9:38PM Wednesday
March 6, 2013

In 2012 the Pittsburgh Pirates featured two of the biggest breakout players in all of minor league baseball. Gregory Polanco and Alen Hanson both had huge seasons, propelling each hitter onto national top 100 lists.

During Spring Training last year, I identified Hanson and Polanco as breakout candidates, after watching them for a few weeks. Polanco was crushing the ball every time I watched him, while Hanson was picking up a lot of hits early in camp. We're not to that point this year in minor league camp - the full roster doesn't report until Sunday and the first full workout isn't until Monday. Therefore, I can't write about who is looking good so far in camp, since I've only seen a handful of players take batting practice. I can talk about a few players who looked promising at the end of the 2012 season, and who I'll definitely be watching this Spring.

I sat down with Pirates farm director Larry Broadway to get his thoughts on five potential breakout players for the 2013 season.

Dilson Herrer