lefty reliever in the league.  Dickson has the stuff to be a good pitcher in the MLB, if he can transition to the bullpen he could be a dangerous left-handed option.

Next: From College Champion to Pirate Prospect

#3: Brandon Waddell

Brandon Waddell’s name has been the most talked pitching prospect on this site.  This is because he put up ridiculous numbers in April this year and got promoted to AA already.  Rather than reiterate a lot of what has been already said, I will just share info that has already been written on this site:

” On the year Waddell at High-A Bradenton he possessed a 0.93 ERA.  His strikeout to walk ratio was very impressive sitting at 26 strikeouts to two walks.  The Pirates tend to move players quickly through High-A, so with that the Pirates decided he did as much has he could at the High-A level.  Being Waddell pitched at a high-end college in Virginia and threw in a lot of post-season games, the Pirates definitely feel that he is ready for the next test at AA.”

“A quick scouting report on Waddell. His fastball is average, it sits around 90-92mph, but he possesses a deceptive arm angle with a plus slider as well.  If he can add another tick to his fastball and learn to keep his slider hard and sharp down in the zone he could continue to develop into a top 25 prospect in the organization.”

“One pitch that needs a lot of work is his change-up.  It shows signs of being a plus pitch at times, but he has never thrown it consistently enough to become comfortable with the pitch. This is a pitch the Pirates try to develop in all their pitchers in the Minor Leagues.”

“Obviously Waddell is proving that he can be an effective starter.  So far this year he has done a great job of keeping hitters off-balance with his deceptive delivery and keeping the ball down in the zone.  He has also shown more consistency in throwing his plus slider and has shown improvement in his change-up.  It will be interesting to see if he can continue that against more advanced hitters.”

The quotes above are from an article on Sunday about his promotion to AA.  When the year started many questioned if Waddell would be better suited for a bullpen role.  Unlike Cody Dickson, Waddell has strong command of his pitches, which are all at least average.  It will be interesting to see how he does at AA.  If he can continue to show strong command and the ability to use all three of his pitches effectively, he projects to be middle of the rotation for the Pirates.

Next: The most electric left-handed Pirate Prospect

#1: Steven Brault

Steven Brault is a left-handed prospect who was acquired from the Baltimore Orioles in the Snider trade.  Brault is 6’1″and 165 lbs and was an 11th round draft pick in 2013.  On the site he is ranked as the #10 prospect.  Brault has gone from an 11th round pick to developing into a pitcher who is closer to cracking the big leagues.

Brault has posted a 2.53 ERA with a 1.06 WHIP in his 3 minors league season. With that he has shown strong command striking out 3.5 batters per 1 one walk.  Brault has never gotten much press because he lacks intangibles like size and arm strength.  Brault is a generous 6’1″ and throws around 90-91.  However, one can look past the intangibles when a player knows how to use and command his pitches.  Brault knows how to do this and because of this has become one the Pirates’ best pitching prospects.

So far this year in AAA Brault has been very good.  Brault did struggle some at first as he did not make it a full five innings in either, but since then he has been very dominate.  On the year he has made 5 starts and owns a 3.04 ERA with a 1-2 record.  So far he has struck out 30 batters while walking nine. He boosted those numbers on April 27th when he struck out 11 batters and walked only one in six innings.

Brault will never be a top-of-the-rotation arm.  But there is something to be said for consistency.  As mentioned above, Brault has very good mechanics and the ability to command his pitches.  Being that he is not an over powering pitcher he will not have the ability to blow people away.  With that Brault’s ceiling is a solid #3 type starter.  If he continues to show good command and mechanics the Pirates will be very happy to plug him in the middle of the rotation for many years.

Next: How will this affect the future?

This list has a lot of intriguing left-handed pitching prospects on it. Starting at five, Garcia is a latin product who the Pirates are hoping can recover from tommy-john and continue to develop in a positive direction.  Dickson has a great arm and strong stuff, if he can learn to use it he could be an electric bullpen arm.

Number 3 was Brandon Waddell.  The Pirates loved the experience this played gained at the college level and felt he was worth a fifth round pick.  So far they looked like they made a great pick.  Waddell is already in double-A and looks to continue to polish his pitching against more advanced players.

Next: An Interview with Austin Meadows

Stephen Tarpley may have the highest ceiling out of all the players on the list.  He has a power arm and has plus secondary pitches.  The biggest thing is for Tarpley to stay healthy.  He has missed time the past two season due to injury.  If he is not on the field he is not continuing to refine his pitches and mechanics.  He needs experience to continue to grow into his potential.

Steven Brault seems to be the most sure-fire prospect on the list who also is the closest to the big league club.  Being Brault has refined mechanics and has good command of his pitches it makes him the most likely one to succeed.  In many ways he has the highest floor.  He most likely will never be more than a middle of the rotation arm, but also I do not think it is likely that he does not become that.

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The Pirates system is not by any means stocked with left-handed pitching prospects.  However, they do have more upside left-handed prospects then they did just a few years back.  PNC Park is built for left-handed pitching so if these guys can reach the big leagues they will have a good shot at having some success here.  Next Tuesday I will continue the series looking at the top-5 right-handed pitching prospects.