Cole a winner in Curve debut

photo by Grant Jefferies

A new league, a new level and a new uniform did little to dim Gerrit Cole's first season of professional baseball.
Cole pitched the Altoona Curve to a 9-4 win over the New Britian Rock Cats on Wednesday in his first start woih the Pirates' Double-A affiliate. Cole began the season with Marauders before he was promoted earlier this month.
The first overall pick of the 2011 draft, Cole allowed two earned runs on five hits in five innings, striking out six and not issuing a walk. A pair of former Marauders helped him out - Robbie Grossman and Quincy Latimore hit three-run home runs.
Cole went 5-1 with a 2.55 ERA in 13 starts with the Marauders.

Stefan Welch added to South's All-Star Team

One more Bradenton Marauder is headed to the Florida State League All-Star Game.
Corner infielder Stefan Welch was added to the South Division's team as a replacement today, giving the Marauders three representatives in the game, which will be played Saturday at Charlotte Sports Park.
A native of Australia, Welch is batting .261 with eight home runs and 36 RBIs in 60 games with the Marauders. He signed with the New York Mets as a non-drafted free agent in 2005 and spent the last three seasons with the Mets' FSL affiliate in Port St. Lucie.
Welch also played for Austrailia during with World Baseball Classic and Baseball World Cup in 2009.
Pitchers Jameson Taillon and Gerrit Cole were the other Marauders chosen for the All-Star Game.

A night for the dogs

It's Bark At The Park Night at McKechnie Field, mixing two of my favorite things of the world - baseball and dogs.
So I attached a picture of a our dog, Rosie, chilling on our living room couch.
Yeah, she rocks.
This is John Lembo and here are the lineups for tonight's game against the Jupiter Hammerheads.

HAMMERHEADS
Danny Black, ss
Alfredo Lopez, lf
Mark Canha, 1b
Marcell Ozuna, cf
J.T. Realmuto, c
Noah Perio, 2b
Taylor Krick, dh
Danny Pertusati, rf
Ryan Fisher, 3b
Rob Rasmussen, p

MARAUDERS
Gift Ngoepe, ss
Drew Maggi, 2b
Mej Rojas Jr., cf
Alex Dickerson, 1b
Carlos Paulino, c
Stefan Welch, dh
Evan Chambers, rf
Wes Freeman, lf
Benji Gonzalez, 3b
Eliecer Navarro, p

Marauders looking for strong second half

Once again, the Marauders are playing for the future.
Bradenton takes a 25-34 record into today's doubleheader in Daytona before heading home Saturday to start a three-game series with Jupiter. St. Lucie (46-14) has already locked up the South Division title for the first half, so the Marauders have nothing more to do than play out the first half strong.
Counting tonight's doubleheader, the Marauders have 11 first-half games remaining. Following this weekend's series against the Hammerheads, the Marauders head to Fort Myers for three before taking three days off for the All-Star break.
There is one more first-half series after the break - three home games against St. Lucie - before the Marauders open the second half at home June 21 against Charlotte.
Of course, this isn't new ground for Bradenton - the Marauders have won the South Division's second half the past two seasons, taking advantage of minor-league baseball's two-seasons-in-one quirk.
The question is who will be on Bradenton's roster when the second half begins. The buzz around spring training was that pitcher Gerrit Cole (4-1, 2.53 ERA in 11 starts) would be in Bradenton until the weather warmed in Altoona, home to the Pirates' Double-A team.
Cole, the first overall pick of last year's draft who turns 22 in September, is headed to the FSL All-Star Game. The team's other All-Star pick, pitcher Jameson Taillon, may stick around Bradenton a little longer.
Unlike Cole, who pitched three seasons with UCLA before signing a pro contract, Taillon (3-5, 3.57) was drafted out of high school. He won't turn 21 until November, and the Pirates may bring him along slower than Cole.
This, of course, is all speculation. Time will tell who will be a Marauder once the second half and whether the team can make another late surge to the playoffs.

Pirates take pitcher Mark Appel with first pick

Another big-time arm could be headed to McKechnie Field next year.
The Pirates took Mark Appel, a junior out of Stanford, with the eighth overall pick tonight during the first day of the amateur player draft.
Appel went 10-1 with a 2.27 ERA for Stanford, striking out 127 in 119 innings. He threw five complete games and a shutout, and was named the most outstanding player of the Stanford Regional during the NCAA Division I tournament.
Appel allowed 92 hits, but only 23 went for extra bases.
The Pirates' first-round pick last year, pitcher Gerrit Cole, made his professional debut in April with the Marauders after a brief stint in the Arizona Fall League. Cole had finished his junior year at UCLA before the Pirates picked him.
Will Appel follow in Cole's footsteps?
We'll know for sure this time year.

Pirates converting Stetson Allie to hitter

photo by milb.com

Don't expect Stetson Allie to join the Marauders' pitching roation any time soon.
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported that the Pirates are converting Allie, their second-round pick in 2010, into a hitter.

“Stetson was one of the few athletes in each draft to be considered a prospect as a pitcher and as a hitter,” Pirates general manager Neal Huntington told the Tribune-Review. “We believed his highest upside was as a pitcher. We obviously were very pleased to sign him as a pitcher. Since then, we’ve faced some challenges with him as a pitcher.”

In 15 appearances last year for the Pirates' short-season New York-Penn League team in State College, Allie posted a 6.58 ERA and walked 29 in 26 innings. He also struck out 28, showing shades of the player the Pirates hoped they were getting when they signed him for over $2 million out of high school.

His control problems followed him this season to West Virginia, home to the Pirates' low Single-A team, where Allie issued eight walks and allowed four earned runs in 2/3 of an inning. According the Tribune-Review, Allie, who made two appearances and a start, was shut down so he could work on his delivery.

The Pirates' first pick of the 2010 draft, James Taillon, is currently with the Marauders and was selected to play in the Florida State League's All-Star Game on June 16 in Port Charlotte.

Cole, Taillon picked for FSL All-Star game

Gerrit Cole is headed to the Florida State League All-Star Game. Photo by Grant Jefferies

Pitching has been the Bradenton Marauders’ strength this season.
So it’s no surprise two of their starters are headed to the Florida State League All-Star Game.
Jameson Taillon and Gerrit Cole will represent Bradenton during the game, scheduled for Saturday, June 16 at Charlotte Sports Park.
Taillon, the Pittsburgh Pirates’ first pick of the 2010 draft, is 3-4 with a 3.29 ERA and 48 strikeouts in 52 innings. He is second in the league in opponents’ bating average (.214), fifth in WHIP (1.08) and 10th in strikeouts.
It’s the second All-Star selection for Taillon, who was picked for the South Atlantic League’s game last year while pitching for the Pirates’ low Single-A team in West Virginia.
Cole is 4-1 with a 2.47 ERA in his first season of professional baseball. The Pirates took him with first overall pick last season out of UCLA. He is first in the league in opponents’ batting average (.208), second in the league in ERA and second in WHIP (1.04).
He has 50 strikeouts and is 4-0 with a 1.32 ERA in his last six starts.
The Marauders entered play Friday ranked second in the league in team ERA (3.34).