Monday, May 12, 2008 | By Alex Eisenberg

What to Make of Pirates Prospect Steven Pearce

Over at Baseball Digest Daily, I wrote an article about Pirates prospect Steven Pearce. Here is an excerpt from that article:

"Steven Pearce started his professional career much later than most top prospects. He was drafted out of college at age 22 and was moved slowly up the Pirates organizational ladder. At each level, Pearce has put up excellent numbers and finally in 2007, after dominating three levels of competition, Pearce was promoted to the big league level.

Pearce has shown the ability to hit for a moderate average with plus power to left field. While he never has had great plate discipline, he did make strides in cutting down his strikeouts without any noticeable loss of power and was even a semi-high contact hitter last year.

He has shown no true split against righties or lefties and in an attempt to improve Pearce's versatility, the Pirates moved Pearce from first base to a corner outfield spot this past year.

However, the numbers aren't really the issue with Pearce as he only has a few negatives to point out, one of which is his average plate discipline. The two biggest issues for Pearce are his age (he turned 25 on April 13th) and the fact he plays a position where his bat will have to produce.

Pearce is also a pull hitter to the extreme and he hasn't displayed the ability to go other way and hit for average or power. Below is a quote from a scout Baseball America talked to at last year's Future's Game:

"Several scouts addressed concerns about Pearce’s ability to handle quality breaking balls at the upper levels of the minors on his path to Pittsburgh.

“I think he's got to make a little bit of an adjustment with his approach,” a scout from a National League club said. “He’s a straight pull guy who swings at everything as hard as he can."

“That's not going to play at the upper levels, no way. He's a pull guy that wants to go out there and get it. If he can get out there and use the other side of the field a little more they might have something. If he can't, then he'll get eaten alive.”

To read the full article, please click here

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