Buccos Cove

The 2020 Rule 5 Draft is scheduled to take place on December 10th, 2020, as part of the Winter Meetings and the Pirates have some interesting prospects eligible. We will break down all the Rule 5 players and whether or not the Pirates should worry about losing them or not. Looking at many of the Pirates catching prospects in the system, they are defensive first type of players. At a position where defense is key, it is hard to find someone talented on both sides of the baseball. When catcher Raul Hernandez was signed by the Pirates out of Venezuela, he was exactly the opposite of the other Pirates catching signees. He was very good with the bat, but his defense needed some work if he wanted to become a true professional catching prospect. His defense has begun to improve every single year, and now he is sitting at about league average in fielding while still hitting the ball at a good clip. Hernandez has the offensive skills that the guys above him in the depth chart are la...

As we await the start of the 2020 MLB season due to Corona Virus concerns, we will take a look at every player on the Pirates roster and outline what they will bring to the table and projections for the 2020 season. I hope this brings some positive reading to the current situation and helps us all as we wait for baseball. When he signed out of Venezuela, Pittsburgh Pirates catching prospect Raul Hernandez was one of the oldest signees from the island. At 18 years old, he was already a pretty well-developed prospect, but the Pirates saw an opportunity to not only give Hernandez a chance, but help give them some more depth at the Minor League level. He ended up signing with the Pirates in 2014 and began his career one year later. He has since worked his way up the Minor League ladder and made it all the way to Advanced-A Bradenton where he served as the starting catcher last season. It turned out to be his best offensive year in terms of batting average as he hit .247 at Advanced-A Brade...