Pittsburgh Pirates Prospect Profile: Pitcher Austin Roberts

In today’s Pittsburgh Pirates prospect profile we will take a look at their 2019 draft 8th round selection Austin Roberts, a right handed hurler from California

With baseball still on pause, as is everyone’s lives, I started digging into the Pittsburgh Pirates 2019 draft class. In that last draft class, before former general manager Neal Huntington got fired, he drafted 16 pitchers in the 40 round draft. As we all know, high school standout Quinn Priester headlined that draft class, but there were a few others that stood out as well. One of these was a pitcher from the state of California.

In the 8th round the Pittsburgh Pirates selected Sacramento State pitcher Austin Roberts. Roberts isn’t your prototypical Huntington choice as far as frame only standing 6’0” and nearing 220 pounds, but he carved himself a nice college career for the Sacramento State Hornets. Roberts worst year came during his freshman year, where he pitched in 63.2 innings giving up 61 hits, posting 4.95 ERA, and a WHIP of 1.59.

In his sophomore year, Roberts saw a dramatic change for the good in multiple categories. The one difference for him was becoming a bullpen arm, which suits him more than being a starter, in my opinion. In the 54 innings pitched, he posted a 1.83 ERA, 0.93 WHIP, he issued just13 walks, and his strikeout rate rose to 9.2 K/9.

In his junior year, he saw a slight spike in his ERA at 3.18 and a WHIP of 1.28, which is still manageable. Hornet fans did see career highs for Roberts in innings pitched with 73.2 and 84 strikeouts. A promising sign from Roberts was his low walk rate. He issued 30 walks, and, as a result, posted a low BB/9 with 3.7. Roberts wasn’t by any stretch of the imagination a top prospect or even a second or third round talent, but one thing is for sure he showed promising signs.

In his professional debut season, Roberts went straight to the NYPL with the West Virginia Black Bears, where he was used again as a reliever and a starter. He came from the bullpen a total of ten times, nine of which came at the beginning of the year. During his ten appearances, he pitched 16.2 innings with opponents slashing .172/.250/.310, striking out 20, and only walking six.

As a starter, Roberts struggled his first two starts, only making it to the 4th inning once and only lasting 3.1 innings his first start. He did settle down, however, in his last three pitching at least 5 innings, and, in his last start he went 6 innings and gave up only one run. During his time as a starter opposing hitters slashed .241/.280/.368, only giving up 10 runs, striking out 19, and only walking eight.

For the entire year, Roberts had excellent advanced metrics with a 48.1% ground ball rate coupled with only an 18.9% line drive rate opponents had a hard time squaring up that plus slider and mid-’90s sinking fastball. His xFIP was extremely low at a 2.98, all in 40 innings pitched.

It is unclear what the front office wants to do with Roberts with a new sheriff named Ben Cherrington in town. One thing was clear, if Neal Huntington was still around, I’m sure he would push to have him as a starter rather than a reliever, which would be the wrong move, in my humble opinion. Roberts is clearly a better reliever, and I’m curious what Cherrington and staff plan to do with him moving forward.