Pittsburgh Pirates Minors Spotlight: Pitcher Brad Case

A 17th round pick by the Pittbsurgh Pirates in the 2018 MLB Draft, pitcher Brad Case appears ready to make his Double-A debut during the 2021 season

Assuming there is a minor league season in 2021, pitcher Brad Case appears primed to make his Double-A debut. Case, who was a 17th round pick by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2018, recently joined the Rum Bunter Radio crew to discuss life and baseball.

While listening to the episode of Rum Bunter Radio that Case joined, and we highly reccommend you give it a listen if you haven’t yet, we did not go much into Case’s minor league results and success on the episode. Today, we will dive into that with Case being the subject of our latest Pittsburgh Pirates minor league spotlight.

Case made his professional debut in the summer of 2018 and pitched at three levels for the Pittsburgh Pirates that season. With the Bristol Pirates, Case posted a 3.72 ERA, 4.51 FIP, 9.3% walk rate, and a 11.6% strikeout rate in 9.2 innings in two starts.

Case then moved up to the Gulf Coast League Pirates. In the GCL, Case pitched in eight games with six of them being starts. In these eight games Case posted a 3.38 ERA and a 3.28 FIP in 40.0 innings of work. This included a stromg 0.68 HR/9, to go with a 2.5% walk rate and a 20.5% strikeout rate.

The final stop for Case in 2018 came with the short-season West Virginia Black Bears. Case made just one start for West Virginia. In this start he allowed two runs, one earned, on three hits, a walk, and two strikeouts in 5 innings of work.

During the 2019 season Case pitched at both the Low-A and High-A levels. With Low-A Greensboro, Case posted a 2.45 ERA, 3.56 FIP, microcopic 1.2% walk rate, 19.6% strikeout rate, and a 0.82 HR/9. These results came in 66 innings pitched across 11 starts.

After making the jump to High-A Bradenton, Case logged 71.1 innings of work in 13 innings pitched. In these 13 starts he posted a 4.29 ERA, 4.78 FIP and a 1.39 HR/9. While his walk rate rose it was still a strong 7.2%, and his strikeout rate was 18.9%.

Overall in his minor league career Case has a 3.38 ERA in 192 innings pitched across 35 games, 33 of which have been starts. His career walk rate in the minors is an impressive 4.3%, he has struck out 18.8% of batters faced and he has allowed just 20 home runs which comes out to 0.9 HR/9.

When the 2021 minor league season begins Case will most likely be with the Double-A Altoona Curve. Case will look to make an impact as a member of Altoona’s starting rotation as he continues his march toward the Major Leagues.