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PHILLIP IRWIN
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RIGHT HANDED PITCHER
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Born: February 25, 1987 Height: 6’3″ Weight: 220 Bats: Right Throws: Right Drafted: 21st Round, 625th Overall, 2009 How Acquired: Draft College: University of Mississippi Agent: N/A |
WTM’S PIRATE PLAYER PROFILES |
| Irwin and Pirates’ 5th round selection, Nate Baker, were key pitchers for Ole Miss’ in 2009 as some of the school’s more highly regarded pitchers ran into trouble. Irwin threw three average pitches, with a fastball in the upper-80s, but he didn’t dominate, as the high opponents’ BAs show. He primarily succeeded by not allowing walks and HRs; it’s not often a pitcher allows a .300 OBA and still has an ERA below 4.00. Baseball America ranked him as the 8th best prospect, just three places behind Baker, in a state that has a lot of baseball talent relative to its population. It’s possible that the Pirates thought he could upgrade his stuff, as he had Tommy John surgery in 2006. That may account for the limited innings in 2007-08.
2009 Was probably the best pitcher for State College. Excluding one late start in which he failed to get out of the first inning, his ERA was 0.93. 2010 Irwin spent the season in the West Virginia rotation. He put up outstanding peripheral numbers as well as a good ERA, but he was a pitcher with good command, drafted out of a major college program, facing low A hitters. According to manager Gary Green, his fastball did at times increase from 87-88 to 92-93. He had a huge reverse platoon split for some reason. Irwin moved up to Bradenton for the playoffs at the end of the year. 2011 Irwin opened the season at Bradenton, doing very well in ten starts and earning a promotion to Altoona. He got hit harder in AA than at lower levels, with a .264 opponents’ average and a slightly high HR rate. He seldom walked anybody, just one per nine innings, and had a decent K rate. He stuff wasn’t at the same level it had been late in the previous season. His fastball was upper-80s to low-90s. He threw a hard curve or slider, a slower curve and a change. He didn’t have much of a platoon split. 2012 Irwin suffered a forearm injury during the Arizona Fall League and aggravated it in spring training. He missed only a handful of starts before returning to Altoona, where he improved on his 2012 showing. The Pirates promoted him in time for him to make four starts for Indianapolis. He pitched well with a surprising number of strikeouts. Irwin has more-or-less average stuff, but he commands it well enough to keep his K rate at decent levels. (The very high K rate in four AAA starts was probably something of a fluke.) He was eligible for the Rule 5 draft and the Pirates added him to the 40-man roster. He’ll open 2013 at Indianapolis, with a good chance of reaching Pittsburgh during the season. |
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STATS
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| Baseball Reference–Minors Fangraphs MiLB.com
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