VFPH 1st Quarter Report

Since the Pirates have 52 series this year, and have completed 13 of them, the first quarter of the season is now done.  Let's take a look at the state of the organization so far.

SERIES SO FAR

Pirates vs:	Result
Dodgers	2-1 W
Diamondbacks	1-2 L
Giants	1-2 L
Reds	3-0 W
Brewers	0-3 L
Astros	0-3 L
Brewers	2-1 W
Dodgers	1-3 L
Cubs	3-0 W
Cardinals	1-2 L
Reds	0-3 L
Cubs	2-1 W
Phillies	1-1 T

Bold indicates a sweep.

---

BATTING STATISTICS (TOP 10)

These lists only contain players with at least 25 at bats.

Batting Average

Player	AVG
Andrew McCutchen	.329
Ryan Doumit	.281
Garrett Jones	.268
Andy LaRoche	.254
Bobby Crosby	.250
Jason Jaramillo	.250
Lastings Milledge	.246
Ronny Cedeno	.234
Delwyn Young	.220
Ryan Church	.211

Slugging Percentage

Player	SLG
Andrew McCutchen	.497
Garrett Jones	.442
Ryan Doumit	.438
Jason Jaramillo	.393
Ryan Church	.382
Delwyn Young	.373
Andy LaRoche	.364
Ronny Cedeno	.347
Bobby Crosby	.346
Jeff Clement	.337

On Base Percentage

Player	OBP
Andrew McCutchen	.383
Garrett Jones	.363
Ryan Doumit	.360
Bobby Crosby	.350
Andy LaRoche	.328
Lastings Milledge	.317
Jason Jaramillo	.276
Delwyn Young	.270
Ronny Cedeno	.269
Akinori Iwamura	.259

On Base Plus Slugging

Player	OPS
Andrew McCutchen	.879
Garrett Jones	.805
Ryan Doumit	.798
Bobby Crosby	.696
Andy LaRoche	.693
Jason Jaramillo	.669
Delwyn Young	.643
Ryan Church	.632
Lastings Milledge	.626
Ronny Cedeno	.616

Runs Batted In

Player	RBI
Garrett Jones	28
Ryan Doumit	15
Lastings Milledge	14
Andrew McCutchen	13
Ronny Cedeno	9
Ryan Church	9
Andy LaRoche	8
Akinori Iwamura	8
Delwyn Young	7
Jeff Clement	7

Home Runs

Player	HR
Andrew McCutchen	5
Garrett Jones	5
Jeff Clement	4
Ryan Doumit	3
Andy LaRoche	3
Ronny Cedeno	3
Akinori Iwamura	2
Ryan Church	2
Delwyn Young	1
Bobby Crosby	1
Jason Jaramillo	1

Now I will use the above statistics to create a list of the most valuable batters on the team.  A player in 1st place on a list will get 10 points, while a player in last will get 1 point.  The points are then tallied to see who has the most.  That player is the most valuable batter on the team.  Players that are tied will get the same number of points.

Player	Pts.
Andrew McCutchen	57
Garrett Jones	55
Ryan Doumit	49
Andy LaRoche	34
Bobby Crosby	24
Jason Jaramillo	24
Ronny Cedeno	22
Ryan Church	19
Lastings Milledge	19
Delwyn Young	18
Jeff Clement	11
Aki Iwamura	9

---

PITCHING STATISTICS (TOP 10)

Earned Run Average

Player	ERA
Evan Meek	0.69
Javier Lopez	2.35
Ross Ohlendorf	3.00
D.J. Carrasco	4.15
Paul Maholm	4.40
Joel Hanrahan	4.70
Brian Burres	5.00
Zach Duke	5.08
Jeff Karstens	5.40
Jack Taschner	6.23

Walks + Hits per Innings Pitched

Player	WHIP
Evan Meek	1.00
Joel Hanrahan	1.17
Javier Lopez	1.17
D.J. Carrasco	1.31
Ross Ohlendorf	1.40
Octavio Dotel	1.53
Paul Maholm	1.53
Jack Taschner	1.56
Jeff Karstens	1.62
Brian Burres	1.63

Strikeouts per 9 Innings

Player	K/9
Joel Hanrahan	12.91
Octavio Dotel	12.67
Evan Meek	9.35
Brendan Donnelly	8.00
Jack Taschner	7.79
Charlie Morton	7.64
D.J. Carrasco	6.92
Jeff Karstens	6.23
Brian Bass	5.68
Zach Duke	5.44

Now I will use the above statistics to create a list of the most valuable pitchers on the team.  A player in 1st place on a list will get 10 points, while a player in last will get 1 point.  The points are then tallied to see who has the most.  That player is the most valuable pitcher on the team.  Players that are tied will get the same number of points.  Pitchers are harder to equalize due to the difference in role between starters, setup men, and closers.  I have chosen the stats that are the most approximately fair to every type of pitcher.

Player	Pts.
Evan Meek	28
Joel Hanrahan	24
Javier Lopez	18
D.J. Carrasco	18
Ross Ohlendorf	14
Octavio Dotel	14
Paul Maholm	11
Jack Taschner	10
Jeff Karstens	7
Brendan Donnelly	7
Brian Burres	5
Charlie Morton	5
Zach Duke	4
Brian Bass	2

---

MINOR LEAGUES REPORT

AAA Indianapolis (21-18, 3rd International League West)
Pedro Alvarez is doing well and is almost ready to be called up to the Majors, probably in June.  He still has some trouble against Lefties, but it is getting better for him.  His average could be a little better (.243), but he has 9 homers, 36 RBIs and an OPS of .814, so you can't complain too much.

Jose Tabata, on the other hand, is killing in his average (.327), but only has 12 RBIs and 2 homers.  His OPS is only slightly lower than Avarez's, at .812.

Neil Walker, on the other other hand, seems to be the complete package.  His average is .329, he has 6 homers, 25 RBIs, and an OPS .986.

If they can continue this pace at the Major League level (easier said than done, obviously), a hypothetical order of Tabata, McCutchen, Alvarez, Jones, and Walker as the top five would be awesome.  Double so if Steve Pearce starts getting closer to what he was doing in the minors.  Throw in Doumit and Milledge/Church and on paper at least the lineup looks very solid.

The final prospect of note in the AAA club is the hard to peg Brad Lincoln (4-2-2, 3.83 ERA, 1.14 WHIP).  In some of his games he's been downright dominant, while in others, such as a 13.50 ERA effort in his first start, not so much.  The key is to not rush him along, and he won't be up until he really starts to dominate batters consistently at the minor league level.  Even after he gets called up, I'm not expecting anything amazing immediately, as there is a wide gap between AAA and the Majors in terms of talent which doesn't exist as much between the other levels.

AA Altoona (22-15, 1st Eastern League Western)

Altoona Catcher Hector Gimenez has an OPS of .941, but has played about 10 games less than the other starters on the team.  There is some concern about his age (27), but if he keeps up that pace he'll be called up sooner or later.

The real story in Altoona is the pitching.  Starter Jared Hughes is 7-1-0 with an ERA of 3.16 and a WHIP of 1.15.  Former 1st round pick  Danny Moskos is doing well as a reliever, with an ERA of 1.62 and a WHIP of 1.08.

High A Bradenton (22-17, 2nd Florida State League South)

Bradenton is doing really well in its first year of operations.  Recently moved up pitcher Bryan Morris was 3-0-5 with an ERA of 0.60 and a WHIP of 0.99 during his time with Bradenton, which included 6 games in which he didn't give up a single ER.  He has yet to get a start with Altoona, so it will be interesting to see if he can keep it up at the next level.

Catcher Tony Sanchez is creaming the ball with an OPS of .855.  Shortstop Brock Holt is doing even better, with an average of .344 and an OPS of .877.  Difficult to judge how players will do later on when they are at these lower levels, but they're looking good so far.

A West Virginia (17-21, 7th South Atlantic League Northern)

West Virginia has not had a great year so far, sitting in last place in their division.  Nonetheless, they have some decent prospects on the team.

Jason Erickson appears to be the best pitcher on the team right now, with a record of 3-2-5, an ERA of 2.22 and a WHIP of 1.07.

David Rubenstein seems to be the best bat on the team, with an average of .333 and  an OPS of .887.  He has missed a few games, though.

Short A State College (0-0)

Season has not started yet.

Rookie DSL Pirates (0-0)

Season has not started yet.

Rookie GCL Pirates (0-0)

Season has not started yet.


I had more planned for this, but it's already pretty large and I've spent a long time on it, so I'm going to wrap it up.