VIRGIL VASQUEZ

6/7/82; '03 7th (Detroit); Univ. of California-Santa Barbara
R/R; 6-3, 205

Level
W-L-Sv
G
GS
IP
H
HR
BB
K
BB/9
K/9
WHIP
OAVG
ERA
2003 A- (Det)
3-4-0
11
11
53.1
76
5
10
35
1.7
5.9
1.61
.328
6.92
2004 A (Det)
14-6-0
27
27
168.1
156
14
34
120
1.8
6.4
1.13
.252
3.64
2005 AA (Det)
2-8-0
15
15
83.2
93
10
14
53
1.5
5.7
1.28
.281
5.27
2005 A+ (Det)
4-1-0
8
8
47.0
52
6
7
31
1.3
5.9
1.26
.289
4.21
2006 AA (Det)
7-12-0
27
27
174.2
176
21
50
129
2.6
6.5
1.29
.265
3.71
2007 AL (Det)
0-1-0
5
3
16.2
27
7
5
7
2.7
3.8
1.92
.360
8.64
2007 AAA (Det)
12-5-0
25
25
155.0
139
18
33
127
1.9
7.4
1.11
.241
3.48
2008 AAA (Det)
12-12-0
27
27
159.0
179
27
37
115
2.1
6.5
1.36
.283
4.81
2009 NL
2-5-0
14
7
44.2
58
6
18
29
3.6
5.8
1.70
.320
5.84
2009 AAA
7-4-0
19
19
107.2
116
14
16
72
1.3
6.0
1.23
.276
3.93

Vasquez is a control artist who has excellent command of four pitches. His upper-80s fastball is subpar. He's gotten by in the minors by allowing very few walks, offsetting the generally high hit totals. He tends to allow a lot of gopher balls, a problem that got out of hand in 2008. His progress through the minors has been slow, but he seemed to be making strides in 2006-07, especially since he dramatically reduced the number of hits he was allowing. The wheels came off a little in 2008, though. On the whole, he looks like the standard finesse pitcher who gets by with no margin for error.

Vasquez had an interesting off-season after the 2008 season. He was waived by Detroit, claimed by Boston, waived by the Red Sox, claimed by San Diego, then waived again and claimed by the Pirates. He figured to provide organizational depth in 2009, as Ty Taubenheim did in 2008. In fact, his acquisition may have resulted from concern over the health status of Phil Dumatrait and Jeff Karstens. Surprisingly, he remained in the competition for the last rotation spot until the end of spring training, even though he did not have a good spring. Rather than give him a shot at the bullpen, the Pirates said he'd go to AAA to serve as starting depth. For some reason the team says it sees something they like in Vasquez. Maybe it requires some specially tinted glasses. Maybe nobody in management was in attendance when he got roughed up by Manatee Community College at the end of spring training.

Vasquez spent most of the season at Indianapolis and was solid but hardly outstanding. He gave up a lot of hits and had some gopher ball problems, but got by because he walked very few batters. The Pirates called him up in late June and put him in the rotation when they sent Ian Snell down. Predictably, he got hammered. He stayed in the rotation until Kevin Hart replaced him. The team called him back up in September to pitch out of the bullpen and, predictably, he got hammered some more. His walk rate was way up in the majors, which probably shows that major league hitters weren't inclined to chase breaking balls out of the strike zone. The Pirates removed him from the 40-man roster after the season.  He became a minor league free agent.

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