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MILES DURHAM
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FIRST BASEMAN
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Born: March 21, 1983 Height: 6′ 4″ Weight: 205 Bats: Right Throws: Right Drafted: 22nd Round, 650th Overall, 2006 How Acquired: Draft College: Northwestern State University Agent: N/A |
WTM’S PIRATE PLAYER PROFILES |
| Durham wasn’t an outstanding hitter in college, not even as a senior. The Pirates drafted him as part of a pattern in the last couple years under Dave Littlefield of loading up in the draft on college outfielders, often seniors, with modest hitting credentials, a practice that made no sense and produced nothing of value. He’s improved a lot in right over time and has a very good arm. As he moved up, though, he increasingly played firstbase, depending on the other players on the team. His speed is roughly average and he’s done well stealing bases in some years.
2006 Durham was part of amazingly bad collection of hitters at Williamsport. The team OPS of .592 was last in the league. Durham himself managed only .540, with terrible walk and K numbers. 2007 Returned to the New York-Penn League, this time at State College, and hit a little better. 2008 Finally started to hit as a 25-year-old playing in low A, although his plate discipline remained weak. After a little over half a season, he moved up to Lynchburg and struggled. 2009 Returned to Lynchburg and combined with Pedro Alvarez, when Alvarez wasn’t slumping, and Kris Watts to provide Lynchburg with a strong middle of the lineup. His plate discipline was still marginal. He played right, with Matt Hague at first. He was promoted to Altoona along with Alvarez and started off well, hitting .330 in July. He slumped the rest of the way, though, as pitchers started taking more and more advantage of his tendency to chase offspeed stuff out of the strike zone. He played first at Altoona because Jose Tabata was in right. 2010 Durham returned to Altoona as the regular rightfielder. He hit just passably, continuing to struggle with offspeed stuff, but at least started showing more willingness to take pitches. He drew easily his career high in walks, but also fanned about once for every three and a half ABs. 2011 Opened the season playing first for Altoona, but moved up to Indianapolis about a third of the way into the season to replace the demoted Andrew Lambo and played right in AAA most of the rest of the season. He hit very little at either level. His plate discipline regressed; between the two levels he had about four and a half strikeouts to every walk. If Durham is still around in 2012, he’ll open the season at age 29. Amazingly, he’s still not eligible for minor league free agency. Considering his performance in 2011, the Pirates may need to find another player to fill organizational needs. |
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STATS
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| Baseball Reference–Minors Fangraphs MiLB.com
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