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Perrotto: Pirates Will Have Interesting Spring Training ‘Problem’

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Bubba Chandler, Pittsburgh Pirates

You can never have enough pitching.



How many times has that phrase been used in baseball history? Hundreds of thousands? Millions?

Well, there is a reason baseball people say it all the time. Because it’s true.

The Los Angeles Dodgers won the World Series last season. They used 40 pitchers in the regular season,.

The Pittsburgh Pirates seem to have too much starting pitching, at least on the surface.

The Pirates’ rotation to begin next season projects to include reigning National League Rookie of the Year Paul Skenes, Jared Jones, Mitch Keller, Johan Oviedo and left-hander Bailey Falter. Triple-A Indianapolis’ rotation should include four of the Pirates’ top 10 prospects in Bubba Chandler, Thomas Harrington, Braxton Ashcraft and Mike Burrows.

“We’re in a better place than probably any of the time that I’ve been here,” said Pirates manager Derek Shelton, who is entering his sixth season. “That’s a deep group of pitching, which is really important.”

But is that pool almost too deep? It will be interesting to see how the Pirates utilize all those pitchers in spring training.

Pitchers and catchers begin working out on Feb. 12 in Bradenton. The Pirates’ first Grapefruit League game is Feb. 22 against the Baltimore Orioles in Sarasota, Fla.
Shelton isn’t ready to reveal any plans until spring training begins.

“The good thing is we’re going to have some decisions to make,” Shelton said.

There are various ways that the Pirates can ensure their starting pitchers work enough innings in the spring to be ready for the regular season.

The Pirates could “piggyback” starting pitchers in games with one opening the game and another starter following him. They could schedule “B” games against other teams in the area or play intrasquad games on the back fields at the Pirate City training complex.

Beyond tracking the continued development of Skenes, one of the more interesting aspects of spring training will be seeing how Chandler, Harrington, Ashcraft and Burrows fare against major-league competition.

Burrows is the only one who has pitched in the big leagues, working 3.1 innings of relief for the win against the Yankees on the next-to-last day of the season in New York.

Baseball Prospectus released its top 101 prospects list on Tuesday and Chandler was ranked 21st and Harrington was No. 81. At the end of last season, Baseball America had Chandler at No. 21 and Harrington at No. 91 while MLB.com ranked Chandler at No. 15, Ashcraft at No. 85 and Harrington at No. 91.

Not all prospects work out as Pirates fans know from experience. However, the Pirates have enough starting pitching prospects to make tracking them interesting both this spring and beyond.

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