GCL Pirates

The GCL Pirates began their season with a loss today. The Rookie League team looks like it could be good as they lost 10-8 to the Yankees on a blown save. The roster will be one to watch.

Of course everyone will be watching Colton Cain, the potential ace drafted out of high school last year. He signed so late he did not get any time in the minors last year. His first start is highly anticipated, but perhaps his success is not as important after the most recent draft with two other potential aces drafted.

Joining the high expectations club will be 2009 7th round draft pick Trent Stephenson, who played in 5 games (4 starts for 15 innings) for GCL last year. He got 8 strikeouts in that short time. Also from 2009 this time the 12th round will be Jeffrey Inman. These starters will be something to watch.

Now I think that the GCL team has more offensive prospects than the State College team this year. 2009 10th round pick, Joey Schoenfeld will be a catcher on the team. But, most of the people to watch are products of the Pirates new and improved Latin American system. I have high hopes for both Jonathon Barrios (SS) and Eric Avila (3B). Gregory Polanco and Junior Sosa (both OF) are more possible prospects. In fact the GCL Pirates are full of people promoted from the DSL and VSL. How they perform might give us an indication of how Hunington is doing in Latin America.

It should also be noted that a few novelty (non-prospect) Pirates are on this team. Two Indian (the country) pitchers are still here: Dinesh Patel and Ringu Singh. Also the Taiwanese First base man Chin-Wei Hsu is on this team. They will be fun to keep track of even though they are not real prospects.