6-14-24 – By Gary Morgan – @garymo2007 on X
The Rockies enter just about every season as a bit of an enigma. They almost always have a couple exiting young players. They almost always have some long in the tooth veterans. And while their record every bit says they should be one of the few ready to consider themselves sellers at the deadline, you can’t ever anticipate which side of the fence this franchise will fall on.
The Pirates are also in last place in their division which happens to be a game and a half out of second and in the thick of the wild card race.
Again, the Rockies aren’t some talentless rabble, they’re just young and they don’t have enough pitching, especially for that ballpark, and they’re playing in a division with 4 teams with legitimate playoff aspirations.
Point is, let’s hope our young Pirates have learned some lessons from that A’s Series, there are no free wins in this league, especially for a team that just let a very big series against a division rival slip through their fingers.
If this team is going to make a move to stop being on the outside looking in with their nose pushed up against the window, they have to start scoring sweeps in series like this, and they simply can’t have anything less than a series win.
Problem is, they’re clearly using this weekend series as an opportunity to get an extra day of rest for their youngster starters Paul Skenes and Jared Jones. Necessary as it may be, you’d rather enter this series with the best of what you got as opposed to running a 3 legged race everyone else is running solo.
Not that I’d like it any better against the Reds. So if it has to be done….
Look around, our “worst division in baseball” is kinda shaping up to not even be the worst division in the National League.
6-14
Rockies – Ryan Feltner (R) – 1-5, 69 IP, 5.74 ERA, 59 Ks/19 walks, 1.48 WHIP
Pirates – TBD
6-15
Rockies – Ty Blach (L) – 2-4, 44.2 IP, 4.84 ERA, 22 Ks/8 walks, 1.41 WHIP
Pirates – Jared Jones (R) – 4-5, 74.1 IP, 3.27 ERA, 79 Ks/18 walks, 1.06 WHIP
6-16
Rockies – Dakota Hudson (R) – 2-8, 68.1 IP, 4.87 ERA, 36 Ks/35 walks, 1.40 WHIP
Pirates – TBD
Rockies:
Charlie Blackmon isn’t playing like a guy who’s 37 finishing off a career, he’s raking. In his past 15 games he’s slashing .339/.381/.492. He won’t kill you with the long ball, but he’s a master at legging out doubles in the high altitude and his age hasn’t made him a statue out there either.
Pirates:
Well, I’m going to go with Nick Gonzales. He’s had quite frankly a dream call up scenario playing out. It’s exactly what you pray a player will do with a demotion, you know, work harder, focus better, fix issues, and more than anything, don’t try to do all that stuff extra hard at the MLB level, just trust that you’re ready and get going. I could go back 30 games with Nick, he’s hit .308 in that span, or I could talk about his last 15, .310 over that stretch, or maybe we go to his scorching last 7 where he’s hit .333. Bottom line, for a month straight, this kid has hit, no matter where they asked him to do it, no matter who they asked him to do it against.
Rockies:
My absolute favorite potential trade target Ryan McMahon, the Rockies have already claimed they have no interest in moving. To make me feel better, in his last 15 games, Ryan is slashing .175/.254/.333. Now, this guy is a good hitter, he’ll get back to being himself before too long and he still has a season OPS of .812, so it’s not like this little swoon has killed his season, it’s just noting when arguably your best hitter is that down for a stretch.
Pirates:
As good as Nick Gonzales has been, Jack Suwinski is every bit as bad. He’s done virtually nothing since his recall from AAA but we can go back as far as we like really, this deep dark hole has lasted almost all season on the roster, and the lineup. Again, this team’s need for left handed power forces the team to give him a chance, but all things much come to an end. In 159 ABs this year, he’s only got 27 hits, 5 of which were homeruns. An average of .170, a .265 OBP and an OPS of .561. This is a guy who’s hit 50 homeruns in 932 at bats, and while I believe he needs sent down, he’s not a guy I’d flush either. There’s value there even if you wind up turning him into a platoon player. That doesn’t mean you have to or should force it to happen here. Even if the move is for Josh Palacios, the Pirates must start to really help this kid.
Key Injuries
The Pirates have some things to think about here. Martin Perez should be returning shortly, maybe as early as this weekend. Marco Gonzales, and Ryan Borucki threw and are on to their next steps. Mike Burrows is about to start throwing sim games. Joshua Palacios was just returned form the IL.
The Rockies, stop me if you heard this one before, are missing Kris Bryant with a Rib Contusion. Brendan Rodgers is out with a whammy in his hammy.
What To Watch
Henry Davis is an interesting watch this series. If he’s doing anything differently since coming back from AAA, it’s getting the ball in the air a bit more, that could be a nice recipe for a kid who tends to fly out to the warning track. This could be a confidence building series for a kid who in my mind did not make enough adjustments at the MiLB level before being called on, and sometimes confidence can help a kid fake it for a while. That’s my hope here.
Aside from that, really how the Pirates handle this starting pitching over the weekend. I’d hate to see them decimate a bullpen that is finally starting to show signs of functioning at least on the back end. And I’d hope they aren’t rushing back Perez if he isn’t 100%. Interesting situation. Again, I see the need to help preserve Jones and Skenes, in fact I think you’ve seen Jones on short rest and it wasn’t the best of him. I just wish they had more healthy depth.
Steel City Pirates 