Kevin Gorman

He had two fly outs, one to center field that was 106 miles an hour, exit velocity, another one to right field that was 109.

So this guy's making solid contact, maybe not getting the results because of the Gulf wind, but certainly, you know, making an impression on the Pirates.

But, you know, when you have a guy of his caliber and he's the number one consensus, number one prospect in baseball, when he's making the road trips and not starting in the home games, that's kind of an indication that a decision may have already been made on him.

Just that, you know, that he's being treated very much like a rookie and 19 year old, as opposed to the guy who probably would be their opening day second shortstop.

You know, you'd hope that he'd be on the Paul Skeens plan and that he's up by mid-May at the latest, and not above a Chandler plan where he was up in mid-August.

But I would think someone would be dictated by how well he plays and whether he forces their hand.

which is kind of how Ben Sherrington likes it, is when a guy leaves them no doubt and says, hey, he's ready, and he's telling us he's ready.

But there's also the part of it where you could have, you know, the Pirates want to protect the service time and manipulate that.

And there's, you know, when they talk about the Super 2 status, there is no deadline.

There is no date.

You basically try to look for a safe period period.

where you say, okay, he's in the position where you get to the percentages that he's safe.

And sometimes that's late May, early June.

But I think Connor Griffin is not somebody you compare to what other prospects have done.

He is kind of one of those one-of-one types that you just don't see these guys come around very often.

I think he's going to be ready sooner than we all expect.

I think it's just a matter of getting him at bats against high-level pitching so that he doesn't come up to the majors and get completely exposed.

What you see in the minors is very similar, but it's not as sharp.

These guys can't locate a lot of their pitches, and they're not throwing their breaking pitches and their off-speed pitches with the same precision.

They're not landing their fastballs wherever they want them.