Welcome to DK Sports Radio and a new Daily Shot of Pirates, my every-weekday, half-hour program on the local baseball franchise. Today's episode: It's both wild and wonderful that nine top-30 prospects will be invited to big-league camp this spring.
Oh, and hey, there's a transcript below, as well.
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TRANSCRIPT
There are few things in following sports that are less interesting, less exciting than a Major League Baseball team putting out its non-roster invitee list. So yes, sir, we are going after that one today!
The Pirates put out their list of non-roster invitees to spring training yesterday. In the past, I've given this list a quick, cursory glance to find out which 38-year-old relievers they were bringing in to compete for extra spots in middle relief. And then there came the one yesterday, which is exactly what a non-roster invitee list should look like.
I'm going to explain to you first of all what a non-roster invitee list is, for anybody who's wondering 'What is he even talking about?' Major League Baseball has 40-man rosters, even though you can only have 25 on the active roster. The other 15 are players you're protecting from being taken once they reach a certain level of experience. Other players don't need to be on the 40 because they haven't been around long enough. When you enter spring training, automatically, all of your guys on the 40 are participating in the opening of camp. But you also want to bring in others because you need more of them, especially for the early stages. So if you bring in tryout guys like the 38-year-old reliever I was just describing. You also can have prospects up. Sometimes management -- not just Pittsburgh but anywhere -- likes to have one or two prospects around so they can get the feel of being around big-league camp, so they can get the feel of being around big-league players, so that they don't get as intimidated. If and when they eventually do make it to the majors.
And then there came this list in which the Pirates will be bringing in by my count either eight or nine, depending on which rankings you go by, top-30 prospects into the fold. Travis Swaggerty's an outfielder who actually could compete for a spot in Pittsburgh, maybe not right off the bat but at some point in 2021. Liover Peguero's the shortstop that they picked up in the Starling Marte trade. Mason Martin has the best power of anybody in the system. Nick Gonzales, their No. 1 prospect, the second baseman who can hit the cover off the ball. Quinn Priester, who we talked about on yesterday's show, who might be the best pitching prospect in baseball, at least according to some people outside the organization, by year's end.
You get the idea. It's going to be a free-for-all of prospects. It's going to be a setting where the prospects are going to be battling it out with the other prospects to see who can impress the most, whether that's on the field of play, whether they even get into any Grapefruit ball, and I'm sure they will. And that's another thing here. Because the first full-squad workout is Feb. 22, the first exhibition game against the Red Sox is five days later, and you're going to need players, you're not going to be using your regular guys for a month and change. So these prospects are going to get into games.
Are they going to look great?
Maybe not. Probably not. That tends not to be how it works, you know. But they'll get out there, they'll get a taste of it. Maybe they'll impress, maybe they'll take a step forward. I don't mean to be negative about it. But they'll be out there. They won't just be relegated to Pirate City right off the bat. And for anybody who doesn't knowm there's two different settings: There's LECOM Park, or the old McKechnie Field, where the exhibition games happen. And then further south in Bradenton, there's Pirate City, which is the multi-field complex where the minor-leaguers train.
What Ben Cherington's predecessor would do is to keep those prospects in their place, so they would be sent down right away. Maybe one kid would be given a chance to hang around with the big-leaguers, but nothing like this. I love this. This is this is cool. And be honest with you here, it's actually going to make it a little bit more fun. I'm speaking selfishly here. I'm going down there. These are the players I want to see. For better or worse. I want to see them mess up, too. I want to see them be human. But I want to see them.
If Priester's drawing all these raves, really, how much can you hurt him by throwing him out there against the Red Sox on a Saturday afternoon in front of 2,000 people in Fort Myers?
Let's see what he's got. If he faces their lineup and does really well, can you imagine what that does for this kid's psyche?
That's the kind of stuff that you want to do when you're both growing the organization putting in a foundation, but also also in fostering that spirit of competition. And there's that word again, I'm going to use it again on purpose because that's something that Cherington's focused on a lot. He wants these kids to push against each other within reason, you know, on their way up the ladder. If some other pitcher in the system hears or reads all the happy stuff that's been said about Priester of late and they think, 'You know what? He's not even the best pitcher in the system. I am.' And that pitcher takes the ball. Now you have a healthier situation.
Not that long ago. Jameson Taillon was talking about the Eastern League championship Altoona squad from a few years back, one that had a lot of guys who ended up making it to the majors. And he talked about what a feeling of pride they all had. But he also talked about how healthy they were for each other, how they gained confidence from each other. Cherington isn't new to this game. Everywhere he's been this is what he's done. He's built with youth. He's built with both quality and quantity. So that both the individual and the team aspects of these players development mature along the way.
It's just an NRI list. I'm not making more of it than what needs to be made, believe me. But I'd much rather see these kids come into this setting and show what they can do. For better or worse. Just have some fun with it.
