Pittsburgh Pirates: Arizona Fall League Final Recap

The Pittsburgh Pirates saw several of their minor league prospects compete in the Arizona Fall League.  The season is now over, so how did they fair?

Over the last month or so, we have done weekly updates looking at how each Pittsburgh Pirates prospect was performing in the Arizona Fall League.  Now, the Fall League has concluded play and these stats are locked in for the prospects playing in the league.  Mitch Keller, Taylor Hearn, and Kevin Kramer were the top prospects of note representing the Bucs.  Also in the league were other prospects such as Brandon Waddell, JT Brubaker, Mitchell Tolman, and Logan Hill. All of the prospects played on the Glendale Desert Dogs.

Glendale finished with a record of 16 and 14.  They did not make the championship game.  The Pittsburgh Pirates also had two prospects make it to the Arizona Fall League all-star game this season.  That was, of course, Mitch Keller and Kevin Kramer.  Keller ended up getting to start the game and threw two innings.  Kramer was brought in off the bench later in the game and played second base and had one at-bat.  The game itself was featured live on the MLB Network.  It was a good opportunity for many Pittsburgh Pirates fans to see the next potential ace.  So how did the pitchers fair in the Arizona Fall League?

As mentioned on the last slide, the Pittsburgh Pirates had four pitching prospects playing for Glendale.  The group was made up of top prospects Mitch Keller and Taylor Hearn, and two future bullpen candidates in Brandon Waddell and JT Brubaker.  All four pitchers performed very well and definitely look like they could potentially help the Pittsburgh Pirates as soon as next season.

Mitch Keller

Mitch Keller is obviously the pride and joy of the Pittsburgh Pirates pitching prospects. Also, he most likely will push to be a top ten prospect in all of baseball next season.  He put together a really good case to be in the Fall League. The former second-round pick had a record of 4-0 with a 1.52 ERA.  The righty made six starts and threw 23.2 innings.  He had 13 strikeouts and five walks.  The low strikeout number may have been a product of what he was working on.  According to Jonathan Mayo, Keller was working on his changeup more this fall.  He wanted to get more comfortable with it, and in doing so, the pitch induced more weak contact and groundouts compared to punching hitters out. Regardless, his numbers were still overly impressive and he looked nearly unhittable.

Taylor Hearn

Taylor Hearn is the biggest wild card in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization right now.  The hard-throwing lefty has a fastball that can hit triple digits.  The question is whether he will be a starter or reliever at the big league level. It seems that was the question in the Fall League too as he made eight appearances with four of them being starts.  He took home an ERA of 3.06 in his 17.2 innings of work.  He struck out 14 batters but also walked eight.  His walk rate is the biggest concern and why many think Hearn will end up in the bullpen.  Still, with his strikeout stuff, he could be an elite bullpen arm.

Waddell and Brubaker

The other two most likely will be full time in the Triple-A bullpen next year.  Both Waddell and Brubaker pitched mainly out of the bullpen this fall.  The only exception is Waddell did make one spot start.  Waddell, a lefty, appeared in nine total games. He fired off 14 innings and posted a really impressive ERA of 2.57. He struck out 15 batters and only walked four.   Meanwhile, Brubaker threw in eight games, all were in relief.  The big righty put up numbers almost as impressive as Waddell’s.  The former Akron Zip ended the season with a 2.63 ERA in 13.2 innings.  He struck out 16 while only walking two.

The hitting prospects in the fall league did not bring the name value that the pitchers did.  They also, in general, did not perform as well either.  The hitting prospect group was led by Kevin Kramer.  Also, on Glendale’s roster were Mitchell Tolman and Logan Hill.  Kramer and Tolman both played infield while Hill played in left field.

Kevin Kramer

Kramer was the best-known prospect in terms of hitters for the Pittsburgh Pirates.  He was a second-round pick in 2015 and had a really strong season at Double-A before breaking his hand.  He looked to make up some at-bats this fall.  After starting the league off strong and making the all-star game, Kramer really dropped off in the second half.  The UCLA product finished with a batting average at an even .200.  He got on base at a .296 clip and slugged .317. He played in 16 games and struck out 19 times. Now, in the fall league, you are facing some of the best prospects in baseball. This was his first time consistently facing live pitching since early July.  So maybe being out of the game for a few months caught up to him.

Tolman and Hill

Mitchell Tolman was also a 2015 draft pick.  He was selected in the seventh round out of the University of Oregon.  The former Duck struggled even more than Kramer did.  The infield prospect played in 17 games and had 61 at-bats.  His slash line was .197/.290/.328, with 18 strikeouts. Logan Hill had the strongest performance of the three prospects. Like the other two, he was also a 2015 draft pick out of Troy.  Unlike the other two, he was drafted a lot lower in round 25.  Although he performed better than the other two, his numbers were still underwhelming.  He posted a slash line of .239/.312/.444.  He did have two home runs and eight total extra-base hits in 18 games.