Although I'm not a scout, I have no shortage of opinions,
as you'll soon see if you haven't already. I certainly believe a lot can
be told from minor league stats. A lot of observation is needed, too, of
course. I try to dig up information where I can, mostly on the web, and I
add my own observations, especially where I've seen a player a lot and feel reasonably confident about the
impressions I've formed. I'm perfectly happy to add the observations or opinions of others,
including dissenting opinions. I'm very interested in observations from other fans who get the chance to see
the team's prospects in action and read them whenever they're posted on various Pirate-related blogs and
the like. I'm not too hard to find online if you have observations you'd
like to share. What I'm trying to do here is not to
provide "definitive" reports on these players, even if I was capable of doing that, so
much as present the best information I can find about players both well known and obscure.
Wilbur Miller
THE PLAYERS
I've changed the way the players are organized under each position. What you'll
find are the following lists for each:
40-Man Roster Prospects Trying to Get Established Minor League Vets and Organizational Players Where Are They Now?
I think these are fairly
self-explanatory. I'm not going to try stating exact criteria for each, as there's inevitably some subjectivity in saying whether a guy is a "prospect," although I've interpreted it pretty broadly. A lot of it is a function of time. At the lower levels, most players fall into the "trying to get established" category. At the upper levels, most players will either be prospects or veteran/organizational guys. It's usually pretty obvious from the way the team handles promotions, roles and playing times.
The "Where Are They Now?" category
literally covers guys whose whereabouts I'm uncertain about. Usually
they're players who've gotten hurt and haven't played for a year or more, or
players who've probably retired or been released,
but I haven't seen anything to indicate for certain that they are
or aren't with the organization any longer. Once I
find out for sure, I'll either move them to the appropriate category or drop
them. Once each season ends, I'll also include in this category minor league free agents
who were with the organization during the previous season, until they sign either with the Pirates
or somebody else. There should be periods when this category disappears.