Pirate 2001 Scouting Report

Last Updated 31 December 2001

Index: | Top Prospects | Position Analysis | Other Prospect Sites/Links | Magazine Predictions: Baseball America; Baseball Weekly |
This is an abbreviated Scouting Report for 2001. Mark Jareb's Depth Chart for 2001 can be found on his web site. Mark started posting these reports to the Pirate e-mail list, but I thought they deserved a wider audience. I offered to edit them and originally posted them to Glenn's Pirates Page. This year, you'll find the detailed reports on Mark's own web page. I have enjoyed working with Mark on these Scouting Reports, and I hope you enjoy reading them too.
You can still find Mark's Scouting Reports from previous years still on the web: Plus, Mark has added a page for each player that combines the previous Scouting Reports. For example, you can see Jason Kendall's consolidated report on the web at Mark's site. Mark's list of player files can be found in his directory. His start page for the 2001 Scouting report is at: http://www.mindspring.com/~bucminors/bucs/scout01.html
Top Prospects

Position Player Prospects:


  1. Honorable Mention:
Pitching Prospects:

Position-by-Position Report (Mark's thoughts)
My annual Scouting Report on the Pittsburgh Pirates tries to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the organization and tries to show where the franchise is headed. The sections on position players focuses heavily on plate discipline and hitting for power. The sections on pitching tends to focus more on the pitcher's tools rather than their performance. The Pirates have done pretty well with their pitching staff, and I think it's indicative of their emphasis on tools. The Pirates GM, Cam Bonifay, comes from a scouting background, and, like most scouts, his decisions have revolved around a players' tools and their highest ceiling. I don't think it's a coincedence that his decisions regarding pitchers have tended to do well, while those regarding batters have not been nearly as successful.
This report is largely a culmination of ideas and thoughts from the Pirates email list, and thus, the members of that list need to be acknowledged first and foremost. By no means do all the members of the list give their seal of approval on what's been written, yet all the participating members have shaped the content of this report (perhaps most by those with disagreements).
This position-by-position report on the Pittsburgh Pirates organization attempts to project the level that each player will be at in 2001 and identify the extent to which a player is a prospect. In addition, it attempts to identify which positions the Pirates have needs to fill and the various possibilities to address those needs.

Notes: when you see ###/###/### that stands for BA/OBP/SLG. The ages listed for players are how old they will be on July 1, 2001. The standard information provided for each player (where available) is as follows:
Age, birthdate mm/dd/yy; how acquired (Draft Round # and year, Free Agent, NonDrafted Free Agent, Draft & Follow), High School or College
Position, Bats-Throws, Height Weight

I'll list the players currently in the organization based generally on the highest level they played in 2000 (or where they spent most of the year or where they finished). I'll include winter league stastics also (when they are available).

Other Prospect Sites/Links
You can find current stats on Pirate farm hands (in season) at various web sites. You can find links to these sites in the Minor League section of Glenn's Pirates Page. USA Today, CNN, Nando, and Pirateball are all good resources for information.

Not available for 2001
1996 Baseball America Prediction
1997 Baseball America Prediction
1998 Baseball America Prediction
1999 Baseball America Prediction
2000 Baseball America Prediction
After the season, Baseball America listed the Top 10 Pirate prospects for each season from 1983-2000. This information is now reserved for their web subscribers.
Baseball Weekly: here's their 2001 look at the Pirates Prospects.
Nearly Ready: Alex Hernandez, Tike Redman
Up and Coming: Bobby Bradley, Sean Burnett, J.J. Davis, J.R. House, Jack Wilson, Chris Young
Sleepers: Tony Alvarez, Jose Castillo, Craig Wilson, Dave Williams
An explanation of Mark's method:
One area where it gets dicey is trying to compare young prospects with little pro experience and high upside to more advanced prospects with lower upside. The more experienced the player, the more data I have to make a prediction, therefore the more confident I am in my projection. Conversely, for some young prospects (who typically have high upsides) I obviously have less data to work with, so I'm not as confident in my projections (i.e. my success rate in projecting prospects at lower levels is less than that of prospects at higher levels). So sometimes I rate someone with lower upside over a higher upside player simply because I'm more confident in the low upside player's projections. Other times, the young prospect's upside is just too great and I've convinced myself that the player's potential will be realized. Your mileage may vary.
Is there something here you like, that needs to be changed,
or would you like to see something that is not included?
Send me an
e-mail

Go back to Glenn's Pirates Page

Go back to Glenn's Home Page