Starter Spotlight: Hit ‘Em If You’re Abel

5-18-2025 – By Michael Castrignano – @412DoublePlay on X

It’s been a windy road to the bigs for Phillies pitcher Mick Abel, who was a first round pick and surged through the Phils system before stagnating due to injuries and inconsistency as he spent parts of the past three seasons at the top minor league affiliate before finally earning his call-up today.

Abel makes the jump to Philadelphia after posting a 5-2 record, 2.53 ERA and 1.21 WHIP with 51 strikeouts over his 46.1 innings at AAA Lehigh Valley this year.

The 6’5, 23-year old righty was drafted out of high school with the 15th pick in 2020. While Abel was off to a slow start this season as he allowed four runs in 2 of his first 3 outings, he has surrendered just 4 runs over his last 4 starts and 25 innings.

Abel can get wild at times as he has allowed 2 or more walks in 7 of 8 games this season, giving up free passing 4 or more times 10 times last year.

Abel utilizes a 4-seam and sinker sitting in the mid-90s, a low-80s curve, mid-80s slider and high-80s changeup.

If he can locate his offerings, he will miss bats and generate silly-looking whiffs. If not, Bucs bats should look to work counts and take walks.

Look to target hanging breaking balls or sinkers that don’t sink. He’s getting a ton of whiffs on the curve and changeup dropping down in the zone so hitters will need to watch for that sharp break and hold off if possible.

Starter Spotlight: Pop A Wheeler

5-17-2025 – By Michael Castrignano – @412DoublePlay on X

The 2024 Cy Young runner-up, Zack Wheeler is looking to claim the crown this season as he enters with a 2.95 ERA, an NL-best 0.91 WHIP and a sharp 4-1 record over his first 58 innings pitched.

The Bucs and Wheeler matched up multiple times over the years, most recently last April where the Pirates dealt him one of his worst outings of the year, lasting just 5 innings and allowing 5 runs (4 earned) off 5 hits and 3 walks with 10 strikeouts, proving even when a team “gets to him,” he can still put hitters away with the best of them.

Along qualified starting pitchers of the Senior Circuit, Wheeler ranks 2nd in K rate (33.2%), 5th in walk rate (4.9%), 5th in hard hit rate (36%), 4th in batting average against (.200) while he is tops in K-BB% (28.3%), SIERA (2.51) and xERA (2.35).

There aren’t many holes in the veteran righty’s game as the 34-year old effectively neutralizes lefty hitters (.182 BAA) and has just a 2.06 ERA the first two turns against opposing hitters.

He has 6 distinct pitches as he throws a 4-seam/sinker in the mid-90s that can touch 98, a low-80s sweeper, a high-80s splitter, a low-90s cutter and a curve that sits around 80-81.

Wheeler has mostly relied on his 4-seam against lefties, adding in his cutter/curve/splitter to mix speeds and change eye level. Lefties are hitting just .091 against his splitter and whiffing at a 50% rate when facing the curve so best option is staying with a quick bat at the top of the zone to attack the fastball if they can see the spin/movement early enough.

Righties have surprisingly done better against Wheeler (.721 OPS compared to .550 for LHH) as they see the 4-seam/sinker/sweeper mix, crushing the sinker at a .348 clip and slugging a whopping .739 against the offering – which the Phillies ace typically locates low and in against right handed hitters.

It may be a war of attrition as the Pirates battle against whatever Wheeler deals them in hopes to get to the bullpen early enough to put enough runs on the board.

Series Preview: Pittsburgh Pirates (15-29) at Philadelphia Phillies (25-18)

5-16-2025 – By Michael Castrignano – @412DoublePlay on X

While most fans of the team don’t feel there is much of a rivalry between the two Keystone state squads, it’ll be an east-versus-west weekend between the Battlin’ Bucs and the Phightin’ Phils in the City of Brotherly Love.

The Pirates face an NL East team for the third straight series after a 3-3 combined performance against the Braves and Mets. The Phillies are looking to bounce back after dropping 2 of 3 to the St. Louis Cardinals as they attempt to claw back some games in their divisional race.

5/16

Pirates: Andrew Heaney (L) 2-3, 45.2 IP, 3.15 ERA, 36 Ks/16 walks, 1.12 WHIP

Phillies: Ranger Suarez (L) 1-0, 10.2 IP, 5.91 ERA, 11 Ks/3 walks, 1.22 WHIP

5/17

Pirates: Carmen Mlodzinski 1-3, 36.1 IP, 5.21 ERA, 26 Ks/11 walks, 1.54 WHIP

Phillies: Zack Wheeler 4-1, 58 IP, 2.95 ERA, 74 Ks/11 walks, 0.91 WHIP

5/18

Pirates: Paul Skenes 2-4, 54.2 IP, 2.63 ERA, 53 Ks/15 walks, 1.01 WHIP

Phillies: Mick Abel (AAA) 5-2, 46.1 IP, 2.53 ERA, 51 Ks/19 walks, 1.21 WHIP

Pirates: Andrew Canario – Since getting regular playing time over the offense-deficient Tommy Pham, Canario has been on a tear as he’s posted an .826 OPS through 10 games played this month and finally getting the results we all hoped he would when he was claimed off waivers last month.

Honorable mention to Jared Triolo, who has started using the Torpedo bat and has the 16th highest average exit velocity among qualified hitters this month (94.4) and has cracked two doubles and two home runs over the last week.

Phillies: Alec Bohm – After a freezing cold start to the season, Bohm has started to catch fire at the plate as he has 7 hits in his last 16 at-bats with a 1.214 OPS in the past week of games

Pirates: Bryan Reynolds – This is arguably the coldest cold spell Reynolds has experienced in his professional career. The 30-year old veteran outfielder is riding a 23 at-bat hitless streak and has just 2 hits in his last 48 plate appearances.

Phillies: Bryson Stott – He’s never been a hit-for-power type of bat but the average has also taken a significant dip for the Phillies second baseman as of late. Stott has just 3 hits in his last 21 at-bats (all singles) and has a 35 wRC+ this month.

Pirates: Endy Rodriguez, Nick Gonzales, Enmanuel Valdez, Dauri Moreta, Johan Oviedo, Jared Jones, Justin Lawrence, Tim Mayza

Phillies: José Ruiz, Aaron Nola

Notes

  • Spencer Horwitz is being activated ahead of the series starting and will make his Pirates debut after 13 games rehabbing between Altoona and Indianapolis. He had 6 hits in his last 13 at-bats with Indy, including a double and a home run.
  • Zack Wheeler is 13 strikeouts away from tying Brett Myers for 10th place (986) on the Phillies franchise leaderboard. Wheeler hasn’t recorded that many Ks in a game since May 29, 2021 (14) so it’s unlikely to happen but still possible.
  • Former first round pitching prospect Mick Abel will make his MLB debut this weekend for the Phillies
  • The Pirates have not scored more than 4 runs in a franchise-record 20 games. The offense has been looking markedly better recently but until they get production from the big bats, this sub-5 run total is going to hang over the team’s heads.

Starter Spotlight: Southpaw Suarez

5-16-2025 – By Michael Castrignano – @412DoublePlay on X

Following a string season where Phillies starter Ranger Suarez posted a 3.46 ERA through 150.2 innings pitched, the limber lefty is looking to leap to another level.

A recurring lower back strain delayed his start to the season but after a rough first outing, Suarez displayed some of his dominant 2024 All-Star form as the 6’1 southpaw tossed 7 shutout frames against the Cleveland Guardians, striking out 5 with 1 walk and 3 hits.

Suarez works a fastball/changeup/curve pitching combo with an extremely rare slider.

As is typical for a lefty, he doesn’t throw especially hard. His fastballs consist of the sinker, 4-seam and cutter, ranging in velocity between 86-93 but he mostly finds success with his secondary offerings.

Pirates bats will want to target fastballs inside to drive. Opposing hitters hit .262 against Suarez fastballs last year and slugged .404. Given that fastballs comprise ~60% of his total pitch mix, it’s more likely than not that batters will be seeing a good mix of them.

Starter Spotlight: Mold Some Clay

5-14-2025 – By Michael Castrignano – @412DoublePlay on X

It was only a few short years ago that Clay Holmes was a top pitching prospect in the Pirates system. After struggling to find success in Pittsburgh, he has found his niche in New York first as a shutdown reliever for the Yankees and now as one of the best starting pitchers in the NL for the Mets.

Holmes enters the day with a 5-1 record and 2.74 ERA through 42.2 innings pitched. The 6’5 righty most recently subdued the Cubs, holding them to 3 hits – one of which was a solo home run – 3 walks and 5 strikeouts through 6 solid frames of work.

After posting a 2.69 ERA over his 3+ seasons with the Yankees and earning 2 All Star nods, Holmes signed with the Mets the offseason with plans to return to the rotation – which required adding to his pitch arsenal that was essentially sinker/slider out of the bullpen .

While Holmes primarily relies on his low-90s sinker, his addition of a changeup in the high-80s and reversion to including a 2-seam and 4-seam as options has deepened his repertoire and led to the solid start to his season.

Holmes utilizes a sinker and slider/sweeper combo against righties, pitching down and in with the fastball but keeping the breaking ball down and away from bats.

Lefties would face the sinker along with the changeup on the lower outside part of the plate and cutter breaking down and in against opposing hitters.

They will also need to find ways to lift the ball as Holmes enters with a 3% HR/FB rate and 53% ground-ball rate that is among the best in the league.

Although Holmes has fairly consistent splits versus hitters from both sides of the plate, Bucco bats will want to hold to elevated heaters and try to find holes in the defense.

Lefties are hitting .308 against the sinker and .300 against the cutter while righties have a .323 batting average against Holmes’s sinker.

It’s no easy feat for the Bucs but if they can get a couple extra base hits strung together, maybe they won’t suffer another sweep.

Trading Paul Skenes Would be a Gigantic Mistake

5-13-25 – By Gary Morgan – @garymo2007 on X

The Pirates 2025 season has been a truly worst case scenario story. And when worst case scenario stories play out, people imagine doomsday preparations.

There has been a groundswell of suggestions that the Pirates should trade Paul Skenes, and right now.

Listen, no matter when the Pirates deal Paul Skenes, they won’t win the deal. You don’t win when you trade a player like that.

Lets start by talking about the different kinds of people who suggest it.

The National Baseball Media
Their motivation, well, much like you they see baseball as broken, they just don’t see it broken in the same way you do. See, to them, great talents deserve to be on great teams, not just eventually like what actually takes place in the game, but always. Teams like the Pirates, they don’t deserve him you see? And even if they did what was requested and “spent a little more” it wouldn’t be enough. To them, teams like the Dodgers or Mets or Yankees, they’re put together the way they are on the backs of their superior intellect. See, if Bob Nutting were to spend 387 Million next year, the market would surely grow to the point where it could support at least that for years to come. Reality isn’t on their side, but when you decide common sense solutions to actually try to fix the game are insane, you kinda have to accept insane things as provable truth, and it’s extra easy because almost nobody will ever try it, except for the Padres of course, and listen to how they get spoken of by this same group, like they’re just a cute kid wearing a cop uniform pretending they have actual authority. If they really wanted to try they would have signed Ohtani, ya dig?

Normal Pirates Fans
This is typically from two classes of Pirates fans, if they’re not trolls who I won’t bother with in this piece. First are the fans who don’t really understand team control, how it escalates, how long it lasts, you know what I mean, these are the people that get mad when you suggest trading a guy like Isiah Kiner-Falefa cause he’s hitting .300 n’at, but they simply have no understanding he becomes a free agent next year.
Next up are the ones who genuinely feel this team is so poorly constructed, so far from any kind of meaningful contention that they either might as well, or they see it as a one stop shop to acquire everything that ails the team.

Now, there are others of course, I’m not trying to create buckets for every eventuality of Paul Skenes must be traded person, just most of them, like I don’t care about the Supermodel community that surely wants Paul to move to NYC for Livvy’s career.

Let me try my best to explain why it’s a bad idea right now and I’m going to start with my very best argument.

The only reason we think this team is close enough to fix, is that Paul Skenes is on the team

Let’s say for the sake of argument, the Pirates didn’t draft Paul Skenes. In our little world, they’ve either picked Crews, or someone else, honestly doesn’t matter too terribly much for this conversation.

Point is, this team doesn’t have Paul Skenes. Instead you’re like 24/7 comping Jared Jones to Spencer Strider, and you’re absolutely drooling over the upcoming prospect pitchers. If they picked Crews, you probably have a new CF so maybe the outfield feels solidified.

You’d probably still feel you have a lot of the same holes though, just instead of outfield you now don’t have this freak of an ace. Again though, you do have that pitching coming, and lord knows you better get some of it across the finish line.

Now, the one thing I can’t control is your ability to truly imagine this feeling. Can you even allow yourself to simply Thanos Paul Skenes out of this franchise? It’s hard to do.

Look, we’d probably still be mad about the state of the team. We’d probably still have wanted Shelton fired, Cherington too. I know for sure we’d still want Nutting gone.

Would we think we should be making a big deal? If so, would we have to add front line starting pitcher? Think on it, Jones is hurt, Bubba might be ready, Keller is what Keller was, Heaney and Falter are still around, you have Carmen going.

You sure you would think the prospects are going to be enough?

To me, no matter how hard I try, I can’t see this team being sure fire ready to win without him. Simply put, I think he’s the reason this urgency shouldn’t just be lip service.

I don’t believe an appropriate package exists

At this point, you’d be selling 5 years of Paul Skenes, 2 more dirt cheap then 3 years of progressively more expensive arbitration years. The obvious assumption is that whomever would acquire him would want to extend him, but we’ve already seen that not be the case twice for Juan Soto.

The Pirates would have to ask for in my mind minimally 2 MLB players, and I don’t mean borderline. Let’s go with the Mariners because they have like 7 or 9 players on top 100 lists depending on who you look at. I’d start with Cal Raleigh and I’d make Seattle eat half his 105 million dollar contract that lasts through 2030.
Then I’d demand George Kirby their young starter in arbitration. Now here’s my problem, they’ve got a lot of top 100 players, but not many who are close to MLB. If I’m making moves like this, I need to have what I acquire effect my MLB club within the timeframe of the return. This is where the deal falls apart for me. Maybe Kirby and Raleigh are enough of right now for you to pull the trigger, to me, I’m not sure I’ve fixed enough of the holes I knew I had, primarily because I had to use some of my capital to replace Skenes himself in the rotation.

I can try other teams. Dodgers could be a better fit, but the principle remains, it’s a very difficult match to find equivalent value. And it all stems from trying to replace 5 years of Skenes.

There are better ways to add

First things first, they really could spend more next year. They could solve a lot of their problems if they’d just toss a 10-15 million dollar multi year contract at an outfielder. And they may need to trade for a SS. That alone would change things pretty drastically.

That said, I’m a Pirates fan, so let’s try to do it another way. They could move a lesser pitcher, like Keller or Falter, or even one of the prospects for what they need and not force headline stating pitcher into the conversation.

Just by acting like a normal team they could avoid doing something as painful as trading a phenom, and the literal only reason the baseball world looks in this direction. At least for now.

How it Could Play out

Here’s the thing, if the Pirates don’t perform some miracle and extend Paul, we’ll be talking about trading him in 2028 or 2029, and yes, it’ll be for less than these silly packages I just mentioned, but it could be easier to find a partner and you could still easily use him to answer a question elsewhere.

Hopefully backed by a rotation that has grown together and capable of absorbing the loss much more capably than they could now.

It will still hurt, you’ll still lose the deal, but the hope is that in 4-5 years of Skenes you can make all the puzzle pieces fit and get something out of it. Take him out of the equation now and you might very well add talent, but you’ll have to develop that staff and that could take a couple years. For instance, Bubba Chandler right this second is baseball’s number 2 prospect and top pitching prospect. Mitch Keller used to be up there too. It can go that way, and does a lot more often than it goes the way Paul has. Nobody has come on like Paul has.

I caution you, if that’s what you’re picturing for Barco or Chandler or whomever, you take a step back and realize that’s simply not likely.

I’m not predicting they’ll suck, I’m just saying, don’t be shocked if you don’t see the best of Bubba for a year or two.

The time is now to build on this team, fill the holes and take advantage of the best gift this game could give a franchise, a stud and irreplaceable generational talent.

The moral of the story, I don’t think it’s smart to consider at the moment, I don’t think a workable deal is out there, and I think it would be improving an aspect of the team while sacrificing what made the team even sniff special to begin with.

Maybe the best way to put it, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

Subscribe to our site, it’s free and all you’ll get from us is a notification when there’s something new to read.

Starter Spotlight:  Seize A Kodai(k) Moment

5-13-2025 – By Michael Castrignano – @412DoublePlay on X

Following a close game last night that had a number of photo finishes, Pittsburgh will pivot to their next matchup. Unfortunately for them, it’s not an easy one with Kodai Senga taking the ball for the Mets, following up on his picture-perfect 2023 rookie campaign and entering the day with an NL-best 1.16 ERA through his first 38.2 innings on the year.

After missing nearly all of 2024 following a moderate posterior capsule strain and then a high-grade calf strain, the 2023 All Star and Rookie of the Year runner-up has had an electric start to 2025 as he hasn’t allowed more than 6 hits or 2 runs in any of his 7 starts thus far.

Senga has an elite pitch mix, which differentiates him from many other pitchers. While he has seven distinct pitches, he will mainly rely on his mid-90s 4-seam fastball low-90s cutter and, his best weapon a ghost fork ball which ranges in velocity from 77 to 86 with some serious break.

Unsurprisingly, opposing hitters are struggling against that forkball with a 44.2% K rate coming on the pitch as 23 of his 35 strikeouts have come against the offering.

His other pitches have been far less effective, specifically his fastballs, against which lefties are batting .405 and slugging .619.

If the Bucs can see the spin (or lack of spin, really) on that forkball and focus only on his fastball, they might have a chance against him. 

Then again, with how the offense has been stumbling, they’ll need some pixel-perfect moments to find success today.

Gary’s Five Pirates Thoughts – NL East Swing Immediate Test for Kelly and Crew

5-12-25 – By Gary Morgan – @garymo2007 on X

Big week of news, we’ve touched on a lot of it already but this feature is always about looking a bit deeper at it.

Lets Go!

1. Bring Up All the Kids?

I keep hearing calls for it, it’s not happening, and today I’m going to give you a couple reasons why.

The first one, you’re absolutely going to think is wrong, because it came from Bob Nutting, but the sole reason Bob felt it was time to fire the manager, even this early in the campaign was that this team should be playing better than this.

I don’t think he has the belief it’ll become a playoff team, but it should be much better and he’s giving Ben Cherington and Don Kelly room to prove that is indeed the case.

It might be misguided, but it is the right of any owner to proceed as he sees fit and this owner wants to see how this team performs with one big swap of his skipper.

Calling up all the kids, well, that’s what you do when you don’t think the season is worth playing out with an eye toward righting this particular ship, but an eye toward making the 2026 team better. Understandable for fans, maybe not so much for an owner who feels like he can’t evaluate who he’s kept around if they were to act as though the cause is lost.

Now, that’s from the owner, from me…

Most of “all the kids” who are truly ready, are pitchers. They will add them in, but it’s going to be one by one, as needed via injury, performance, or even just an undeniable improvement plausibility.

Bubba Chandler will be first, it’s not really worth debating at this point.

Offensively, they have some interesting guys, but nobody beating down the door. Also, they really do need to get some of these injured players back. Call up Yorke now and then you have IKF, Gonzales coming back, so Yorke is right back to not having a starting spot. Call up Malcom Nunez and well, Horwitz is coming back. Point is, when this team gets healthy, most of these kids would go right back.

I get the sentiment, but in practice, it’s just not there, not the influx you think you’re calling for anyway.

Replacing Pham is an easy call, and yes, they could do that now for almost anyone on the roster, but guys like Adam Frazier, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, you kinda want to be able to trade them, and again, we need to see who’s pushing, as we sit here, the owner doesn’t want to see the team play these games for anything but the win in front of them.

Fans may be onto 2026 already, but the team isn’t.

2. Bubba Chandler #2 Prospect in the Game, #1 Pitching Prospect

MLB Pipeline released their latest update and Bubba Chandler took a big jump.

You all know how I feel about these rankings, but when you start to get top 10-20, there’s a good chance you’ve been scouted to death. It’s not on reputation anymore, it’s now about performance, and in some cases readiness for the league.

I’d expect Bubba to get the call in the next home stand, so this won’t matter for all that long I’d imagine, but Konnor Griffin continues to rise, and welcome Hunter Barco to the top 100 where he’s sure to progress through as the season plays out.

3. It Wasn’t All Shelton’s Fault!

Of course it wasn’t, and it won’t be all Don Kelly’s either. That said, I’ve seen some, especially in the national media try to paint this as somehow so much so not Derek Shelton’s fault that he actually was and is a good manager.

Listen, these people have an agenda.

They hate Bob Nutting, and really any owner who doesn’t spend, which is honestly a sentiment many of us share, but when you allow that bias to somehow talk yourself into pretending Derek Shelton actually did a good job here, or that some other team was going to snap him up or that you need to ask the players how many of them got better playing for Shelton, you’re proving you haven’t watched this team play baseball, not that you have the moral high ground.

Derek Shelton was a really, really bad baseball coach. He was stubborn about roles for bullpen arms. Stubborn about pre-planned decisions in spite of changes in the variables. Foolish about ever playing someone who performed in the next game. Incapable of transitioning players from AAA to MLB because frankly, he’d rather play a 39 year old pushing a walker than a 26 year old who finally made it to the league.

He never had answers beyond platitudes, certainly none that pointed at him as a problem.

Flatly, his players didn’t get better.

The national media, and some locals have chosen to defend the indefensible simply because they hate another target worse, and that is a disingenuous place to act from in any walk of life, let alone schilling for a pile of crap.

He was an objectively bad manager, one that gives you an opportunity to still hit your favorite target. Bob and Ben never should have extended him.

It’s not like those two should come out of this smelling like roses, but you don’t need to pretend he should have kept his job, or that you could pop him in LA and he’d have the Dodgers humming. Fact is, Dave Roberts did a job in the World Series last year with his decimated pitching staff that Derek Shelton NEVER would have pulled off.

This management team watched a guy manage a unit that throughout his 5+ years here never improved fundamentally. Never improved defensively, despite having 3-4 gold glove winners and finalists on the roster. Never stopped changing the lineup every game until finally a player publicly called him on it like 3 weeks ago.

Never played a guy the next day when he’d done well the day before, unless it was his pre planned 2 or 3 guys who play every day.

Refused to give kids a real run of games to try to latch on.

Never stepped in to correct obvious and repeated game after game mistakes.

No, I’m sorry, crying for Derek Shelton to the point you pretend he was competent, well, it just shows you aren’t yourself.

You can want more done, but you can’t pretend this shouldn’t have been one of those things.

4. There is No Upside to Patience with Tommy Pham or Cherington’s Fake Numbers

Tommy Pham won’t be here next year. No matter what.

Tommy Pham hasn’t had a season batting average above .256 since 2019.

His current Average is .176 and his BABIP is .253, meaning even if he’s getting unlucky, it’s not so unlucky that there is some kind of hidden good here.

His expected on base average is .255, 3rd percentile in the league. At .202 his expected Batting average is in the 4th percentile league wide. .276 his expected SLG the 2nd percentile. Go down the list, the only thing he’s above average at aside from fielding is his chase rate.

10th percentile for Barreling up balls.

Ben Cherington’s silly comments about squinting and seeing a better team, or directly about how much better Tommy Pham should be based on their internal numbers. Folks, they’re lying.

They don’t have magic numbers I can’t get hold of. I’m subscribed to a couple services that dig in on stats, but that’s for convenience, you don’t have to be, you can find every number anyone has access to if you look around. The Pirates, and specifically Ben Cherington refer to their internal numbers to claim the defense is playing well, or that they are getting very unlucky, but the truth is, the numbers just aren’t there.

And they certainly aren’t as it comes to explaining why it’s worth anyone’s time to get what Tommy Pham has to give.

It wouldn’t be a big deal they make claims like this, IF they didn’t run the team based on them. Wanna know why so many moves they make don’t make sense? Here is the biggest answer, they literally think they have factors isolated that others aren’t seeing.

I say this again, completely unafraid of being wrong, they don’t.

They have an extreme belief that they know what they wanted and massage everything to continue convincing themselves of it.

Hence it takes all of 35 games to completely go from being tied to your manager to being ready to move on. It’s really easy to flip flop on fake numbers.

A manager can act as a brake on stuff like this. Shelton didn’t, that’s for sure, Donny might, we’ll have to see what he does when he’s got a healthy unit and what kind of autonomy he has to make decisions like that.

No matter what, we’ll eventually be told the time has come for Tommy, and when they do, we’ll hear about all the numbers we already knew about that led to the decision, the ones we’ve been talking about for over a month and guess what? We’ll never hear what magic numbers caused them to try the way they did. Care to guess?

5. Bunting Mentality, but No Bunting Execution

This team is caught in a way based on the way they’ve run and built it.

For instance, they recognize they have to play small ball to win, but they have about 2 guys who know how to bunt.

They don’t practice bunting, in fact, I haven’t heard of any team practicing it much anymore. Every team tends to have a guy or two who know how to do it and they’re usually speed guys.

Modern baseball has all but taken it off the table unless you’re trying for a cheap at bat.

And that in itself is a tangent. If you “know how to bunt” you probably use a push bunt or pull and you’re trying for a hit, which is a completely different kind of bunt from the hit the grass and deaden the ball sacrifice that gets the runner to second in a textbook fashion.

Even if you practice it, there are guys you simply aren’t going to ask to do it. Be honest with yourself, you don’t want Cutch or Reynolds, Cruz, maybe even Bart bunting. You want them producing.

So when guys are asked to do it, they usually haven’t had any experience.

In fact, last week there was a game where the Pirates asked Jared Triolo to lay down a sac bunt. He failed. But Jared hadn’t even attempted to bunt 1 time in his entire professional career. ALL levels I’m talking about here.

He tried it twice in college.

And he doesn’t practice it, AND the guys throwing 99 MPH with inside run or dropping a curve on the outside corner.

I miss this aspect of the game too, I grew up on Jay Bell moving whoever the Pirates were using as a leadoff hitter to second once or twice a game.

It’s just not there anymore.

ALL that said, I could suggest, when you built a team that has no power, has a little speed, struggles with Slug in general, it might pay to be different.

Maybe THIS team should be practicing it. Maybe they should be using it along with Run and Hits and hit and runs, steals, double steals, designed delayed starts trying to steal a run, all that stuff.

Shorten up, make contact, bunt, run, try to use the ingredients you do have.

The problem is, teams tend to not want to try small ball until the carrot is right in front of them. Then, it’s almost always someone who probably should just keep his head in the game and try to do the best he can to control the bat head. Hell, some of them would be better off trying to check swing it where they want it.

Small ball is just a catch phrase for scoring without hitting a homerun anymore. They say it on the broadcasts and I cringe every time because a single, stolen base and another single is just a run, a normal ass run scoring play. Not some overriding ethos of “small ball”.

Another reason this team can’t play small ball, they’re terrible at runners in scoring position. And I mean right now terrible, imagine if they hit into fewer double plays what those numbers might look like? lol

My buddy Sully from Locked on MLB said to me the Pirates right now are a fish with feathers, they have no power and no speed. How do they win?

Indeed Sully, indeed.

Starter Spotlight: Don’t Peter Out, Son!

5-12-2025 – By Michael Castrignano – @412DoublePlay on X

With the Pirates on the road again, heading to Queens to face the NL East-leading Mets, they’ll see starting pitcher David Peterson, who is off to a strong start to his 2025 campaign.

After breaking out last year with a 2.90 ERA over 121 innings of work – including a July 6 no-decision versus the Pirates which I previewed here, Peterson enters play today with a 3.52 ERA through 38.1 frames and solidified himself in the rotation after bouncing between starting and long relief his first few years in New York.

Peterson is the Mets version of Carmen Mlodzinski in that he is DOMINANT first time through the order and then falls off hard after that.

He’s coming off his worst outing of the season, allowing 4 runs off 5 hits through 6 innings of work against Arizona as he walked 4 and struck out 6.

Looking at his profile, Peterson is a ground-ball merchant with elite extension that he utilizes to get late swing decisions from opposing hitters.

He primarily leans on his fastball as he offers a low 90s sinker/4-seam 53% of the time while adding his mid 80s slider/changeup and high-70s curve down in the zone to mix speed.

He keeps his non-4-seam pitches low in the zone but the heat is what Bucs bats should target regardless of location.

On the season, righties are hitting .310 and slugging .552 against Peterson’s 4-seam while hitting .389 with a .667 slugging percentage against his sinker.

By comparison, his secondary offerings have been much more successfully deployed against opposing hitters.

The Bucs will need to stay high in the zone and try to resist the breaking/offspeed stuff down. He can get wild at times but mostly is looking to pitch to contact and rely on his defense behind him. 

Attack heat. Lay off junk. Put the ball in play and make something happen.

Series Preview: Pittsburgh Pirates (14-27) at New York Mets (26-15)

5-12-25 – By Gary Morgan – @garymo2007 on X

Look no further than the records. These two teams are polar opposites as to what they’ve produced so far in 2025, and bluntly, with the payroll disparity between the two, they absolutely should be.

This series should be a mismatch, but the Pirates never enter a series with Skenes and Keller going in which they should assume they can’t hang. Sure, that hasn’t been the case this season, but if we’re to believe the Don Kelly Era is a new day, lets also assume they rebound and perform a bit more toward their ceiling too.

5/12
Pirates: Paul Skenes – 3-4, 2.77 ERA, 47 K, 12 BB, 0.95 WHIP

Mets: David Peterson (L) – 2-2, 3.05 ERA, 36 K, 13 BB, 1.36 WHIP

5/13
Pirates: Mitch Keller – 1-4, 4.40 ERA, 35 K, 15 BB, 1.40 WHIP

Mets: Kodai Senga – 4-2, 1.16 ERA, 35 K, 17 BB, 1.16 WHIP

5/14
Pirates: Bailey Falter (L) – 2-3, 4.36 ERA, 31K, 13 BB, 1.13 WHIP

Mets: Clay Holmes – 5-1, 2.74 ERA, 44 K, 16 BB, 1.24 WHIP

Pirates: Joey Bart keeps hitting, well, at least for average. In his past 30 he’s hitting .299, getting on base at a .409 clip and here’s the rub, only slugging .392. He’s hot now, but adding slug, and even sacrificing some of these good numbers in the process could make him even more important in this lineup. 1 HR isn’t exactly an exciting number for someone who’s been in your cleanup spot most for most of the season.

Mets: Pete Alonso has been on fire just about all year long. In his past 30 games he’s hitting .315 with an on base percentage of .430 and a slugging percentage of .586 with 6 home runs. It took the Mets and Pete a long time to agree to terms this year, but it looks like both sides made the right call.

Pirates: Tommy Pham, and it doesn’t get much colder. In his past 30 games just a .179 Average, .262 OBP and .211 SLG with 30 K’s. Even if you’re one of the people claiming he isn’t getting lucky, his BABIP is only .253. He alone has left 56 men on base. He’s only got 23 total bases in 2025.

Mets: Luis Torrens, I guess. Truthfully, I could have easily, and for the first time ever not filled in this section for the Mets, they are firing on all cylinders, and anyone who plays significant time for them, well, they’re performing. Still, in his last 30, Torrens is hitting .247, OBP .313, SLG .425. All of which would probably have him hitting like 5th for the Bucs, but has him in the cold category for the Mets.

Pirates: The Pirates are going to get an influx very soon as Spencer Horwitz, Nick Gonzales, Endy Rodriguez, Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Dauri Moreta all look to be down to weeks if not days depending on which one you discuss. Oneil Cruz and his lower back prevented him from playing Sunday, it’s classified as day to day, so let’s hope it’s not much longer.

Mets: Jose Siri, Sean Manaea, A.J. Minter, Paul Blackburn, Frankie Montas, Ronny Mauricio, Jesse Winker, Danny Young, Brooks Raley, and Luis Torrens left the game on 5-11 after taking a foul tip in a very sensitive area, but I’d anticipate him playing at some point in this series.

Notes

What’s really going to be interesting here is seeing how Don Kelly handles the pieces he has. For instance, he’s already decided Pham is a bench player, at least that’s how he used him in the Braves series. Interesting to see how that plays out. He’s been forced to use Gorski just about every day with the injury to Enmanuel Valdez.

As he starts to get guys back which should start to trickle back here over the next week or two, I’m curious how he uses them, how he changes the lineup, how he uses his bench. He’s not been shy about emptying his bench just about every game, and we’ll see how that progresses.