Buccos Cove

Before the 2021 MLB All-Star game gets underway on July 13th in Colorado, the stars of tomorrow will take the field in the 2021 Futures Game. A pair of Pirates pitching prospects will take part in the event as Quinn Priester and Roansy Contreras got the nod. While the Pittsburgh Pirates begin their build for the future, a lot of the excitement for the team is down in the Minor Leagues. With all four affiliate teams having winning records this season, it is pretty easy to get excited about what these players might do for the Big League club one day. As we head towards the 2021 MLB All-Star Break, the top players across Minor League Baseball will converge on Coors Field in Denver, Colorado for the 2021 MLB Futures Game. In years past, the Pirates have had guys like Mitch Keller, Ke'Bryan Hayes, and Gregory Polanco participate in the event who are now impacting the Big League club. This season, the Pirates have two of their top Minor League pitchers representing the organi...

After being delegated to the alternate training site for the 2020 season, Pirates fans we're excited to see top prospect Quinn Priester back on the mound. After a slow start to the year, the Pirates top pitching prospect has turned it on over his last couple of starts. If you have been following some of the Pirates top prospects down in the Minor Leagues as of late, you know that most of the news hasn't been good. Pirates #1 prospect Nick Gonzales just hit the Injured List with a broken finger, and #7 prospect Travis Swaggerty is now out for the year with a dislocated shoulder. After missing out on the 2020 season due to the pandemic, this is not a promising sign for either player. However, there is some good news on the prospect front as well down in Low-A Greensboro. Quinn Priester, who started the year with a bad opener, is turning things around. In his first start, he allowed six runs, three earned, over three innings and had a 9.00 ERA. His ERA sat at 7.71 afte...

The Pittsburgh Pirates kicked off their 2021 season today with a 5-3 win against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. However, there are a slew of players at the alternate training site waiting for the start of their season, and we look at some of the players to watch waiting in the wings. The Pittsburgh Pirates are back and they kicked off their season this afternoon with an impressive 5-3 win where the bullpen dominated the Chicago Cubs. While the Opening Day roster has made their 2021 debut, there are a whole group of players still in Pittsburgh that are waiting to begin their season. Anyone not on the Pirate's active 40-man roster was sent to the Pirates Alternate Training site, which this year is happening here in Pittsburgh. The Pirates will be using a combination of PNC Park, Heinz Field, and Charles L. Cost Field (home of the Pittsburgh Panthers) to allow their other players the opportunity to get reps in. Some of these players will make an impact on the 2021 Pira...

As the top pitching prospect in the Pirates Minor League system, Quinn Priester is turning heads in Big League camp. As he transitions to the upper levels of the Minor League system, he is trying to show that he can continue to be dominant. As the Pittsburgh Pirates continue their rebuild to bring a winning team back in Pittsburgh, their prospects and development are more important than ever. These highly touted prospects have to start turning out and becoming competitive Major League players. The Pirates greatly improved that Minor League system this off-season, adding 11 new players to the Top 30 prospects list. However, through all the changes, one guy who has held his ground on the list is right-handed pitcher Quinn Priester. He is joining Big League Spring Training for the first time in his professional baseball career and has been turning heads. Although he hasn't yet appeared in a Spring Training game for the Pirates this year, his bullpens have looked good and h...

It's that time of year as the Pittsburgh Pirates converge on Bradenton, Florida for Spring Training 2021. With Spring Training games beginning a week from Sunday, we look at who might be toeing the rubber in the first exhibition game against the Baltimore Orioles. Baseball is finally back!! After four long months of wheeling and dealing, it is time for all 30 clubs to begin Spring Training. For the Pirates, that means covering on LECOM Park in Bradenton, Florida. This year's camp features a lot of bright young stars all looking to make an impression on Derek Shelton and his coaching staff. Shelton met with the media yesterday afternoon and was fired up to get back on the field with his team. He said, "We're back, and it's baseball, and it's something I know I've been waiting for all winter long." Coming off of a season where they went 19-41, the team is looking for improvement and looking to develop their future stats as Ben Cherington and ...

After a long four months of waiting, baseball is back as pitchers and catchers are reporting to camp this week. The Pittsburgh Pirates may be in a rebuild, but improvement across the team is the goal for Derek Shelton's team. Even though there is snow outside, and more snow scheduled in the forecast, it is still a sunny day for Pittsburgh Pirates fans and baseball enthusiasts across the country. Today, pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training, marking the end of a long four-month off-season. There were many times we doubted this day would come again with the pandemic raging on, but with the help of vaccines we can now see the light at the end of the tunnel and a new season of baseball begins. The Pirates have a lot of young and exciting talent on this year's team and they are all aiming at getting better as the season goes on. To do that, it all starts with pitching and those are the first players who will officially report to camp this morning. The Pirates p...

Last year, Manager Derek Shelton entered Spring Training as a first-time MLB manager and tried to keep things loose and fun. With so many young prospects in this year's camp, the focus should be around developing these guys for the Major Leagues. After managing in a year where everything was constantly changing, Pittsburgh Pirates manager Derek Shelton received his welcome to the Big Leagues. It was an experimental year for the Pirates, as they were trying to see where they were and what type of talent they had, and as a result, they finished a Major League worst 19-41. However, Shelton was still trying to build relationships with his players and coaching staff and tried to keep things light and fun around the clubhouse. Now, that he had a feel of who he is working with, it is time for a culture change as the team starts their rebuild. With so many of the team's top prospects in camp, the team's focus should shift from having fun to developing their players into...

Over the off-season, Minor League Baseball underwent some big changes with teams being cut, and others jumping classifications. This leaves the Pirates asking where some of their top prospects will start for the 2021 season. The progression of a Minor League prospect through the system is usually a straight forward process. If you are a college prospect you will start in either Short Season or Low-A Ball and if you are a high schooler you are more than likely headed to Rookie Ball. However, that whole process could be in jeopardy after the Minor League shut down last season. Players were forced into the major Leagues before their time, and some of those draft picks ended up at Altoona's Alternate Training site. Add in the fact that the Pirates Minor League system moves from eight teams to just six teams, and that forces the Pirates to spread their talent around more. So, where will we see some of the Pirate's top prospects start the year in 2021? This is one of the ...

2021 is here, and the Pittsburgh Pirates are looking to grow from their disastrous 2020 season. It will be the young Bucs leading the way as a new generation of Pirates baseball begins inside PNC Park. The clock has officially turned to 2021, and for Pirates fans, that means hope for a better future. What's done is done, and the Pirates can only go up from here after finishing 2020 with a 19-41 record that had them last in the Major Leagues. 2021 will be a different year for the Pirates, and it is a transformation that has already begun as the Pirates traded first baseman Josh Bell to the Washington Nationals on Christmas Eve. The names will be different in 2021, with more moves to be made, as the team ushers in a new era of baseball as they try to get back to the playoffs. However, there will be a transitional period as the Pirate's top prospects begin to develop. For some, it will happen faster than others, but the goal is to have everyone ready for a winning run ...