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By Cory Giger
cgiger@altoonamirror.com
Statistics don't always matter much in minor league baseball, and a great example of that occurred with a very peculiar Curve roster move Tuesday.
It would stand to reason that a player who has really good numbers would be able to keep his job and keep working toward getting promoted to the next level. But every now and then there's a bizarre move that, based on statistics, doesn't seem to make sense.
Relief pitcher Buddy Borden posted a 5-1 record and 2.37 ERA in 23 appearances for Altoona. He allowed only 25 hits in 38 innings, and his opponents batting average of .187 was the fourth lowest in the Eastern League.
Despite all that, the Pirates released Borden on Tuesday. Curve manager Michael Ryan said the 25-year-old was surprised when told the news. The move was necessary because the Pirates had to clear a Curve roster spot so they could activate pitcher Yeudy Garcia off the disabled list.
"There's going to be some trickle-down effect from the big leagues, there's going to be guys from Triple-A possibly coming, there may be guys possibly from Bradenton coming," Ryan said of pending moves.
"It wasn't fair for Buddy Borden, for everything that he did for us, to sit on the phantom DL all year. The rest of the year he probably wouldn't have got off unless five or six pitchers would have gotten hurt, and we don't want that. So give him the opportunity to go somewhere else and sign instead of if he's on the phantom DL the rest of the year, he probably doesn't get signed and his career is over."
Borden's numbers would indicate he's a good pitcher who should be considered a prospect. But in the Pirates' eyes, they have a number of higher priority guys they want to pitch with the Curve instead of him.
So, even though Borden has posted very good numbers, the Pirates obviously don't view him as a very promising prospect.
Ryan said Borden's velocity "went down a little bit."
"We don't know if it was a tired arm or what," the manager added. "That was a little bit of a concern."
Ryan even added that, if Borden were to still be with the team, he would be part of the "touchdown club," only pitching when up or down by seven runs.
How could a pitcher who has been as effective as Borden be considered a touchdown club kind of guy?
"Because of the prospects that you're going to have, that you need to have a priority bullpen guy that's going to need to get those innings in before Buddy Borden," Ryan said. "So when you have four or five of those guys in your bullpen, Buddy Borden's not going to get the innings.
"It's not fair for him to sit down in the bullpen with a 2.00 ERA or whatever he had and get junk innings. It's not. So why not go somewhere else where you're going to have the opportunity, or put him on the phantom DL where he doesn't pitch at all and he doesn't get signed and ruin the kid's career."
Borden was a seventh-round draft pick by the Pirates in 2013, but he was traded to Tampa Bay in the Sean Rodriguez deal in December of 2014. Borden did not pitch well in the Rays' system and was released in 2016, and the Pirates signed him as a free agent.
"I agree with what's going on," Ryan said of the move. "Did I want it to happen? No. Did I make the decision that I wanted Buddy Borden to get released? Absolutely not. I love Buddy Borden. I have a history with him. He was with me in low-A for my first year. I get a phone call, this is what we're going to do, I do it and that's it."