McClendon initially tried Lincoln as closer and he did well at first, but reality quickly set in.  So, too, did the reality that the team was not only lacking a reliable reliever for the 9^th inning, it didn’t have one for the 7^th or 8^th inning, either.  McClendon hit on a solution that was truly radical for a team that for decades has had trouble thinking outside the box:  he started using his one reliable reliever, Julian Tavarez, as a multi-inning closer.  Starting in mid-August, Tavarez had fourteen save opportunities and converted eleven of them.  Of those eleven, seven lasted longer than an inning.  The first four lasted two innings.  Tavarez pitched in 18 games beginning with his first save.  He had one disastrous game in which he allowed seven earned runs in a third of an inning.  Otherwise he allowed just three earned runs in 25 innings.

Of course, three blown saves out of fourteen doesn’t sound great, but it was better than the raw numbers would lead you to think.  One of the blown saves was the seven-run outing; Tavarez had entered in the 8^th with a two-run lead, no outs and the bases loaded.  Another was a game in which he attempted a three-inning save in a one-run game and allowed a run to tie the game.  The Pirates eventually won, but Tavarez got a blown save, which shows the limitations of the stat.  I’d call that a good outing.  The third was a one-run game in which he entered with one on and no outs in the 8^th and let that run score, then went on to pitch two innings, allowing no runs of his own.  The Pirates lost in extra innings.  (That was the first game of a doubleheader; Tavarez got a save in game two.)  So none of Tavarez’ three blown saves came in conventional save situations and he pitched well in two of them.

I remember at the time there were some questions directed to McClendon and Littlefield about the possibility of bringing Tavarez back as closer, questions that were met with firm, negative replies.  Tavarez went on to pitch two strong seasons for St. Louis.  Considering Tavarez’ profile as a pitcher, he was an interesting choice for multi-inning saves.  He was a rubber-armed reliever who’d been unsuccessfully converted to starting over two years before the Pirates picked him up.  He appeared in 64 games for the Pirates, then 151 games in his two years with the Cards.  Earlier in his career he’d pitched in 89 games one year for the Giants.  He didn’t strike out a lot of hitters but was an extreme groundball pitcher.  Yet I don’t remember any discussion at the time about McClendon’s unorthodox use of Tavarez.  Only, Will Tavarez return as closer?  Seems like somebody could learn something from this.

My own opinion from having watched him is that the speed of the game is more than he’s used to.  In his first game, he struggled with a stream of changeups.  In his second game, he was swinging through fastballs over the plate.  His strike zone judgment for the most part has looked fine; he’s just swinging through pitches he probably should hit.  I didn’t see the third game of the series, but in the last game he struck out only once, again swinging through fastballs.

When Bell did hit the ball, he hit it to the opposite field every time in the games I saw.  I noticed the same trend in spring training, too.  My sense is that he’s just swinging a bit late.  It’s definitely not a question of bat speed, which in his case is exceptional.  He has a very quick bat.  I just think he hasn’t quite caught up to the speed of the game in full season ball, which is quite a ways removed from high school.

At the upper levels, the Pirates have a lot of infielders to juggle.  The real crunch at Indianapolis will come when Josh Harrison, Matt Hague or Yamaico Navarro gets sent down around mid-April.  Chase d’Arnaud and Jordy Mercer are going to play, and it’s also to the team’s benefit to find time for veterans like Nick Evans, Jake Fox and Jeff Clement, as they’re all players who could conceivably end up helping the big league team over the course of the long season. 

The presence of d’Arnaud and Mercer in AAA meant that Brock Holt will have to return to Altoona.  You have to have some sympathy for Holt—he had a good year in 2011—but it’s a good thing for the team to have to make these choices.  So is the fact that Elevys Gonzalez and Adalberto Santos, both of whom had big years in 2011, won’t have everyday jobs when the AA season starts, although the team will undoubtedly find playing time for them.

There’s also the catching logjam, although this is less of a good thing because it was created by the need to send Tony Sanchez back to AA.  Ramon Cabrera will have to share time with Sanchez, and with the other claimants on DH appearances.  Carlos Paulino, another guy who had a good year for Bradenton in 2011, will have to return to high A. 

At Bradenton, the Pirates will have four outfielders—Mel Rojas, Jr., Evan Chambers, Dan Grovatt and Wes Freeman—who all have enough potential to merit regular playing time.  Good thing there’s a DH every day at that level.

Another logjam is the Marauders’ rotation.  With Quincy Miller and Hunter Strickland both looking healthy this spring, Zack Dodson and Zac Fuesser will both return to West Virginia, where they both pitched well in 2011.  Too many pitchers is definitely not a problem. 

The Pirates faced some other tough choices with the West Virginia outfield.  They’re going to go with a very young, inexperienced trio in Josh Bell, Willy Garcia and Gregory Polanco.  The group will probably struggle at first, and Garcia and Polanco especially are high-risk prospects.  The Pirates could have gone with Rodarrick Jones and Taylor Lewis, 2011 college draftees who have some potential, but they’ll both stay in extended spring training.

Even with all these tough decisions, it’s possible the Pirates will get little or no help at the major league level from these players.  That remains to be seen.  But tough decisions are better than no decisions.

I spent more time watching Allie.  It’s interesting that the myth of him throwing nothing but a high-velocity fastball continues to crop up occasionally.  Allie’s best pitch isn’t his fastball, it’s his slider.  He even controls the latter well, sometimes trying to get hitters to chase it and sometimes throwing strikes with it once he’s gotten into two-strike counts.  He froze at least two, maybe three hitters for called third strikes with it today, as the majority of the outs he recorded came on Ks.  The slider comes in hard, as fast as 88 today, so hitters don’t have an easy time picking it up.  His heater has good movement and generates a lot more swings and misses than Taillon’s, despite both having nearly identical velocity (mainly 94-96).  His control of it is much better than it was a year ago, although he still has a ways to go.  He remains hard to hit; he allowed just two singles today, one on a broken bat.

There was little offense to speak of today.  It mostly came down to a grand slam by Jose Morales, who was seeing (I think) his first game action in the “Allie game,” and a solo shot by Drew Maggi off Deck McGuire in the other game.  There was some good defense from Carlos Paulino, who, as Tim noted the other day, has an outstanding arm.  He cut down two runners with laser throws today.  Elias Diaz, who relieved Morales behind the plate, also showed off a good arm, picking a runner off first.

The lineup in the “Taillon game” may have closely reflected the projected Bradenton lineup this year.  Evan Chambers, who’d been playing with the AA squad earlier, was in center, so he appears likely to return to the Marauders.  Mel Rojas, Jr., and Dan Grovatt also started in the OF, and Wes Freeman entered the game late, so those four could be sharing OF and possibly DH duties.  Maggi played second and Gift Ngoepe short, although I’d guess the two will alternate in the middle infield.  (Personally, I think Ngoepe fits better at short.)  The catcher was Paulino, with Alex Dickerson at first and Benji Gonzalez at third.  I doubt Gonzalez will end up as a starter.  He seems to be making the transition from shortstop prospect to organizational utility player; I’ve only seen him play second and third this spring.

The other game featured players who are probably battling for regular spots in the West Virginia lineup.  The OF was Josh Bell, Gregory Polanco and Willy Garcia.  Polanco, a LH hitter, hit one drive to the fence in left-center and showed good power to all fields in batting practice.  The infield, third to first, was Jodaneli Carvajal, Alen Hanson, Dan Gamache and Jose Osuna, with Carvajal and Gamache switching between their more frequent positions.  Diaz caught when Morales wasn’t in there.  Just as a guess, probably only Bell, Osuna, Hanson and Gamache have safe starting jobs.  Players like Taylor Lewis, Rodarrick Jones and Yhonathan Barrios probably also have shots at the lineup.  The position battles at the lowest full season level tend to continue into the season, which makes sense because it’s hard to say what the team has with these players just yet.

The starters were Nate Baker (AA) and Mike Colla (AAA).  As he did the last time I saw him, Baker got hammered.  I didn’t watch in too  much detail, but he appeared to be getting hit hard and scored upon in every inning.  He was throwing mostly 90-91 and I didn’t see any offspeed stuff.  Colla fared much better, throwing four innings without allowing any runs that I could see.  He threw mostly fastballs, ranging from 88-91, mostly 89 in the first inning and 90 afterward.  There were a few well hit balls that were caught, but for the most part Colla didn’t have much trouble.

After the starters, most of the pitchers were guys who are struggling to turn things around in one way or another.  Two veteran lefties pitched in the AAA game.  Jo-Jo Reyes was shaky with the first few hitters but settled down after that.  He threw 89-90 with a good curve.  Brian Tallet threw one inning, facing three hitters.  The two RH hitters hit the ball hard, but the one LH hitter hit into a DP.  Tallet threw a fastball at 87-88 and a cutter in the low- to mid-80s.  Another veteran, Tim Wood, finished the AAA game with a scoreless inning.  Wood threw mainly fastballs, mostly 94-95.

In the AA game, Duke Welker, Brian Leach and Victor Black followed Baker.  Welker had a quick inning, inducing three groundballs with a 94-95 mph fastball that he consistently kept down.  He threw one 86 mph slider that I saw.  Welker’s control faltered with his second hitter, as he went to 3-0 before allowing in infield hit.  The next batter, however, bounced into a DP.  Leach, who’s trying to get back on the prospect track after struggling last year, got hit hard and at least one of his innings ended when he reached his per-inning pitch limit.  Black threw a scoreless inning, showing a 92-95 mph fastball that he struggled to control, and a slider that he didn’t control much at all.

Most of the hitters in both games were minor league veterans and organizational players.  Brandon Boggs and Matt Durham hit the ball well in the AAA game, with the former lining a HR while batting left-handed.  I saw Robbie Grossman, who played center in the AA game, bat four times.  The first time he got rung up on a dubious call on a full count.  The next two times he hit the ball hard, one a long fly to center and the other a liner to left, but both were caught.  The last time, his only AB hitting right-handed, he grounded out.  Ramon Cabrera and Matt Curry did little in the at-bats I saw.  I haven’t been impressed with Curry this spring, although I haven’t seen him a lot.  He takes a lot of pitches and works the count, but most of his at-bats seem to end in walks and strikeouts.  I also don’t think he’s picking up offspeed pitches well.  He did draw one walk today but then got picked off.

The other starter, Tyler Waldron, was less impressive.  He sat at 89-91 and didn’t show any impressive offspeed stuff.  He gave up a lot of hard-hit balls.

Most of the other pitchers were guys who are probably battling for spots in the West Virginia bullpen.  None really stood out.  I saw Jesus Brito–the bounty received for Brian Bixler–pitch for the first time since his conversion from 3B.  He threw 90-91 with a slider and weak command.  He got hit very hard.  Lefty Orlando Castro, who was something of a sensation last year when he made a big showing in the GCL, also threw.  When I saw him last summer he was sitting around 90, but today he was throwing in the mid-80s.  According to Tim that’s what he’s been throwing all spring.

Another pitcher today was Cesar Lopez, who seemed like a decent prospect when the Pirates signed him out of Cuba.  He was throwing 90-91, which was better than last year, with a big, slow curve.  His command was poor and he struggled today.  Kevin Kleis also saw some action.  He’s a big guy, 6’8″, and his velocity was about the same as Lopez’ today, but he seemed to drive the ball down effectively and he had little trouble.

As usual, it was harder to get an impression of the hitters, since I generally only saw a couple at-bats from each.  Samuel Gonzalez continued to swing the bat well, as did Rodarrick Jones.  Josh Bell grounded out his first time up, then laced a single to right on a pitch up and in that he did a nice job of swinging inside-out on.  Bell also reached over the fence in left to rob a HR, although I didn’t see it.  Jared Lakind came in late and ripped a double to right.  He appears to be one of the more improved hitters in camp.  Alen Hanson drew applause with a Jeter-esque leaping throw from the hole to get a hitter at first.  (Yeah, I know, I’m just saying the play resembled Jeter.)  Ryan Hornback–a JC catcher drafted last year mainly on his defensive rep–cut down a runner stealing even though the pitch was a high, slow curve.  Yhonathan Barrios also had a couple good defensive plays and showed a good arm from third.

Won’t have much for a while–the next two days are camp days.  Arrrgh.

Today the Pirates’ A-ball squads were facing the Yankees.  The Pirates didn’t have many of their better prospects on the field today, so I didn’t find a lot of excitement today.  The starters at least were real prospects:  lefties Zack Dodson and Zac Fuesser.  I couldn’t really see any clear distinction between low A and high A, so as far as I’m concerned it was all just “A-ball.”  Dodson and Fuesser both fared well.  Fuesser was throwing his fastball mostly around 86-87, but he was going heavily with a changeup and mixing in some curves.  The change appeared to be his most effective pitch.  He didn’t have much trouble until his third inning, when he allowed a run.  (I don’t think he allowed any others, but it’s pretty hard to be sure when you’re trying to follow two games.)  Dodson, by contrast, threw mostly fastballs, sitting 89-91.  His control was a little off in the first inning but he didn’t allow any runs that I saw.

Trent Stevenson followed Dodson and threw two scoreless innings.  He’s still thin and lanky, with a motion that’s a little awkward.  He was throwing 88-89, with a curve that he buried pretty well.  He wasn’t missing bats but didn’t allow anything to be hit hard.  Jordan Cooper and Jason Townsend also pitched in the “Dodson game.”  Cooper was throwing in the low 90s and got hit hard.  Townsend was throwing 90-91, which is well off the mid-90s velocity he showed shortly after getting drafted.

Pitchers in the other game included Michael Jefferson, Fraylin Campos, Isaac Sanchez, and Bryce Weidman.  All but Sanchez struggled.  I’d never seen Sanchez before and was curious about him after he had a strong debut in the Dominican Summer League in 2010.  He got hurt after just three games, but moved up to the GCL last year and got in 31 innings.  He’s reminiscent of Leo Nunez, or whatever he’s called these days, in that Sanchez is 6’0″ tall with a slight build, but a live arm.  He sat at 91-93, mostly 93, with good run.  I didn’t see him throw any offspeed pitches.  He came on after Campos, struggling with wildness, failed to retire any of the four batters he faced.  Sanchez got out of a bases loaded, no outs situation with only one run allowed, then threw a scoreless inning, allowing runners only on a hit batter and a boot by third baseman Dan Gamache.  Of the others, Jefferson, a lefty, showed only an 85-87 mph fastball and a loopy curve, and got hit hard.  Weidman, a righty, was throwing only 83-85.  Tim reported a few days ago that Weidman’s velocity hasn’t been good, so this wasn’t new.

Possibly the most interesting of the hitters were the first three in the order in the “Fuesser game:”  Latin prospects Gregory Polanco, Willy Garcia and Yhonathan Barrios.  All three struggled with offspeed stuff, especially sliders thrown by the Yankees’ starter, who looked very tough.  (No idea who it was.  The Yankees, like the Pirates, are one of the few teams that don’t put minor leaguers’ names on their jerseys, except in their case I also had no roster to look at.)  I know Tim Williams likes Polanco a lot and I can see what interests the Pirates.  He’s tall, very fast, and he looks like he’s gotten a lot stronger over the last couple years, which apparently has shown in batting practice.  I just don’t like his swing, which still seems to me to loop too slowly through the strike zone.  He did manage a groundball single.  He also got a late start on a catchable drive in the outfield.  Garcia had more success after the Yankees lifted their starter.  Barrios flailed at sliders well outside in his first couple at-bats, but later hit a long triple to right.  He’s getting very stocky; he’s already starting to resemble the late-career Ronnie Belliard.  It showed when Barrios scored on a wild pitch; he slid awkwardly, although there was no play, and hurt his knee.  Fortunately he wasn’t hurt badly enough to leave the game.

Among the other players in that game, Gamache looked the best at the plate.  He homered his first time up–he was the only hitter who seemed able to get a read on the Yankees’ starter–and had at least one other hit.  He didn’t do as well in the field.  Jared Lakind started at first.  In one at-bat I saw he laced a single to right.  He struggled mightily to make contact last year, so that was good to see.  Rodarrick Jones came in about mid-game and in the one at-bat I saw, he hit a long, opposite-field double.  He also badly misjudged a ball in the outfield.  (Flyballs are always an adventure at Pirate City.  I’ve seen good outfielders–Alex Presley, for instance–struggle badly there, so I don’t necessarily read a lot into outfield mishaps.)  Josh Bell also came in at mid-game and, in his only at-bat before I left, grounded to short on the first pitch.

I didn’t spend a lot of time watching the hitters in the “Dodson game” because I wasn’t very interested in most of them.  Samuel Gonzalez was an exception.  He was DHing, so he’s evidently healthy enough now to hit at least.  Physically and at the plate he reminds me of Manny Sanguillen.  He seems to wait on pitches and try to drive them to right, which he did effectively today.  Gift Ngoepe got in late and hit a single.

The process did serve as a reminder of the greatly added interest the lower levels of the farm system are providing these days.  Back in the dark days of the GM-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named, year after year went by with literally no additions of note from Latin America.  This year there are at least three real prospects–or maybe “real potential prospects” is a better description of teenage ballplayers–in their first camp:  Dilson Herrera, Harold Ramirez and Elvis Escobar.  The latter two may still head to the Dominican Summer League, but they probably wouldn’t be in camp if there wasn’t at least a chance of them playing in the Gulf Coast League this year, which would be a big step for 17-year-olds who haven’t played professionally yet.

After years of Latin minor leaguers who figured, at best, to be organizational players, the Pirates have stockpiled a large number of guys at the lowest levels who are worth watching.  Probably a large majority won’t go anywhere in the end, but that’s normal.  The focus has been mainly on position players, Luis Heredia notwithstanding, but that’s good because that’s the system’s weakness.  Between West Virginia, State College and the GCL, I figure the following hitters are all guys who have a chance to turn into real prospects:

Catcher:  Samuel Gonzalez

Infielders:  Jose Ozuna, Dilson Herrera, Alen Hanson, Yhonatan Barrios, Jodaneli Carvajal (and maybe Edwin Espinal–I don’t know much about him yet)

Outfielders:  Willy Garcia, Gregory Polanco, Luis Urena, Jesus Vasquez, Raul Fortunato, Harold Ramirez, Elvis Escobar

If the Pirates can get just 2-3 good prosects out of this group, they’ll be far ahead of where they were a couple years ago.

– Erik Bedard is wearing a knee brace, which I wasn’t aware of until Tom Smith noticed it this morning.

– Most of the pitchers seem a bit wild.  I’ve never been to spring training this early, so I’m guessing this is typical.  During live BP the hitters generally don’t swing much.  One exception was Doug Slaten, a veteran LH reliever who’s trying to make the team on an NRI.  He was getting hit hard, much of it by lefty-swinging Jeff Clement.

– Guys who seem to be swinging well early:  Jake Fox, Nick Evans, Jordy Mercer and Clement.  Pedro Alvarez launched some long bombs today.

–  I wasn’t able to locate catcher Jose Morales, nor could anybody else I spoke to.  Catchers aren’t hard to spot in camp; they’re easily the hardest-working players.  They’re warming up pitchers, catching live BP, working in almost all the fielding drills, and somehow finding time to take BP.  Rod Barajas, Mike McKenry, Eric Fryer, Tony Sanchez and Ramon Cabrera were all in view constantly, and Kris Watts and newcomer Charlie Cutler have been warming up pitchers.  Anybody who thinks that’s light duty should have seen Cutler after he warmed up about four guys in a row today.  Jake Fox has not been doing any catching.  But no sign of Morales.  I thought he had a fairly good chance of winning the backup catcher spot, so I’m curious what’s up.

– It looks like every single pitcher in major league camp is healthy right now, or in Morton’s case very close.  I don’t think that’s typical at all.

Everything Old is New Again -- Sanguillen and McLouth Joke with McKenry and Anderson Hernandez

Hopefully, the photo above imparts some sense of why hardcore baseball fans love spring training.  Manny Sanguillen, Nate McLouth, Mike McKenry and Anderson Hernandez.  A star from the 1970s, on hand to coach the young catchers.  A star of the more recent past, trying to get his mojo back in the place where he got his start.  And two recent additions trying to latch onto jobs and avoid a return to AAA.  The past matters, and it doesn’t.

Not a great deal of consequence is happening at this stage.  The pitch counts are very limited and there’s nary a radar gun in sight.  Even A.J. Burnett’s and Gerrit Cole’s stints didn’t attract quite the attention you’d expect.  Still, just a few observations:

–Judging from the infield assignments, I’d say the backup middle infield job will be a battle between Hernandez, Yamaico Navarro and Josh Harrison.  Chase d’Arnaud and Jordy Mercer were working out at second and short, respectively, but they’ll both head back to Indianapolis.  Navarro has been at short for drills.  That’s a position that all the scouting reports say is a stretch for him, so his performance there is probably going to be very important.

–Starling Marte left me with the same impression Robbie Grossman did a year ago:  He’s grown up.  He doesn’t look skinny any more.  He looks more like an NFL defensive back.  Between that and his 12 HRs last year despite playing in a cavernous ballpark in Altoona, it’s hard to think any doubts will persist about his ability to hit for power.  The sole remaining issue should be his willingness to take pitches out of the strike zone.

–Clint Barmes couldn’t make contact in two at-bats against Logan Kensing.  Of course, it’s very, very early . . . .

–Nick Evans showed some impressive power in batting practice.  He’s a guy I’ve been hoping will win a spot.

–I ran into Tom Smith from RumBunter.  He said he watched some of the minor leaguers take batting practice yesterday.  They’re hard to identify at this stage because their jerseys don’t have names and there’s no numerical roster for them yet.  Tom did, however, see one tall switch-hitter, who can only have been Josh Bell, park quite a few over the fence.  Wish I’d been there.