If you are at all familiar with the modus operandi of Pittsburgh Pirates management, you know that they do not believe in rushing their minor league prospects to the majors. There is no doubt great value in that philosophy as we all know that minor league stats don't always equate to said player's readiness for Major League competition or even if that player will ever even be a quality major leaguer (see Brad Eldred, Chad Hermanson, J.J. Davis, John VanBenschotten - it's a long an painful list). Still, the philosophy can be frustrating when comparing the numbers of Neil Walker and Brad Lincoln at Indy to those of Aki Iwamura and Charlie Morton in Pittsburgh.
With these thoughts in mind, Frank Coonelly was asked at the SABR meeting two weeks ago where would 20-year old Atlanta Brave Jason Heyward, on his way to Rookie-of-the-Year honors in the NL, be if he were in the Pirates organization. Expecting an answer along the lines that Heyward-is-the-exception-to-the-rule, I was surprised, if not stunned, when Coonelly answered that Heyward is striking out a lot and the Pirates organization would be addressing that by having Heyward playing in Altoona this season with the hope of getting him to Triple-A Indy sometime later in the year.
Last night, Heyward lit up the Pirates for a single, a double, and a home run, a walk, a run scored, and 3 RBI's. Of course, Pirates pitching did get this should be minor leaguer to fly out to center in the sixth inning.
Wonder what Heyward will do in the next two games of this series? The Grandstander will be watching.
The "J-Hey Kid" is outproducing every Pirates batter and many notable MLB players such as Ryan Howard. But why would the Pirates want to call him up (if they had him)? After all, we do have Lastings Milledge and his zero HR's!!!
ReplyDeleteIt does boggle the mind. Although, J-Hey had an off night against the Bucs last night (1-for-4) reducing his BA against the Bucs to .500 for the series.
ReplyDeleteI think Heyward is on a pace that he would end up with approximately 33 homers and 125 RBI. For Coonelly to say he would be in Altoona (is that "Double A"?) if he were with the Pirate organization is enough evidence to have him fired from the Pirates. His statement should be made public. Can you somehow pass that along to Smizak or some other reporter so they can confront him with his idiotic statement?
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