Following up on my posts with park-adjusted wRC+ for position players, I decided I wanted to look into park-adjusted numbers for Pirates pitchers. I found the formulas for ERA-, FIP-, and xFIP- over at FanGraphs, and they're fairly easy to calculate (outside of xFIP-, which I'm still working on due to the fact that some Minor League data is still hard to come by).
As detailed in my post on Minor League Park Factors (which you can check out here), the Pirates AAA and AA affiliates play in pitcher-friendly parks, which means all park-adjusted numbers will look slightly worse than their raw numbers.
Here's the ERA, ERA-, FIP, and FIP- numbers for the Pirates AAA pitchers. Please note that whereas higher wRC+ numbers are better, numbers below 100 for ERA- and FIP- are better (i.e. a 95 ERA- is an ERA that is 5% better than average, and a 105 ERA- is 5% worse than average.
| Name | Age | IP | ERA | ERA- | FIP | FIP- |
| Mitch Keller | 22 | 52.1 | 4.82 | 136 | 3.22 | 91 |
| Jesus Liranzo | 23 | 45.0 | 5.00 | 141 | 5.47 | 154 |
| J.T. Brubaker | 24 | 119.0 | 3.10 | 87 | 3.59 | 101 |
| Brandon Waddell | 24 | 81.2 | 4.19 | 118 | 3.74 | 105 |
| Kyle Crick | 25 | 4.0 | 2.25 | 63 | 0.83 | 23 |
| Dovydas Neverauskas | 25 | 46.1 | 2.53 | 71 | 3.40 | 96 |
| Tanner Anderson | 25 | 61.1 | 2.64 | 75 | 3.09 | 87 |
| Clay Holmes | 25 | 95.1 | 3.40 | 96 | 3.20 | 90 |
| Tyler Eppler | 25 | 153.0 | 3.59 | 101 | 3.78 | 107 |
| Alex McRae | 25 | 117.0 | 4.77 | 135 | 4.07 | 115 |
| Joe Musgrove | 25 | 10.2 | 5.06 | 143 | 1.83 | 52 |
| Nick Burdi | 25 | 5.0 | 5.40 | 152 | 3.73 | 105 |
| Michael Feliz | 25 | 10.0 | 7.20 | 203 | 3.83 | 108 |
| Austin Coley | 25 | 28.0 | 9.64 | 272 | 6.40 | 181 |
| Steven Brault | 26 | 5.1 | 3.38 | 95 | 2.96 | 83 |
| Nick Kingham | 26 | 62.1 | 3.61 | 102 | 3.57 | 101 |
| Montana DuRapau | 26 | 21.1 | 6.33 | 179 | 5.44 | 154 |
| Casey Sadler | 27 | 77.0 | 3.39 | 96 | 4.18 | 118 |
| Damien Magnifico | 27 | 70.2 | 3.57 | 101 | 3.57 | 101 |
| Enny Romero | 27 | 4.1 | 6.23 | 176 | 7.49 | 211 |
| Brett McKinney | 27 | 5.2 | 9.53 | 269 | 8.63 | 243 |
| Richard Rodriguez | 28 | 5.0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.93 | 26 |
| Tyler Jones | 28 | 16.2 | 5.40 | 152 | 5.07 | 143 |
| Johnny Hellweg | 29 | 27.0 | 1.33 | 38 | 3.15 | 89 |
| A.J. Schugel | 29 | 13.0 | 6.23 | 176 | 6.64 | 187 |
| Ryan Lavarnway | 30 | 0.2 | 0.00 | 0 | 3.33 | 94 |
| Buddy Boshers | 30 | 6.0 | 4.50 | 127 | 2.50 | 71 |
| Bo Schultz | 32 | 27.0 | 2.00 | 56 | 2.81 | 79 |
I've sorted the players by age (youngest at the top) and highlighted the players that were in the FanGraphs top 35 prospects for 2019. Keller (#2 prospect) and Brubaker (#22 prospect) are particularly encouraging, especially Keller, who's only 22 and has a 91 FIP- in his 52.1 innings in AAA. Liranzo (#34 prospect) still has some questions, however.
Here are the same numbers for AA.
| Name | Age | IP | ERA | ERA- | FIP | FIP- |
| Blake Weiman | 22 | 11.1 | 0.00 | 0 | 2.28 | 61 |
| Mitch Keller | 22 | 4.1 | 2.72 | 73 | 3.74 | 100 |
| Luis Escobar | 22 | 5.0 | 4.54 | 122 | 5.24 | 141 |
| Pedro Vasquez | 22 | 4.0 | 5.12 | 137 | 4.81 | 129 |
| Jesus Liranzo | 23 | 60.1 | 0.00 | 0 | 1.08 | 29 |
| Taylor Hearn | 23 | 53.1 | 3.12 | 84 | 3.20 | 86 |
| Eduardo Vera | 23 | 63.1 | 3.62 | 97 | 4.27 | 115 |
| Dario Agrazal | 23 | 58.1 | 3.99 | 107 | 4.18 | 112 |
| Elvis Escobar | 23 | 61.0 | 12.46 | 335 | 6.79 | 183 |
| Jake Brentz | 23 | 35.2 | 13.50 | 363 | 7.39 | 199 |
| Bralin Jackson | 24 | 70.0 | 0.00 | 0 | 3.33 | 89 |
| J.T. Brubaker | 24 | 85.2 | 1.80 | 48 | 2.64 | 71 |
| Matt Eckelman | 24 | 97.0 | 1.82 | 49 | 4.42 | 119 |
| Scooter Hightower | 24 | 87.2 | 2.41 | 65 | 2.90 | 78 |
| Brandon Waddell | 24 | 22.2 | 2.68 | 72 | 3.98 | 107 |
| James Marvel | 24 | 58.1 | 3.00 | 81 | 3.39 | 91 |
| Geoff Hartlieb | 24 | 104.0 | 3.24 | 87 | 3.47 | 93 |
| Cam Vieaux | 24 | 33.0 | 3.59 | 97 | 3.79 | 102 |
| Logan Sendelbach | 24 | 9.1 | 4.24 | 114 | 4.94 | 133 |
| Bret Helton | 24 | 86.0 | 6.12 | 164 | 5.70 | 153 |
| Logan Ratledge | 25 | 53.2 | 2.08 | 56 | 4.25 | 114 |
| Joe Musgrove | 25 | 37.1 | 2.25 | 60 | 4.58 | 123 |
| Austin Coley | 25 | 4.0 | 3.57 | 96 | 3.99 | 107 |
| Tate Scioneaux | 25 | 4.1 | 4.87 | 131 | 4.18 | 112 |
| Sean Keselica | 25 | 24.2 | 4.94 | 133 | 5.01 | 135 |
| Yeudy Garcia | 25 | 35.0 | 5.23 | 141 | 3.54 | 95 |
| Nick Burdi | 25 | 3.0 | 6.75 | 181 | 4.08 | 110 |
| Sam Street | 26 | 12.0 | 0.00 | 0 | 3.33 | 89 |
| Montana DuRapau | 26 | 0.1 | 2.89 | 78 | 2.58 | 69 |
| Nick Kingham | 26 | 6.2 | 7.20 | 194 | 2.33 | 63 |
| Enny Romero | 27 | 2.0 | 0.00 | 0 | 3.83 | 103 |
I also highlighted Taylor Hearn, who was the big name traded to Texas in the Keone Kela deal. Tepid Participation of SB Nation's Lone Star Ball had a really great profile on Hearn when he was traded to Texas. It stinks from a Pirates perspective that they had to give up a prospect of his level, but the story is still really fun, and I'd encourage people to read the profile. It's fantastic, and I love a good homecoming story.
As for current Pirates prospects, Keller checks in again on just 4.1 innings. Luis Escobar (#7 prospect) also pitched well, albeit briefly, and Geoff Hartlieb (#28 prospect) also posted really encouraging numbers. Blake Weiman also had a very brief stint in AA, but his numbers are fantastic, and he's currently ranked the Pirates #30 prospect, with a fastball that can hit 94-98 mph with "an above average slider" and a "well-below average changeup."
Thanks again for reading. For the rest of this week, I'll be working on WAR numbers for Minor League players, with something posted sometime next week.
