There are many analytically-savvy players out there these days, but few are probably as dedicated and capable as Pirates utilityman Cole Figueroa. As Travis Sawchick of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review writes in an interesting profile, the son of an old-school former big leaguer incorporates math and coding into his personal regimen — and isn’t afraid to share his knowledge with his teammates. It’s a great piece and well worth a read.
Here’s more from the game’s central divisions:
- Pirates shortstop Gift Ngoepe is impressing in camp thus far and has a realistic hope of becoming the first black South African to crack the majors after being added to the 40-man over the winter, Bill Brink of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writes. The defensive specialist has moved from switch-hitting to focusing on hitting from his natural right side, with improved results. He’s in competition, along with Figueroa and others, to win a utility job.
- ESPN.com’s Mark Saxon looks at the Cardinals’ decision on shortstop Ruben Tejada, whom the Mets just placed on waivers. It appears that St. Louis is more likely to make a play for Tejada if he clears waivers than it is to claim him, though, Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets.
- The Brewers’ offseason of change was a product of “trying to aggregate as much young talent as we possibly can,” GM David Stearns tells Tom Haudricourt in a piece for Baseball America. “A lot of them were minor moves that didn’t make headlines, but the end result was that half of our 40-man roster will look different from the last day of the season,” said Stearns. “It’s a byproduct of the cycle we’re going through.” The newly-minted head Milwaukee baseball man suggested that such turnover may or may not continue moving forward, explaining that, “sometimes it takes a jump-start like this to get younger and more flexible on your roster.”
Really rooting for Ngoepe to make the team. His defense has potential gold glove all over it, its just a matter of if his bat will play. I really think if Jordy Mercer doesn’t hit this season, Ngoepe will take over shortstop in 2017.
Good luck to him. Hope it works out. But his bat doesn’t seem like it will do the trick, just by looking at stats. Never saw him play so best of luck. Do the Pirates still have the pitcher from India in their organization. That would be a cool story if he ever makes it.
Yes but he is in Single-A and most likely will never get out.
Think he had arm troubles
Hit the post button in error…. Think the Indian pitcher had arm issues. Was doing ok and slowly moving along as he had to learn to pitch. They had another Indian pitcher with him but he washed out
They are going to need players like Ngeope, taillon, glasnow, and bell to all step up to offset increasing costs for Cutch, Cole etc
They are slowly building the quality depth that any team needs to complete long term. Good teams tend to trade older players that either a) tail off in productivity or b) are not worth the money that they are commanding because of age or a slight drop off in productivity or both. Money not worth the production, or c) player wants top dollar and not enough money to pay that player and others needing to be paid as well.. When you have a quality guy in the minors ready to play, it is easier to move an older guy and plug in a ready to go replacement that you developed. See the Cardinals.