Jerry Sands

Jerry Sands is a native of Smithfield, North Carolina, farming country, and grew up country strong. At 6'4", 210 pounds, he played both baseball and football for Smithfield-Selma High, the school that produced catcher Barry Foote, a ten-year MLB vet who played from 1973-82 for four NL teams.

He was hindered in recruiting somewhat by being a two-sport star from a small school, cursed with the "athlete" tag. A couple of ACC teams wanted Sands to walk on for football and/or baseball, but he decided to stick to baseball and joined some friends on the D-2 Catawba squad. Good choice, at least for the Indians. Sands set school records for homers (61), walks (132) and slugging (.752), while compiling a .381 career BA.

Still, Division 2 is Division 2, and he ended up drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 25th round of the 2008 draft, signing for the princely sum of $5,000.

Sands started off with the GCL Dodgers in 2008, hitting just .205 in 46 games. The big bopper struck out at a 23% rate, but showed a decent eye in drawing walks (16%; .346 OBP) and did have a .438 slugging % with 10 long balls in 46 games.

LA moved him up to Class A Great Lakes of the Midwest League to open his sophomore campaign. After a slow start, he was shipped down to short-season Ogden of the Pioneer League, and that turned on the light. Sand's line there was .350/.427/.687 with 14 HR and 39 RBI in 41 games, and he was selected to the PL All-Star team. In August, he was given a return ticket to Great Lakes.

He finished 2009 with a .260/.361/.510 slash for the Loons. Going into 2010, Baseball America ranked him the #25 Dodger prospect after the season, so he was starting to show on the radar.

In 2010 with Great Lakes, Sands broke out, putting up a line of .333/.432/.646 in 69 games, with 18 homers and 46 RBI. He was named Midwest League Player of the Week three times and appeared in the mid-season All-Star game, where he was named Player of the Game.

After the all-star game, Sands was promoted to the Class AA Chattanooga Lookouts in the Southern League, where he homered in his first game. He returned to earth a little, but still had a strong line of .270/.360/.529 with 17 more dingers and 47 RBI. Sands was named the Dodgers' Minor League Player of the Year, and capped the tour de force by playing for Don Mattingly's Phoenix Desert Dogs in the Arizona Fall League.

As to be expected, his prospect status hit the stratosphere. John Sickels had him at #2, Fangraphs at #4, Baseball Prospectus at #5, BA at #6 and milb.com at #9. Sands also got an invite to spring training.

He was assigned to the Class AAA Albuquerque Isotopes in the Pacific Coast League to open the 2011 season. Sands bashed, hitting .400 with five home runs and was called up by the Dodgers on April 18th. To clear a spot on the 25 and 40 man rosters for him, LA DFA'ed OF Xavier Paul, who in the "small world" department was claimed by the Buccos.

Sands played in 41 games for the Dodgers on a fairly regular basis, but his line was a disappointing .200/.294/.328 with two homers in 144 PA. He was sent back to the Isotopes on June 8th and continued to clean up in the hitter's paradise of the PCL. Sands' slash in AAA was.278/.344/.586 with 29 home runs and 88 RBI when Albuquerque's season ended.

He was a September call-up and returned with a vengeance, collecting 24 hits in his last 59 at-bats. His final line looked OK after that surge at .253/.338/.389, although the slugging % was below what the Dodgers had hoped to see, with just four homers in 227 PA.

Sands only got a cup of coffee with LA in 2012, hitting just .174 in 23 at-bats. But he continued to kill the ball at Albuquerque. In 119 games with the Isotopes, his line was .296/.375/.524 with 26 homers and 107 RBI to go along with a 21 game hitting streak. Sands was selected as the DH for the All-PCL team and earned a spot on the Topps AAA All-Star team.

The big guy ended up with the Isotopes all year in part because he was a PTBNL in the Josh Beckett, Adrian Gonzales, Carl Crawford deal with the Bosox. Because Sands didn't pass through waivers, he couldn't officially become part of the transaction until after the PCL season concluded. It apparently didn't make much diff to Boston; he never got a chance to suit up for them before he was shipped to Pittsburgh as part of the Hanny deal.

Sands has gotten 251 PA in the show with a line of .244/.325/.376, four homers and 27 RBI. His strikeout rate is 24% (21% in the minors), though he does have a 10% walk rate (12% in the minors) and a +OPS of 96. He's not a consistent hitter, but given to streaks.

The most noted concern is that his swing gets long, leaving him susceptible to off speed pitches, late on heaters and the major cause of his high K rate. And Sands' splits are heavily tilted toward lefties (.316/.372/.532 v LHP; .204/.301/.289 v RHP in the show), so he has the look of a platoon-type player.

He has good speed for a big guy and enough arm to play right. One thing in his favor is that he's not a pull hitter, a bad thing for a RH to be at PNC Park, but has good power to right and right center. Sands has career .289/.376./.562 slash in the minors, and is a classic corner guy, having split his field time equally among left field, right field and first base.

Sands adds to the logjam among 1B/corner OF in Pittsburgh, and that leads to speculation that the Bucs may have another deal up their sleeve with that depth. If not, he still has one option remaining, as does Alex Presley. If they don't move anyone, that could become a roster determining factor, as Travis Snider and Jose Tabata don't have any options left.

Hanny Goes To Boston For Pair Of Prospects; More To Come

Well, the Hammer is off to Beantown for a pair of mid-level prospects, OF/1B Jerry Sands and RHP Stolmy Pimentel. That's the confirmed part of the trade, pending physicals. There may be a couple more players, maybe from both clubs, added to the deal. It does look like the Bucs are still collecting prospects rather than filling ML needs, and that's probably the right road considering Hanny's market value.

Sands joined the Dodger organization in 2008, moving to Beantown as a part of the Adrian Gonzalez/Josh Beckett/Carl Crawford deadline blockbuster late this summer. Jon Heyman of CBS Sports tweeted that "Jerry Sands is a terrific athlete w/power. High ceiling. Holliday type. Will be good get for Pirates..."

Well, we don't know about all that enthusiasm, but Sands did have some great power numbers at Albuquerque - 55 HR, 192 RBI in his two AAA years and was a Topps AAA and PCL All-Star. Of course, he was 24 and the PCL is a hitter's paradise, so we'll see how that translates.

He's a righty OF/1B, and the Pirates already have five guys vying in the pasture, with Garrett Jones, Gaby Sanchez and Clint Robinson lined up at first. It'll be interesting to see where Sands fits in. Playing in 70 big league games, he's hit .244 with 3 HR in 251 PA, along with 60 K. Did we mention he has, like many big boppers, a pretty long and loopy swing?

Sands has an average arm, OK speed and raw power, so it's all a gamble on his upside, a sorta Christmas lotto ticket stuffed in their stocking. Sox Prospects considers him a role player, saying that he "projects as bench player at the major league level, capable of filling in during stretches." Mike Hulet of Fangraphs basically agrees, writing that "With the ability to play both corner outfield spots as well as first base, and with plus raw power, (he) could be a solid right-handed bat off the bench, with an outside shot at developing into a big league regular."

With all the Pirate outfield prospects still playing A ball and no real power righty at first base, he's probably a gamble worth taking, either to push Sanchez or platoon with Travis Snider.

Additionally, Sands' arrival would seem to grease the skids for Garrett Jones' departure or some other logjam clearing by the Bucs. That should be the next storyline to unfold before camp begins on February 11th.

Stolmy Pimentel in a 22 year old (23 in February) RHP who's had not a great deal of success in AA ball, but he has a heater that touches 95, a good changeup, slider and a slurve in progress. He's supposed to have good stuff and in scout talk is "projectable," but is still learning to pitch and has problems repeating his mechanics.

Sox Prospects says that he has the "ceiling of fourth starter/fifth or late inning reliever at the major league level." Baseball America had him ranked as Boston’s No. 23 prospect (down from #6 in 2010), MILB.com at No. 15 and Sox Prospects at No. 20, so he does have some upside even if trending down. And the Bucs know him; they tried unsuccessfully to pry him from the Bosox in 2008 as part of the Jay Bay deal, ending up with Craig Hansen instead.

Both players will go on the 40-man roster, and each has an option remaining. For Sands, that's not such a big problem, but it could become an issue for Pimentel who is nowhere near MLB ready.

With Hanny, the Red Sox get a guy who saved 76 games in the past two years, struck out 128 batters in 129-1/3 frames and gave up fewer than seven knocks per nine over the past two seasons. Conditioning and wildness questions - he walked 5.4 batters per game last season - were floated, but...

Tom Singer of MLB.com noted in his blog that "In 2011, he was perfect — meaning, three-up and three-down, in 20 of his 44 save situations (converting 40 of them). In 2012, he was perfect in 16 of 40 save situations (with 36 conversions). The difference there is almost negligible."

He added "Hanrahan did 'lose it' in closer’s wilderness, pitching without a save on the line. In 2011, he was spotless in 12 of 26 such low-intensity outings. In 2012, he managed to stay clean in only four of 23 non-save appearances. In September, as he admitted to me, he also lost his fire. After the Pirates again free-fell out of the race, it simply became harder to pitch with any incentive. So perhaps Hanrahan didn’t lose his control, only his focus."

And the truth is that the only reason the Bucs moved him is not because of performance, despite his history of Hanrattacks, but the math. Hanny has made $6.75M so far in his six year career; he'll double that and more in arbitration this year before hitting free agency. We think he'll do just fine in Boston with Andrew Bailey; the Green Monster should be a lesser evil compared to the Clemente Wall.