Bart looks to impress SF brass
Prospect shows off opposite-field power
SCOTTSDALE >> Joey Bart was angry, and he had every right to feel that way.
When a 96-mile per hour fastball from Pirates prospect Blake Cederlind came up and in during an Arizona Fall League game, Bart thought the ball was coming for his head. The Giants catching prospect tried to evade the pitch, but he left his right thumb exposed and suffered a non-displaced fracture.
It wasn’t the first errant pitch he saw that night.
“I’d already been hit twice and been brushed back a lot,” Bart said. “That was kind of the scoop I guess in the Fall League.”
Bart, who missed six weeks af
ter an errant fastball fractured his left hand in April, has become accustomed to teams trying to beat him inside. He understands the game plan ... to a certain extent.
“Very uncompetitive pitches,” Bart said. “The one that hit me, it was going to hit me in the head if I didn’t somewhat get me out of the way.”
Scottsdale Scorpions teammate and fellow Giants prospect Jacob Heyward told him Pirates prospects threw up and in far too often at the Double-A level last season and Bart thinks it’s possible Cederlind’s Peoria Javelinas were targeting him. He isn’t certain, but his teammates were furious anyway.
“I never played anyone with the Pirates, but the Pirates, that’s kind of what their thing is. That’s what my teammates told me,” Bart said. “When they faced them in Double-A, that’s all they did. They just hit people left
and right. Their philosophy is hard in. That’s great, it’s hard to hit. But if you can’t do it right, that puts in a different ballgame.”
Bart said he isn’t aware of the reputation Pittsburgh pitchers had under manager Clint Hurdle at the major league level, but the Pirates haven’t exactly been regarded as choirboys.
With a pair of hand injuries behind him, Bart took the field Wednesday as pitchers and catchers took part in their first workout at the Giants’ complex
in Scottsdale Stadium. The power-hitting prospect sprayed the ball all over the field and impressed manager Gabe Kapler with his opposite field approach.
“First impressions, watching him on the field take batting practice is how loud the ball comes off his bat,” Kapler said. “Particularly to the opposite field. He really drove some baseballs today and put some balls on the grass beyond the fence out there and this is a big ballpark.”
The most likely destination
for Bart at the beginning of the season is Triple-A Sacramento, where he won’t have to deal with another challenging reality he faced in the Fall League: Robot umpires.
The electronic strike zone partially changed the way Bart set up behind the plate as a catcher, but he said the toughest adjustment he had to make to robot umpires was in the batter’s box. The technology, in Bart’s eyes, needs some work.
“I think they definitely have some fine-tuning in that some of the stuff is really not even competitive that are called strikes so we’ll see how it goes,” Bart said. “I’m glad I got a jumpstart with it so I know what to expect. But it’s definitely going to be a lot harder for hitters.”
Bart has seen the worst the minor leagues have to offer, but he’s not too far from seeing the game from the other side. The Giants believe their top prospect will reach the big leagues in 2020 and when he does, Bart could slot right into the middle of a lineup that could use an infusion of power.