When looking at the Pirates’ farm system, many of the organizations’ top prospects are currently in Class High-A Greensboro. Of their top 10 prospects, according to Baseball America, six are at that level, including their last four first-round picks: 2021 first-overall pick Henry Davis, 2019 selection Quinn Priester and 2020 picks Nick Gonzales and Carmen Mlodzinski.
There’s a newcomer on that top 10 list: Michael Burrows, who made the jump from No. 24 preseason to 10th in the midseason update. And for a level that has so much pitching, the 21-year-old right-hander has the lowest ERA on staff at 2.15.
He’s not paying attention where exactly each outlet has him on the Pirates’ prospect pecking order right now, though.
“It’s where the organization sees me [that matters],” Burrows was telling me over the phone. “Obviously they won’t give me their list to see, but I like to think they hold me pretty high in there and that I mean something to this organization and eventually I’ll be helping them produce at the big league level.”
An 11th-round overslot pick in 2018, Burrows always had a high-spin curveball with movement, but it’s his improvement with two other pitches that have shot him up prospect boards.
The first is the fastball. In his first full season in pro ball in 2019, he consistently sat in the low-90s, occasionally ramping up his heat to the 94-96 mph range. This season, he has been sitting in that 93-96 mph window, while mixing in 97 and 98 occasionally.
Some of that spike can be attributed to getting stronger and filling out his 6’2” frame, but he also spent a lot of time during the shutdown last year cleaning up his mechanics.
“I didn’t use my back side, really, at all in 2019,” Burrows said. “I didn’t really go too deep into it [my throwing motion], and then once I started breaking everything down and really looking at it, I realized I didn’t have a back side. Just utilizing my legs and understanding how much they contribute to the throw has really added to that maintaining of my velocity.”
Burrows has been utilizing what he referred to as a drift-drop-rotate motion. When coming up to the top of his leg kick, he drifts forward slightly to use the momentum of the slope of the mound to create hip and shoulder separation.
You can see that drift forward while he’s pitching. Here he is in his first start back from the injured list on Sept. 7:
Burrows is making his second start back from the injured list Tuesday, which could be a playoff clincher for the Grasshoppers. He’s scheduled to go three innings, and if he completes all three frames, he would go four in the playoffs next week.
Many scouts projected that Burrows’ fastball would eventually take a jump, but the question was if he could develop a third pitch. If he didn’t, the fastball and curveball project to play out of a major league bullpen, but to be a starter, he would need another offering.
He’s found it in a changeup. He’s still looking for more consistency with it, but when it is working, it’s the extra pitch he needs. Even in a developmental phase, it’s not uncommon for him to throw it for 15-20% of his pitches in a game, even in right-on-right matchups.
“My last three or four starts before I got hurt, it was money,” Burrows said. “I was throwing it for strikes, for strike-to-ball, getting swing and misses. It was electric. I was having a lot of fun with it.”
During his rehab from a left oblique injury he suffered in mid-July, Burrows was able to maintain that feel of the changeup when throwing.
“I definitely have three pitches,” Burrows said. “It’s no longer, ‘oh Burrows has two pitches and a third one coming along.’ Like I definitely have three pitches.”
A promotion to Class AA Altoona is essentially guaranteed next season for Burrows. If those pitches keep playing in the upper levels of the system, then a major league debut could be on its way by 2023.
MORE MINOR LEAGUE NOTES
• Bradenton has clinched a spot in the Low A Southeast playoffs where they will play the Tampa Tarpons -- Low A affiliate of the New York Yankees beginning next week. One of the biggest reasons the Marauders have reached the playoffs is the play of catcher Endy Rodriguez, who has been red-hot of late.
Rodriguez won the Low A Player of the Week Award this week after hitting .387 with two home runs and 9 RBI in addition to a 1.135 OPS over the last week. The former New York Mets prospect came to the Pirates' organization in the Joe Musgrove trade and has proceeded to slash .294/.384/.508 in his first full season of Low A baseball.
• Po-Yu Chen notched the first win with Bradenton Sunday and in dominant fashion. Chen tossed seven scoreless innings allowing only three hits -- all singles -- as well as striking out six along the way. The most impressive part of the evening was he threw only 72 pitches, 49 of which were strikes.
Entering Sunday's start, Chen had thrown only five innings with the Marauders allowing seven earned runs, seven walks and nine strikeouts. Chen is 19 years old and will get one final start on Sunday for Bradenton.
• Greensboro has lost four games in a row entering the last series of the regular season. The Grasshoppers are only two wins away from clinching a playoff spot, though, they are playing Hudson Valley -- High A affiliate of the Yankees -- who happen to be atop the North Division.
As if the week couldn't have gotten any worse, Carmen Mlodzinski and Tahnaj Thomas were among four pitchers who landed on the 7-day IL this week with J.C. Flowers and Garrett Leonard being the others.
• It wasn't Omar Cruz or Roansy Contreras who won Pitcher of the Year honors for Altoona, but rather Johnstown, Pa.'s own Trey McGough who took home the honors. McGough started 17 games for the Curve after being called up from Greensboro early in the season. He went 5-5 with a 3.54 ERA with 69 strikeouts and only 19 walks.
Cruz won his first game since August 10 Thursday with going five innings allowing two runs on three hits and three walks while striking out six on 81 pitches, 52 strikes.
• While the other affiliates are wrapping up their seasons, Indianapolis' season is still going strong. The Indians will play into the first week of October as the Triple A season is built to mirror the Major League schedule this season. According to Pirates GM Ben Cherington, Indianapolis should benefit greatly from Altoona's season ending as there will be quite a few players called up once the season ends, though, who they could be is anyone's guess *cough* Oneil Cruz and Contreras *cough, cough* to name a few.
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YOUR TURN: We'd love to hear from you, too, especially if you make it out to see any of these prospects and affiliates play. Feel free to file your own original scouting reports and other observations in comments.