Pittsburgh Pirates: Winter League Updates Edition 2

News: Here is Rum Bunter’s second update on how the Pittsburgh Pirates players are doing in their Winter Leagues.  More players have started playing in their respected Winter Leagues since the first update.

The Pittsburgh Pirates have plenty of players from their organization playing in Winter Latin American Leagues. The majority of them are playing in the Dominican League, which is considered to be the most competitive.   The notable players in the Dominican Winter League are led by Jung Ho Kang, Edwin Espinal, Montana DuRapau, Pablo Reyes, Edgar Santana, and Anderson Feliz.  In other Latin American Leagues are Elvis Escobar and Carlos Munoz.

Dominican Winter League

Jung Ho Kang got off to a slow start through his first few games, batting .142 at the time of our first update.  He has not rebounded much since.  He is batting just .143 through his first 10 games and 35 at-bats.  He has 13 strikeouts while he only walking one time.  He did belt his first home run this week.  Kang is still working on getting his timing back obviously, so there should not be much panic on his poor performance so far.

Meanwhile, Edwin Espinal is having a really impressive start to his Winter League campaign.  So far he has played in seven games and has 21 at-bats.  He is batting .524 and has three runs batted in so far.  He also has walked more (four) than he has struck out (three). He also hit his first home run last night.  Pablo Reyes is off to a somewhat unspectacular start.  He has played in eight games and is only batting .227 in 22 at-bats.  The utility player has one run batted in with six strikeouts.  Pittsburgh Pirates middle infield prospect Anderson Feliz was not on the first update. The middle infielder reached Triple-A this season and he is known for his plus speed.  So far, the minor league infielder has a .333 average in five games.

Montana DuRapau has had an abysmal start to his winter season. He has a 13.50 earned run average in his two innings of work so far.  He has given up three earned runs, but five total runs.   Edgar Santana has also pitched just one inning so far and allowed three earned runs.  Obviously, neither has a large sample size to judge them on yet.

Other Leagues

In Venezuela, Escobar has played in 16 games.  So far, he is batting .317 with a .380 on-base percentage.  He has 20 total base hits, with four of them being doubles.  He has struck out 11 times, but has walked seven times.  First base prospect Carlos Munoz is also tearing up the league in Mexico thus far.  He has a batting average of .414 with 10 runs batted in.  He also has walked six times while only striking out four times in 15 games.

Next: A Look at Where Neverauskas needs to improve

So far, there are mixed results stemming from the Winter League.  There seem to be more players struggling than doing well, but it is also very early.  These updates will be every Sunday.  Meanwhile, Arizona Fall League updates will be posted every Monday.  So, be sure to check back tomorrow for how the Pittsburgh Pirates prospects are doing out west.