Pittsburgh Pirates Pitchers Continue to Dominate in AFL

The Pittsburgh Pirates have six prospects participating this year in the Arizona Fall League. Their pitchers have really been a bright spot for the Peoria Javelinas.

The fall league expectation for the Pittsburgh Pirates prospects was that the hitters would outperform the pitchers.  The top two prospects that the Pittsburgh Pirates sent to Arizona were Oneil Cruz and Jared Oliva.  Instead, the pitching prospects have been the ones to really break out in this years’ Fall League.

Cody Ponce, who the Pittsburgh Pirates acquired from the Milwaukee Brewers at last year’s trade deadline, is the only starting pitcher the club has in the league.  So far he has made five starts, throwing 23 innings and posting a 2.35 earned run average.  Also, he has struck out 27 hitters and has only walked three, giving him an impressive strikeout to walk ratio.

The two other pitchers representing the Pittsburgh Pirates are relievers Blake Cederlind and Nick Mears.  Both have been two of the most dominant relievers in the Arizona Fall League.  Cederlind has thrown eight innings across eight games and struck out nine while walking seven.  Obviously the walks are a little high, but still, he has only given up one run on one home run for a 1.13 ERA.  Meanwhile, Mears has been even better.  He has thrown in eight games as well for 8.2 innings and has yet to allow a single run.  Furthermore, he has really shown the ability to miss bats, striking out11 while only walking five.

On the hitting side, things have not gone well.  Jared Oliva was one of the best hitters in the Arizona Fall League this season, where he has been hitting near .400.  However, over his last 10 games, he is only batting .189, dropping his overall average to .312.  One thing that he was doing well at the beginning of the league was keeping his strikeouts down while reaching base by getting base hits and walking.  In these last 10 games, he has struck out nine times while only walking four times and collecting seven hits.  Maybe he is starting to run out of gas.

Oneil Cruz has struggled since game one and continues to do so, as he has hit just .190 with 21 strikeouts in 14 games.  Cruz has not played since October 16 and looks like he is probably done for the fall season, and the same can be said for a catcher Jason Delay, who still batting under .100 and not getting much playing time.

The good news is the Pittsburgh Pirates need pitching help next year and all three of the pitchers are finding a lot of success in the fall league.  Cederlind and Mears can throw upwards of 100 mph and both could make impacts out of Pittsburgh Pirates bullpen next year.  Meanwhile, Ponce should have a chance to make the rotation out of spring training.