Results tagged ‘ andrew lambo ’
Pirates cut Locke, Moskos, 8 others from camp
The Pirates cut 10 players from camp on Monday Morning: Andrew Lambo, Brian Friday, Chase D’Arnaud, Aaron Thompson, Ramon Aguero, Jeff Locke, Tony Watson, Gorkys Hernandez, Alex Presley and Daniel Moskos.
Lambo was reassigned to minor league camp. Expect him to play a corner infield (with first base as a fall back option) with the Triple-A Indians this year. Lambo was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 4th round of the 2007 draft (He was acquired in the Octavio Dotel trade last July). In 26 games with the Altoona Curve, Lambo batted .275 with two homeruns and10 RBI.
Friday was reassigned to minor league camp. He should spent the most of his playing time at second base. Friday was drafted in the 3rd round of the 2007 draft by the Pirates. In 93 games with the Triple-A Indians, the 25-year-old batted .257 with two home runs and 28 RBI.
D’Arnaud was reassigned to minor league camp. He will spend the season playing short, but General Manager Neal Huntington said he will also play some time at third base. D’Arnaud was drafted in the 4th round of the 2008 draft by the Pirates. In 132 games with the Altoona Curve, the 24-year-old batted .247 with 33 doubles, nine triples, six home runs and 48 RBI.
Thompson was optioned to Double-A Altoona. Although he was optioned to the Curve, he could start the season at Triple-A, depending on how the pitching shakes out. Thompson was drafted in the 1st round (22nd overall) by the Florida Marlins in the 2005 draft. The Pirates claimed the lefty off waivers from the Washington Nationals. Last year, combined with Double-A and Triple-A for the Nats, the 24-year-old went 5-13 with a 5.64 ERA in 141.2 innings.
Aguero was optioned to Double-A Altoona. Aguero had an injury plagued 2010 season (elbow soreness and back stiffness) and only pitched in 25 games. He had a 6.14 ERA combined with the High-A Bradenton and Double-A Altoona.
Locke was optioned to Double-A Altoona, but like Thompson could start the season with Triple-A. Locke was drafted by the Atlanta Braves in the 2nd round of the 2006 draft (He was acquired in the Nate McLouth trade). The 23-year-old went 12-5 with a 3.56 ERA combined with High-A Bradenton and Double-A Altoona last year. He also struck out 139 batters in 144 innings.
Watson was optioned to Triple-A Indianapolis. The organization is still undecided on if he will be used as a starter or a reliever. Watson was drafted by the Pirates in the 9th round of the 2007 draft. The 25-year-old went 6-4 with a 2.67 ERA in 34 games (nine starts) with Double-A Altoona in 2010.
Hernandez was optioned to Triple-A Indianapolis and will be the Indians primary center fielder. Hernandez batted .266 with 11 doubles, two homers, 26 RBI and 10 stolen bases with Double-A Altoona.
Alex Presley was optioned to Triple-A Indianapolis. Presley will bounce around in the outfield with Hernandez being the teams primary center fielder. Presley was drafted in the 8th round of the 2006 draft. In 136 games (combined with Double-A and Triple-A) last season, the 25-year-old batted .320 with 28 doubles, 13 triples, 12 home runs 85 RBI and 13 stolen bases. Presley also made his major league debut with the Bucs where he batted .261 in 19 games.
Daniel Moskos was optioned to Triple-A Indianapolis. Although he and Watson were two lefty candidates for the Bucs bullpen, the organization believes they could use more seasoning in the minors before making their debuts. Moskos was drafted in the 1st round (4th overall) of the 2007 draft. He had a 4.14 ERA in 56 games (1.52 ERA with Double-A Altoona) with 61 strikeouts over 58.2 innings. Moskos also picked up 22 saves.
44 players remain at big league camp.
Bucs 3-run rally in ninth seals 5-2 victory over Twins
A ninth inning rally by the Pirates broke open a 2-2 ballgame, who went on to beat the Minnesota Twins 5-2 at Hammond Stadium on Tuesday.
Pedro Ciriaco hit a sac fly and Andrew Lambo hit a two-run single giving the Bucs the edge.
Brian Burres pitched two perfect innings against the Twins on Tuesday, extending his no run streak to six innings so far this spring. In his three appearances he has allowed just three hits, no walks with four strike outs.
“He’s staying in competition,” manager Clint Hurdle said. “Everything we’ve asked him to do, he’s done. He’s a flexible guy, a versatile guy, but we still want to take looks at him, stretch him out a little bit. I’m anticipating that next time.”
Burres, 29, can benefit the Pirates both as a starter or a reliever. Last season with the Bucs he went 4-5 with a 4.99 ERA in 20 appearances (13 starts).
“Any time you can offer multiple roles for yourself, it’s an asset to you,” Burres said. “Obviously, coming out of the bullpen you’re short on warm up throws, but you kind of try to approach it the same way. Honestly, whatever role they need me to be, I’m perfectly happy doing it. I prefer pitching in the big leagues.”
Carl Pavano pitched four innings allowing just two hits and striking two.
The game remained scoreless until a sacrifice fly by Ryan Doumit in the fifth inning gave the Bucs a 1-0 lead. Luke Hughe hit a sac fly of his own in the sixth, tying the game at one. The Twins then took the lead after a RBI double by Matthew Down. Lyle Overbay tied the game back up at 2 in the seventh.
Brad Lincoln started the “B” game against the Twins, which was located on the back field. But that didn’t change Lincoln’s attitude on the mound.
After a 30 pitch first inning, loading the bases and down 3-0 in the count, he managed to get out of the inning allowing no runs. He only needed six pitches for a perfect second inning.
“It’s still a baseball game, you still got everybody watching you, you got all the coaches over there looking,” said Lincoln, who went two innings in a shortened game the Twins won, 4-2. “You don’t want a lackadaisical hang-your-head-because-you’re-pitching-in-a-’B'-game-type attitude.”
Lincoln is battling Charlie Morton and Scott Olsen (hamstring) for the 5th spot in the rotation. “There’s not a whole lot of talk going on right now about what their plans are with anybody, but right now, I’m still competing for the job,” he said. “They still want me to work on some things, but I have to compete at the same time. I have to put those two together.”
Notes:
- Andy Marte hit a solo home run in game “B” against the Twins.
- Steve Pearce made his spring debut at third base today (he only has five career appearances at third) and he even made a pretty good play at the hot corner.
“He made a [heckuva] play,” said right-hander Brad Lincoln, who was on the hill and having a rough inning. “It probably did save me a run.”
Pearce, who has been with the Pirates organization since being drafted in 2005, knows the team well and would love the shot at being the Bucs corner-utility fielder (He is also battling Josh Fields, Garrett Atkins and Andy Marte for that one open spot).
“We brought guys in, and we brought four or five guys in and they’re all competing for that one spot,” Pearce said. “Of course, we know it’s out there, but you want to control how you play. You can’t control what other people think. You just give your best and hopefully you open some eyes.”
- Brian Friday was hit in the hand by a pitch in game “B” today. The x-rays were negative and he is listed as day-to-day.
- Joe Beimel pitched a successful bullpen session today.
- The Pirates will face the New York Yankees on Wednesday –the first night game of the spring. Kevin Correia will start for the Bucs, pitching four innings and the Yankees will send Bartolo Colon. The game will start at 7:05 in Tampa, FLA.
Missed opportunities for Bucs, lose to Twins 4-2
The Pirates went just 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position (RISP) on Wednesday afternoon, losing to the Minnesota Twins 4-2.
“When you’ve got at-bats and things need to happen at the plate – whether you need to move runners or get bunts down – you don’t always perform,” Manager Clint Hurdle said. “You don’t always execute and get the result, but the intent is there. We had a couple of guys try to work the ball to right with a runner at second base. We tried to get a bunt down and the execution was a little shabby, but the commitment was there.”
“We’ve got work to do,” Hurdle said. “I’m seeing focus and intent; it gets down to execution.”
Ross Ohlendorf pitched 1.2 innings (pulled early due to pitch count) with one unearned run, two hits, one walk and four strike outs.
Ohlendorf did not throw a changeup to left-handers during his outing and did throw a few out to righties.
“I felt really good with how I was throwing,” Ohlendorf said. “This is the best I have felt in Spring Training in a couple of years. Especially coming off the shoulder injury at the end of the season, it’s important to have that behind me.”
Ohlendorf pitched ahead to most of the batters he faced and looked really good out on the mound.
Jose Tabata (who went 3-for-3 with two stolen bases) singled in Andrew Lambo in the fifth inning.
Joel Hanrahan had a rough outing against the Twins. He allowed a home run to the first batter he faced (Hughes) three hits, walked one, struck out one and was pulled with the bases loaded and two outs in the sixth.
Steve Pearce doubled in the ninth inning and Dusty Brown singled him home for the second run of the game. It was the Pirates second attempt for a late inning rally in the past three games.
Notes:
- During the fifth inning, Andrew McCutchen hit three straight balls down the third base line where Jose Tabata was. He jumped over the ball two straight times and after the third one hit by him, he put his hand on his hip and the stadium was laughing. –Just a funny story I thought you might enjoy.
- Michael Crotta threw two innings, allowing two hits with one strikeout.
Crotta has had a nice spring with the Pirates so far.
“I’ve heard about him — heavy sink with a big arm,” Hurdle said. “I’m glad he got out there for a second inning. The sink wasn’t the same second inning, but for him to pitch through that and not give up a run was good. He’s got the attention of some people.”
Matt Diaz, Pedro Ciriaco, Josh Rodriguez taking batting pratice prior to the game.
Ohlendorf, Joe Beimel, Brian Burres, Sean Gallagher working out prior to the game.
Ryan Doumit working on catching drills.
Pirates lineup against State College of Florida
The Pirates will face the State College of Florida on Friday. Here is the starting lineup for the Bucs:
Corey Wimberly 2b, Chase d’Arnaud ss, Steve Pearce 1b, John Bowker lf, Josh Fields dh, Andy Marte 3b, Andrew Lambo rf, Gorkys Hernandez cf, Wyatt Toregas c.
lhp Aaron Thompson will start and pitch the first inning.
(Photo via @EvanDrellich)
Triple-A projected to begin 2011 with 8 top prospects
Triple-A Indianapolis Indians sent out a press release on Wednesday stating those players “likely to be on it’s roster this season”.
Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune reported:
Among the players who are “projected to begin their 2011 campaigns” at Indy are eight top prospects: Bryan Morris, Rudy Owens, Andrew Lambo, Alex Presley, Daniel Moskos, Pedro Ciriaco, Matt Hague and Josh Harrison. All of them are ranked among the top 30 prospects in the Pirates’ farm system, according to Baseball America.
Presley, Moskos, Bryan Morris, Ciriaco, are on the 40-man roster and Owens, Lambo are non-roster spring training invitees.
Pirates invite five more to spring training
The Pirates gave non-roster spring training invites to Tony Sanchez, Brian Friday, Andrew Lambo, Eric Fryer and Chase D’Arnaud according to Rob Biertempfel of the Trib on Tuesday.
There are currently 61 players invited to spring training in Bradenton, FL., the 40-man roster plus 21 non-roster invites.
The non-roster list includes: Justin Thomas, Fernando Nieve, Josh Fields, Dusty Brown, Sean Gallagher, Donnie Veal, Andy Marte, Cesar Valdez, Tyler Yates, Jeff Clement, Rudy Owens, Justin Wilson, Garrett Atkins, Brian Burres and Corey Wimberly.
Minor League News and Notes
- The Pirates have not decided on a starting rotation for Triple-A system for 2011. Those players who do not make the major league roster could be factored into the Indians rotation. The candidates include: Rudy Owens, Justin Wilson, Bryan Morris and Jared Hughes (who could begin trickling into the Pirates rotation after July).
- Infielder Josh Harrison finished the finished well in the Arizona Fall League where he hit .330 in 22 games and finished with a .516 slugging percentage. He could be a candidate to start the season in Triple-A.
“He’s a guy that’s going to continue to challenge people to think that he’s better than what they think,” farm director Kyle Stark said. “He went out there and played very well.”
- Andrew Lambo also finished well in the AFL, batting .274 with 23 RBIs in 28 games (The 22-year-old outfielder was acquired by the Dodgers in the Octavio Dotel trade). Lambo is also a starting candidate for Triple-A.
Coonelly chats with Pirates fans
Pirates Frank Coonelly web chatted with fans on Thursday afternoon where he discussed: winter game plans, de la rosa rumors and evaluating player injuries before signing contracts. Here are several questions from the transcript. You can read the entire chat here.
As the Winter Meetings draw closer, are there any certain “game plans” you have going into them?
Coonelly: [General manager] Neal [Huntington] and his staff have been working hard all offseason on our game plan to improve the club for next season without trading away the outstanding talent in our Minor League system that has us and our fans excited about our future. As Neal has said, we are aggressively pursuing opportunities to upgrade our starting rotation. We are also exploring potential upgrades and/or platoon candidates for right field, first base and/or shortstop. As always, the Winter Meetings will bring additional inquiries from other clubs who are trying to acquire players to meet their needs. We are looking forward to having productive dialogue with both agents for free-agent players which we have targeted, as well as GMs of the other 29 clubs.
Frank, there are a lot of skeptics (media and blogs) that have said that an offer was never made to [Jorge] De La Rosa, or it wasn’t an offer worthy of proving the promise to spend on true talent. Can you clear up what happened and why he couldn’t be landed?
Coonelly: I can assure you that we did in fact make an offer to De La Rosa. It was an offer, in our judgment, that was reflective of Jorge’s market value, taking into account both his potential upside, but also the reality that he has started more than 25 games only once in his six-year career. We made the offer and engaged in the negotiations in an effort to sign De La Rosa and not in an effort to prove our skeptics wrong. Mr. De La Rosa accepted Colorado’s offer, which included, among other things, a player option for the third year worth $11 million. A pure player option such as that is a “heads the player wins, tales the club loses” situation that we would not entertain.
How do you evaluate players who are recovering from a significant injury? Can you require them to pass a physical and/or make the offer contingent on meeting certain physical standards once they report?
Coonelly: Great question. The short answer is that we use all available tools and resources to properly assess the player’s current health likelihood of remaining healthy over the term of a proposed contract. That exhaustive analysis includes: reviewing the player’s complete medical file and giving the player a complete medical examination prior to signing him to a contract. Even with this type of diligence, signing a player, particularly a pitcher, with a history of injuries is a substantial risk that must be factored into our analysis.
I also want to commend you on your deal with the Dodgers last season. I think both James McDonald and Andrew Lambo are great additions. What do you guys hope to get from McDonald?
Coonelly: we are very pleased with what we saw from both Andrew Lambo and James McDonald since we acquired them at the Trade Deadline. Andrew gave the Altoona Curve team a shot in the arm as it completed its campaign and march through the playoffs to secure the Eastern League championship. He has just wrapped up a solid Arizona Fall League season in which he tied for the league lead in RBIs with 23.
James McDonald, in a very short stint with us, showed the type of stuff that Neal and his staff thought could produce effective starts. The key for James in 2011 is to demonstrate that he has the strength, durability and consistency to start 32 to 34 games at a very high level. As a result, James has been working this offseason to get stronger and to demonstrate that he can be a middle- to top-of-the-rotation big league starter. Given the work ethic that we have seen from James thus far, we are confident that he can achieve the high end of that aspiration.
Mesa Solar Sox end of season update
The Arizona Fall league ended with the Scottsdale Scorpions winning the title defeating the Peo Javelinas 3-2 On Saturday. The Mesa Solar Sox finished six games behind the Champion Scorpions. Here is an update on how the Pirates players finished the season.
Brian Leach finished the season with a 0.00 ERA. In 10 innings pitched he allowed 11 hits and five runs (zero earned) with seven strike outs and seven walks.
Aaron Pribanic went 0-1 with a 2.00 ERA for the Solar sox. In 18 innings he allowed seven runs (four earned) and 18 hits while striking out nine and walking six.
Justin Wilson allowed nine runs (eight earned) on 19 hits through 16.1 innings. He struck out 16 and walked eight. Wilson ended the AFL with a 0-1 record and a 4.41 ERA.
Tony Sanchez finished with four home runs and nine RBI and a .206 AVG with the Solar Sox. A disappointing Fall League for Sanchez, but it was his first time behind the plate again since his jaw surgery.
Josh Harrison had a great Fall League for the Solar Sox. He finished with a .330 AVG and a .907 OPS. He hit a team leading 10 doubles and two triples with eight RBI in 22 games.
Jordy Mercer had 13 RBI and scored 10 runs in 20 games. He finished the season with a .267 AVG.
Andrew Lambo hit .274 for the Solar Sox with four home runs and a team leading 23 RBI. In 28 games Lambo had 29 hits, eight of them doubles.
Arizona Fall League update
The Pirates are doing really well in the Arizona Fall league. The Mesa Solar Sox are 10-10 and two games back from first place in the AFL East. The team’s .310 batting average is highest of all the teams. Here are some stat updates on how the young Bucs are doing so far.
Pitcher Brian Leach has made seven appearances (Seven innings pitched) and has not given up a single earned run. He has walked five and struck out four.
Right-handed Pitcher Benjamin Pribanic has an ERA of 0.87 through six games and 10.1 innings pitched. He has allowed two runs (one earned) and struck out eight.
Justin Wilson has a 3.60 ERA in 10 innings of work. He has allowed five runs (four earned) and struck out ten.
Catcher Tony Sanchez is batting .231 with an OBP of .302 and a .385 SLG. Sanchez has hit two home runs and has four RBI.
Josh Harrison is raking this fall. He is batting .328 (the highest average of the Pirates players) with seven doubles, two triples, one home run and seven RBI. The third baseman has an OPS of .910.
Shortstop Jordy Mercer has 10 RBI and two doubles. He is batting .255.
Andrew Lambo, like Harrison is raking this fall. He is batting .301 with six doubles and 16 RBI (ties Brandon Wood for most in the league). The outfielder has three home runs in his 18 games played so far.
Kristy Robinson
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