Pittsburgh Pirates: Pitching Prospects Shining Brightly in Arizona Fall League

The Pittsburgh Pirates will likely head into the 2015 Major League Baseball winter meetings looking to upgrade their pitching staff with the goal of making it to the postseason for the third straight year and possibly making a run at a World Series title.  

Come this time next season, however, members of the organization may need not look any further for standout pitching than their own farm system.

After a devastating injury to Pittsburgh's top pitching prospect Jameson Taillon that would require season-ending Tommy John surgery in 2014, the team had to put his highly anticipated major league debut on hold.

With Taillon gone for the season, all heads quickly turned to the young Tyler Glasnow, who was ranked second among all pitching prospects by Baseball America in the Pirates organization entering the 2014 regular season.

The 21-year-old prospect posted the best single-season statistics of his three-year minor league career in 2014, going 12-5 with an outstanding 1.74 ERA in 23 starts for the High-A Bradenton Marauders.  

Upon completion of this dominating season in the minors, Glasnow prepared for the upcoming Arizona Fall League, a league that features many of the potential young stars.  

In 9.2 innings of work this fall for the Scottsdale Scorpions, Glasnow has made hitters look foolish at times, striking out 13 batters.  

Although he has allowed nine hits and six walks over that span, Glasnow has allowed just one earned run due to his ability to strike batters out at a high rate and keep runners from advancing on outs.  

More importantly, three of his six walks came in his first inning of work in the first game he started for the Scorpions this fall, which shows that he has settled into a nice groove over the last 8.2 innings pitched.  

Although he is only 21 years old and has yet to even pitch in Double-A, expect Glasnow to make an impact for the Pirates at the major league level sometime during the 2016 regular season, as he is on track to be that good if he continues to dominate at a higher level in 2015.  

Sam Dykstra of MiLB.com reported Tuesday that Joely Rodriguez was named the AFL pitcher of the week.  

Rodriguez didn't even crack Baseball America's list of the top 10 prospects in the Pirates farm system heading into the 2014 regular season. At the same time, he had an average season at best, going 6-11 with a 4.84 ERA for the Double-A Altoona Curve in 2014.  

Suddenly, however, the 22-year-old is making a name for himself, as he won the honors by going 2-0 with a 1.13 ERA last week for the Scorpions.  

With Taillon hopefully returning healthy and possibly making an impact at the major league level within the next two seasons, the Pirates must be wide-eyed and hopeful when they look at the level of talent they have on the mound in their system.  

For now, though, Glasnow and Rodriguez will hope to continue to find success on the mound in the Arizona Fall League.  

*Statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com.