Evan Chambers was the Pirates’ 3rd round pick in the 2009 Draft. Chambers has struggled a bit as far as his batting average goes in the lower levels of the Minors as he has yet to hit above .250 in a season. However, his ability to draw walks has at least kept people interested in him as his OBP has always been strong and he has yet to post an OPS under .750.

This season, for Bradenton, Chambers is hitting .243/.366/.405. This has been his strongest season to date when it comes to power potential as he has clubbed 11 homers thus far and 20 doubles. One glaring weakness in Chambers’ game are his strikeout numbers, though, as he has struck out in at least 25% of his at bats each of his first 3 seasons.

In the game I saw him, he seemed to be exactly what the scouting reports say. He was very patient at the plate as he drew a walk and worked the counts pretty deep. He also singled and struck out. If Chambers can cut down on the strikeouts a bit, thus giving him more chances to get hits, he could really turn into an interesting prospect. However, the low batting average at this point is really holding him back from being a top level guy in the organization.

His single came in his 2nd AB (which is broken up into two videos due to a issue with the pitching mound) and he walked in his 3rd plate appearance. Here are all 4 of his PA’s:

If you don’t read Tim’s Daily Prospect Profiles over at Pirates Prospects, you’re missing out. Today, his feature (link) was on Bradenton RHP Brandon Cumpton who was the Pirates’ 9th round pick out of Georgia Tech in the 2010 Draft. Check out the link for an in depth feature on Cumpton.

I wasn’t going to post this until next week, but since Tim featured Cumpton today and Cumpton also had a very solid start last night, I decided I’ll push this up a bit.

I saw Cumpton pitch on July 28th at Clearwater. It was the first time I had seen him in person and he looked very impressive to me. He retired the first 12 batters he faced and he struck out 8 batters in 6 innings. He had excellent placement of his fastball and had a breaking ball that nobody was touching. I broke down Cumpton’s outing over his 6 innings for you all to enjoy.

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When it comes to catching prospects in the Pirates’ system, everyone immediately thinks Tony Sanchez…as they should. However, there is someone who is less well-known who people should also include in the catching conversation. That guy is Ramon Cabrera.

Cabrera was signed as an International free agent in 2008 out of Venezuela and has held his own and then some at every level he has been at since. So far this year as a 21 year old in the Florida State League, he is hitting at a very impressive .352/.423/.465 clip. The power is still lacking as he has just 1 homer, but he’s hit 17 doubles, which matches a career high and squared the ball up better than anyone else I saw for Bradenton in the game I watched.

He went 2 for 4 with a double with his double coming in his 1st AB and a single coming in his 3rd AB. Here are all 4 AB’s: