The Pirates 83rd Loss Of The Season Felt A Little Different Than The Other 82

8-29-21 By Craig W. Toth (aka @bucsbasement on Twitter)

In a season where the Pirates are well on their way to 100 losses, there are going to come from behind victories similar to the one on Thursday night, high and low scoring affairs where Pittsburgh comes out on top less often than competitive teams around Major League Baseball, games where they look like they are on top of the world and contests when it seems like it is the first time they have ever stepped on a baseball field. Each game will feel different, but more often than not, the Pirates will lose.

Now, throughout the years I have been told, in every sport I have ever played or watched that a loss is a loss or a win is a win, no matter the score. However, some losses, like the one last night just seem to hit different than others; and from the comments I saw around Pirates Social Media, I feel like I may not be alone in this sentiment. Many voiced the belief that this was the worst game, and in turn the worst Pirates loss, they had witnessed all season. Worse than the two 14 to 1 defeats suffered at the hands of the Reds on April 6th and May 10th, worse than the 20 to 1 loss to Atlanta back on May 21st and worse than almost being no-hit in the hitter friendly confines of Coor’s Field on June 29th.

Maybe, it’s because it is just the latest in the line of horrendous losses by the Pittsburgh Pirates on the season-with all of the others meshed together or in the back of our minds-or maybe, just maybe it’s because this belief is true.

From the moment the Pirates took the field last night, things did feel a little bit different. No it’s not first time they had a starting pitcher who got rocked, couldn’t manage even the slighted bit of offense for the majority of the game, or had a position player take the mound to close out the game. These have become more common place than any Pirates Fan would care to remember. No, it was the aura of defeat that surrounded PNC Park like a cloud before the first pitch was even thrown.

I know I am probably being totally over dramatic, but as a fan of this team, I am pretty sure you might know what I mean, or may have felt the same thing at select times throughout your history of cheering on a team that that has had four winning seasons in the last 28 years; and truthfully 29 after Friday night’s loss.

Sometimes these games just hit differently.

News and Notes

  • There are probably more than just a few fans that are elated that the Pirates officially cut ties with their longest tenured, but obviously struggling right fielder Gregory Polanco. Less than a week removed from the swirling ball of crap created by the original misrepresentation of the Pirates decision to put Polanco on outright waivers, and only a couple days since Polanco had to sit in front of reporters defending himself to the “DFA Chanters” from the previous night’s defensive gaffe, the Pittsburgh Pirates released Gregory Polanco. Now, I don’t care what side of the aisle you are on concerning Polanco and what his immediate future should have been with the Pirates as we all know he was being bought out for $3 million at the end of the season. I just know there is no way that any of you can say that the “collective” they handled any part of this situation appropriately. From Ben Cherington to Derek Shelton and from the person who leaked the original story to the reporter(s) who ran with it before even bothering to learn what outright waivers actually meant, because getting that “first” on Twitter is much more important.
  • In a corresponding move for the active roster, Cole Tucker and his .223/.350/.373 slash line with 6 homers were recalled from Triple-A Indianapolis. He has shown more patience at the plate recently, as evidenced by his two walks on the night, but sooner rather than later, the bat has to play.
  • Also before the game, Dillon Peters was placed on the 10-Day IL with a lower back strain; replaced by Sam Howard. Howard would give up 3 runs on 4 hits, with 2 strikeouts and a walk his return appearance to the bullpen.
  • Michael Chavis left the game with right elbow discomfort; potentially from a diving attempt in right field on Edmundo Sosa’s second triple of the night.
  • Colin Moran broke up Adam Wainwright’s perfect game in the bottom of the 5th, so there’s a small victory.

The Pirates and Cardinals will meet again today at 1:05 PM EST to close out both the four game and season series.

Wil Crowe (3-7, 5.46 ERA) is on the bump for Pittsburgh. Opposing him is Kwang Hyun Kim (6-6, 3.27 ERA) for St. Louis.

On Polanco, The Pirates Were Always Going to Make Half the Fans Angry

8-29-21 – By Gary Morgan

Cut the Bum! He should have been cut back in May.

Keep the Cheerleader! He’s the heart and soul, the Pirates did him dirty.

The Pirates decided yesterday to DFA Gregory Polanco.

I have no real issue with this move on the surface, I felt he had been given plenty of time this season. Now, I should also say, I had long since given up this even being a possibility.

I figured after going through the crap storm created by leaking that he was placed on waivers last week, and the push back from saying they planned to keep him on the active roster.

So, my first question really was, when someone in your office leaked that, and you saw the story exploding, why not just cut ties with the guy? I mean if you were ultimately going to get to this point 6 whole days later, why not just spare the guy being put back on the field to be booed and have the few fans in attendance chant DFA at him.

People have decided DFAing Gregory was disrespectful, I can’t get there, but to me, after creating a problem they could have done much better to stick the landing.

It’s also not like this just started to be a problem, Ben Cherington and Derek Shelton have been asked routinely all season long why Greg kept getting playing time. Early on, the answer was simple because even the most jaded fan could certainly understand hoping someone would want to trade for him. Once it was clear he’d never get interest, the questions came.

They’ve given double talk, and complimented him, and more than anything kept playing him, and I don’t mean a couple times a week, I mean like a starter.

Now, I’m not ignorant, they certainly don’t have anyone else who is screaming with their hair on fire they’re ready to prove they happen to be a better player, but enough is enough.

Ben Cherington said something very interesting a couple weeks back when asked about Greg playing, he tossed all the responsibility back on Shelton. Shelty makes out the lineup cards.

He might as well have said “Look, I don’t want him to play either, ask Shelty” so, of course the media asked Shelton. He got rather indignant, said he made the decision and refused to elaborate.

This smells very much like a GM that felt he needed to take his coach’s toy away. Not unlike a few years back when Huntington finally had to take Sean Rodriguez away from Clint Hurdle.

I guess to sum this up, I don’t have a problem with the decision, and the guy is still getting paid, in fact the Pirates still owe him roughly 5 million if you count the buyout they’ll owe him soon. I have questions about why they didn’t just pull the trigger earlier, I have questions about Shelton’s judgement because I honestly believe should he have used him more sparingly on his own Cherington might have just let sleeping dogs lie.

I question knowing someone screwed up and talked about the waiver designation, and still decided to put him right back out there to face embarrassment.

Now we turn the page. Gregory the man, earned the respect of everyone he ever played with. You can rightly say he wasn’t good enough, but he never cheated you for effort, on or off the field. To a man, everyone in that dugout would tell you they loved having him as a teammate, and while that in no way is enough to remain on a baseball team, it also isn’t without value.

Chemistry and charisma, energy and support, Gregory Polanco didn’t deserve to be a Pittsburgh Pirate based on his performance, but he’ll forever be one of the most genuine and kind players I’ve ever interacted with.

When I first met Greg back in 2016, I was under the impression he didn’t speak English. Most of his interviews were in Spanish and I just assumed. So when I ran into him at the grocery store I said Hola! I took 3 years of Spanish in high school and probably couldn’t even translate enough to watch Cheech and Chong. After I tried to bumble out a sentence he put his arm on my shoulder and said “hey bro, you try too hard, I do better”

Talked to me (not even a fake media member at that point) for half an hour. Genuinely loved being a Pirate. Genuinely hated that he didn’t represent what being the Right Fielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates meant to him personally.

And after all that, it was still time. His presence had become bad for him, and the Pirates.

Part two of the story is bringing up Cole Tucker to replace him.

This is like turning up the air conditioning and lighting a fire in the fireplace. They’ve fixed one problem and brought in arguably a worse option. At least he has team control, but let’s be honest, the likelihood of Tucker retaining a 40-man spot heading into next season is about as high as Polanco getting a 15 million dollar deal in the off season somewhere.

I understand it based on that fact. Tucker with the 40-man crunch is not at all likely to stay in the picture. I believe they will put him on waivers to remove him from the 40 and if he clears they’ll stick him back in AAA. Not unlike how they handled Will Craig or Kevin Kramer. So it makes sense to use him this last month to see if he can prove they shouldn’t follow the expected course.

No matter what the Pirates chose to do with Greg, they weren’t going to make everyone happy. He was the last holdover from the playoff years, the longest tenured Pirate and whether it should or shouldn’t, he represented the end of an era. An era most realized was long since over, but an era nonetheless.

I won’t even rule out that Polanco asked for this after trying to deal with it for a week. It’s hard to criticize this management group for how things turned out with Greg, but I will say this could have been handled much cleaner. He didn’t deserve a roster spot, but he did deserve professionalism.

As I said after the first false report nearly a week ago, great guy, poor ballplayer, wish him well.

A Legacy, a History, the Negro Leagues Still Have a Hold on Baseball Fans

I love baseball. I know, shocking right? I’ve always been conflicted when thinking about or looking back on the Negro Leagues. Here in Pittsburgh we have arguably the richest history there is, home to the Pittsburgh Crawfords and the mighty Homestead Grays who we just saw the Pirates honor last night.

I’ve been conflicted because of something my grandfather said to me as a very young child. See, I was a HUGE Tony Pena fan and one day I said he was the best catcher in baseball, which prompted him to tell me about Josh Gibson, the greatest BASEBALL PLAYER he’d ever seen, who also happened to be a catcher.

The internet wasn’t a thing yet, so I asked him when he played for the Pirates and he told me, no, no, he played for the Homestead Grays and went on to tell me about the Negro Leagues.

You have to understand, I’m like 8 at the time, I have very little understanding of segregation. Like I knew who Jackie Robinson was, but maybe not what made him so important, and I knew almost nothing about the existence of another league, filled with stars like Satchel Paige, Cool Papa Bell, and Buck Leonard.

Then he dropped a bomb on me. He used to watch them play, and all about how good they were. Which prompted me to ask, if they weren’t allowed to play with white people, why were white people allowed to watch them play?

He had nothing.

You have to understand, my grandpa loved to tell stories, he’d talk about almost anything but the war, and now this.

I didn’t understand, and again, I was like 8 so I was onto Transformers and G.I. Joe again before giving it a second thought.

That said, I’ve never really moved past it all together. It’s a fundamental question that I had no idea I’d asked. An 8 year old who had rarely seen a black person who wasn’t on TV, I had no insight into what these men went through. No idea that my little question was dynamite to the very existence of a league my Grandfather was just praising.

Zero clue I had painted him into a corner. There was no way for him to explain that. As I watch teams in modern baseball celebrate the history of the Negro leagues and even add their stats into the official MLB record it still troubles me.

I’m much older now, and of course I now see the complexities involved. I understand why things like this happened, but I’ll never understand why anyone was able to make themselves ok with it.

I can’t see how you could watch these guys play, know they could beat the tar out of half of MLB and still feel they didn’t deserve to be on the same field. Again, I’m not ignorant to the complexities of the time, but I have a hard time celebrating the fact this league existed.

I respect the hell out of them for playing, largely for the love of the game, and I certainly don’t want what they did to fade into history.

Maybe making me, and I’m sure others think like this is exactly what should happen. Being forced to face the past mistakes that have been made, is something that hopefully reminds us that what we think is fine today might not always be. Maybe it forces us to see things we haven’t wanted to think about.

I also think it shows that we as a people have improved. Surely there is more to do, but we can’t sit here and act like nothing has gotten better. 80 years ago we couldn’t even play a game together.

I’m proud of the legacy of these men, I’m proud of the connection they have to Pittsburgh, I’m not proud this league had to exist, and that’s the point.

Pirates Fall 4-3, Honoring the Homestead Grays

It looked for a while like both soft tossing lefty’s were going to battle each other to a 0-0 draw before turning it over to the bullpen. Dillon Peters continued to look like a steal of a pickup, and of course JA Happ who’s done little against the rest of the league got to feast on his favorite meal, Pirates.

The fifth inning however would change the narrative for both men. Dillon Peters got touched up for 3 runs giving up two doubles and a two run shot to Edman.

In the bottom half the Pirates would answer.

The Pirates would continue to chip away but couldn’t overcome the run given up by Underwood Jr., who’s actually been really solid of late. Even today this wasn’t about getting hit around.

Well played ballgame.

News & Notes

  • Yoshi Tsutsugo just keeps hitting. There isn’t much to complain about in regard to his pickup with the possible exception he’s jut auditioning for someone else. I still think if there is no DH in the NL, Yoshi would be a tough guy to carry all season.
  • Bryan Reynolds didn’t start this one, and it was felt. A game like this where Jacob Stallings hits 5th and goes 3 for 5, have to feel Reynolds in the lineup might have meant a run or two. It’s not worth complaining about, they value resting guys, and clearly don’t think they should stack that rest.
  • Michael Chavis had another hit last night, he’s shown well so far, couple notes though. First, his batting average and OBA have very little separation, really needs to work on that a bit. Second, his glove wasn’t something that he was known for. Pedestrian at best, but he’s been really really good so far manning second base. That’s an important part of him becoming a viable option.

Friday Focus – All That Future Stuff is Inching Closer to Now

8-27-21 – By Gary Morgan – @garymo2007 on Twitter

When all this started back in 2019/2020 everyone started taking cracks at building out a timeline for when things would start to come together. Optimists almost universally went with 2023, pessimists, er, um you call yourselves realists I think went with something like 2027. The Nutting else matters crowd simply said never.

I’ve been hesitant to put a real timeline together beyond saying 2022 would start to be more fun, so on and so forth.

That’s not to say next year I expect this team to do any real damage in the NL, but next year we really get to start seeing some of these young guys arrive. These are guys that Huntington drafted, players that Cherington acquired, and more than anything guys with higher ceilings than much of what resides in Pittsburgh right now.

What’s important to keep in mind is the team only gets to keep 26 guys on the active roster, so when they’re ready to move a guy up, someone is going to have to go. I’m not breaking news here, but you’re absolutely not going to stop hearing the ‘we trade everybody’ thing.

For instance, the Pirates will have some easy holes to fill next season. They can reasonably bring in some lower level free agents, they could go with prospects from the jump to fill them, but guys that are here right now by in large, won’t be here when it matters.

Next year Miguel Yajure, Roansy Contreras, Oneil Cruz, Travis Swaggerty, Cal Mitchell, Canaan Smith-Njiba, Shea Spitzbarth, Max Kranick, Cody Bolton, Rodolfo Castro, Hoy Park, Tucapita Marcano, Omar Cruz, and maybe even more will at least start to push their way toward MLB.

Now I just listed 13 players, exactly half of a full active roster, all of whom in a vacuum, meaning absence of being blocked at the MLB level should feasibly play in the league next year. Sure, injury will afford some opportunity, always does. We’ve just seen this season how easily a team can just run through pitchers like grain through a goose, they’ll find room and they’ll use a bunch of these guys.

When they do, decisions are going to start being made for different reasons than what we’ve seen these last two seasons. For instance, let’s say the Pirates open the season with a rotation of Bryse Wilson, Steven Brault, JT Brubaker, Mitch Keller and Dillon Peters. If that’s the way it shakes out, and this is just an exercise not a prediction, they’d still have other options like Cody Ponce, Chase De Jong, Chad Kuhl, Wil Crowe, before they even hit that prospect list.

Hey, this isn’t a strong enough rotation to feel you have to fear losing someone too awful much but the point remains, for Yajure to start up here, someone who truly should push, probably would have this year had he stayed healthy, someone has to go, either to the bullpen or down to AAA or even traded. For this thought exercise, try to stop yourself from screaming that I put Keller in the opening day rotation, it’s just a name at this point, toss Crowe in there instead if it makes you feel better. This is still a conversation worth having.

It’s worth having because next year the conversation starts to switch from woe is me we stink but nobody is ready, to woe is me we aren’t very good, time for this guy, he’s a beast.

If Kevin Newman starts out bad again next year, we won’t look down and see Cole Tucker fluffing his hair and failing to get on base, instead we’ll see Marcano, Cruz and Castro nipping at his heels.

If Swaggerty doesn’t look like a number one pick from the moment he arrives, we won’t look down and see a struggling Jared Oliva standing there with his hand up. We’ll see Smith-Njigba and Mitchell, maybe Matthew Fraizer making sure he knows they’re there.

This isn’t to make you think the team arrives next year. This is to make sure you understand my definition of “getting fun”.

If they choose to trade Steven Brault or Chad Kuhl it won’t just be because they want more prospects, it’ll be because they’re ready to make more room for the prospects they already have.

Some teams at this stage go all in on a youth movement. They’d deal Moran, Kuhl, Brault, maybe even Stallings, Stratton. Kevin Newman is a guy some would put in this borderline category. I personally don’t like this approach, it creates a roster that should those youngsters succeed, they all expire at the same time. It’s also moving on from veteran presence in a time when you plan to inject mass amounts of youth. Staggering makes much more sense. Even for the return on moves, you don’t want to just clog up a system with guys who aren’t going to return top talent.

That said, moving guys won’t be over this year, but the reason is going to change a bit. This is also a year where you can start having more serious conversations about holding some of your cards. Reynolds and Hayes are the easy ones, but a guy like Chad Kuhl could return next season as a bullpen arm and they could legitimately like what they see enough to extend him a bit rather than move him. I don’t see that as likely, but it’s a lot more plausible than last off season when people thought they might extend Bell.

The conversations start changing because the plan is starting to have time catch up with the mindset.

This isn’t even the wave of prospects we’ve been talking about driving this truck in the right direction, it’s just the next wave. Good baseball teams are built with players from multiple GMs, multiple drafts, multiple moves and while that whole list I put up there won’t ultimately pan out, enough will that they’ll make it tough for the guys who follow them.

A healthy system does this. A healthy system doesn’t put forward 2 or 3 guys who might help if they were forced into action. Instead it puts forward 10 guys who you actually aren’t pleased to be forced to hold back.

By the end of next season, I think the vision will start to make itself apparent, the holes will too.

It isn’t going to show up in the record, but next year has the potential to be the first year you finish feeling like next year could be different, well, since the last time in 2012. The difference is this time we’re waiting on more than a couple high end pitchers and a couple infielders. This time almost every position has some push coming.

And they’ll do it with an incredibly low payroll, again.

Next year this thing transitions from theory to execution. It won’t be all at once like a light switch, but it certainly will shed light on something that up until now has been little more than lists and dreams.

Let yourself enjoy this. It’s the reward for the pain we’ve watched and next year you finally get a taste.

Keller Blows It, Then The Pirates Blow Up

8-26-21 By Craig W. Toth (aka @bucsbasement on Twitter)

As I sat there watching the first six and a half innings of the Pirates game versus the Cardinals on Thursday night, the game recap I was scheduled to write began to develop in my mind; and for the most part it had a somewhat familiar storyline to games I had penned throughout the 2021 season. Pirates starter struggles and gets hit hard in the beginning, insert batter here has a big hit in an attempt to make things interesting and the bullpen battles to keep it from turning into a laugher.

Of course the narrative of this game would take a dramatic turn in the next half inning, changing the outcome in the process. Still, I can’t help but get stuck in the original picture that existed in my head. Sure, I am happy that the Pirates got to Raise The Jolly Roger against the hated Red Birds, and obviously it’s nice to see a Battlin’ Buccos culture being built within the clubhouse; at least to a certain degree. However, when we as Pirates Fans say wins and losses don’t matter if our team loses a close one or gets shutout in orderly fashion, then why does this one in the grand scheme of things?

We are supposed to be watching certain players that could matter in the future; hoping they perform well win or lose. We don’t want these wins to come on the backs of Gregory Polanco, Wilmer Difo and yes even Yoshitomo Tsutsugo, who is set to become a free agent at the end of the season. We are supposed to be looking for a turnaround from Mitch Keller and contributions from Bryan Reynolds, Ke’Bryan Hayes and maybe Colin Moran-the later, which we saw in this game.

I am sorry if this sounds a little jaded, and not the piece you were looking for in an unlikely come from behind victory from our Pirates. I just can’t turn off the concerns that continue arise in Keller’s game, I have a hard time believing in Michael Chavis after only 17 at bats, or Tsutsugo with 21, in a Pittsburgh uniform because we have been there before (see Phillip Evans and John Nogowski) and it’s difficult for me to get excited about a 28 year old pitcher, with one year of arbitration remaining, potentially having a successful transition to the bullpen; although I guess it could increase his trade value, which is probably not what many of you want to hear.

The Pirates won 11-7 and that makes me happy in the short term, as it always will. Nevertheless, I can’t take my eyes off the future because that’s where I have been told the real treasure lies.

News and Notes

  • Since returning from Triple-A Indianapolis Mitch Keller has posted a 6.20 ERA and a 1.82 WHIP, with one solid outing against the Cardinals last week-5IP/6H/0ER/1BB/6K-mixed in with what has unfortunately become more of the norm for the young hurler. Last night Keller had an average velocity on his fastball of 92.4 mph, down 1.7 from his yearly average. And with the location it is hard to say he was hitting his marks.
  • Colin Moran is a guy that many Pirates have already replaced with the next big down in the Minors, yet, I am not inclined to move on from him just yet; and have even considered a little bit of an extension for the 28 year old first baseman, as he has developed into a pretty solid all around batter-113 and 112 wRC+ over the past two seasons-with some pop.

  • Chad Kuhl has the opportunity to show his versatility, in the rotation and out of the pen. I have seen questions about how much value Kuhl could build in a little over a month of relief work, which immediately made me think of Drew Pomeranz back in 2019 with the Milwaukee Brewers. That year he turned 25 appearances and 26.1 innings in the last two months of the season into 4 years and $34 million. Kuhl has yet to be as dominant as Pomeranz was at the end of 2019, but the opportunity is there.
  • Hours after speaking to reporters about being jeered by Pirates Fans on Wednesday night for a fielding gaffe, Gregory Polanco went 3 for 5, including a go ahead double in the bottom of the 7th. Once again, this means nothing for the future of the club, but good for Greg anyway.

  • And just in case anyone missed Yoshi’s icing on the cake homer-which also might not mean much moving forward-here it is.

This evening at 7:05 PM EST from PNC Park, Pittsburgh will look to continue their ruining of the Cardinals’ playoff hopes as Dillon Peters (0-1, 1.86 ERA) toes the rubber for his third start with the Pirates. For the Cardinals, J.A. Happ (7-6, 5.88 ERA) hopes his overall dominance of your Buccos resumes in this outing.

Cal Mitchell Could Help Lead The Next Wave Of Outfielders Into PNC

Back in early August of 2019 I had the opportunity to make the 86 mile, 1 hour and 30 minute trek down to Charlotte Sports Park-Home of the Tampa Bay Rays Class-A Affiliate at the time, the Port Charlotte Stone Crabs-to see the #1 Prospect in all of MiLB, Wander Franco, take the field. His opponents that day were the Bradenton Marauders, so the reason for this journey was obviously two-fold.

At the time the Marauders had seven of the Pirates Top 30 Prospects according to MLB Pipeline, including #5, Cal Mitchell, who came in right behind fellow outfielder Travis Swaggerty for the highest ranked at their position. A lefty with raw power, much like his teammate, Mitchell had been drafted in the 2nd Round (50th Overall) of the 2017 MLB June Amateur Draft out of baseball powerhouse Rancho Bernardo High School in San Diego, California. The Broncos have been a staple in the top 50 of high school teams in the entire United States; producing current MLB players, such as Cole Hamels of the Atlanta Braves and former Pirate, Trevor Williams.

Immediately following his selection, Mitchell found himself with the GCL-now FCL-Pirates in the Rookie Level of the Minor Leagues. In 43 games and across 185 plate appearances the 18 year old hit .245 with 2 HRs and 20 RBIs; which is honestly not too shabby for a kid right out of high school. Then after a full off-season to prepare, he came into his own for the Pirates Low A Affiliate at the time, the West Virginia Power of the South Atlantic League; earning a spot on the SAL All-Star Team and really beginning to show off the bat that scouts saw from in his high school days. On the season Cal slashed .280/.344/.427 with 10 HRs and a total of 42 extra base hits.

This level of play left the Pirates with a pretty easy decision coming into 2019, by promoting Mitchell to the High A Bradenton Marauder of the Florida State League, where first saw him play . Luckily for Mitchell the power he displayed during his time in West Virginia stuck around as hit 15 HRs in the pitcher friendly league. Unfortunately he saw his average drop down to .251 as he found himself slumping in the middle and end of the season; only hitting .184 for the month of June, and .205 in August.

Due to these offensive struggles, and only turning 21 years old a few weeks before the start of the season, I saw the most likely scenario being a repeat in Bradenton; at least to start the year. However, as we know now, the Pirates never had to make this choice with the MiLB shutdown, but we’re ultimately faced with a similar predicament for 2021; relying mostly on his Fall Instructional League and shortened Spring Training performances.

Eventually, the determination was made to assign Mitchell to the Double-A Altoona Curve to resume his professional career within the Pirates Farm System; and based on his stats the were correct in their assessment of his potential to perform well in the backdrop of the roller coaster at PNG Field. On the season thus far he is slashing .283/.334/.452 with 12 homers and a 112 wRC+, which is right in line with his career average; along with improvements in field, as his Future Value now sits at 50.

Based on this performance and potential, lack of competition at AAA outside of his old teammate, the currently injured Swaggerty, and a longer than expected absence of fellow top prospect Canaan Smith-Njigba, it would be hard to see Mitchell not getting the nod to Indy to begin 2022; with a PNC promotion eventually on its way.

MLB Starters Aren’t What They Used to Be

8-26-21 – By Gary Morgan – @garymo2007 on Twitter

I see a ton of fans pound Derek Shelton for his babying of the starting pitching staff, and the numbers bear that out, the Pirates have the lowest percentage of quality starts in the league at 17%, but this doesn’t always equate to team performance. Today let’s dig in on a subject that if you’re not paying close attention seems to be a Pirates problem, but in reality is sweeping the league.

Let’s start at the beginning, a quality start has been clearly defined as 6 innings with 3 runs or less. That 17% is not good, it’s not even where Derek Shelton wants it, but when you consider the league average sits at 34% you start to see, they aren’t exactly off the pace by a country mile.

The league has changed, and you can largely blame the analytics driven Rays. They’ve changed the way starting pitching is handled, and without regard for how a starter is doing. Oh, I’m sure you all remember pulling Snell in the World Series. Tampa sits in first place in the AL East and 3rd from the bottom on this metric at 24% tied with the hapless Twins. In between them are the Orioles at 18%.

The very top of the mountain in MLB this year for quality starts is Oakland at 50%.

Now, we can’t allow this to go without context, so let’s step back to the turn of the century to really see how much worse this has become. The League average was 46%, Top end sat at 57% and the bottom of the barrel was 36%. So it’s gotten much worse, but maybe more so on the low end. The top end of the scale isn’t much different, but the bottom certainly is.

Maybe we should look at it from a perspective of number of pitches thrown per start, after all how many times have we been told that it’s all about pitch count now? Even Derek Shelton openly says he doesn’t care about how many innings they go, he just wants them to be efficient. Now, the bugaboo there is if they were efficient they’d probably throw more innings but I digress.

The league average here sits at 84 pitches per start. The lowest in the game is the Rays at 75, the top is the White Sox & Reds at 91. How do the Pirates stack up, well, right in the middle of the pack at 82 only two off the league average.

Hmm, maybe Shelton isn’t quicker on the trigger than anyone else.

The Pirates have only had 22 quality starts this season, I couldn’t just leave you with percentages to figure out. If I’m honest, having watched almost every game this season that number seems high.

There are 6 teams that don’t have one complete game. Indians, Rangers, Royals, Angels, Red Sox and the Buccos. 15 teams who don’t have a complete game shutout.

Believe it or not, the Pirates aren’t last in innings pitched per game started, they sit at 4.8 only bettered by the Rays at 4.7, Padres at 4.6 and Orioles at 4.5. The league average is 5.1 and the top of the mountain is the A’s at 5.7. Again jumping back to 2000 the league average was 5.9, the top figure was 6.4 and the bottom was 5.5. So it’s changed, just not as much as I think most of us perceive.

So what does all this say?

Well, first of all the Pirates numbers would be much worse without Tyler Anderson tossing 7 quality starts into the mix a number that JT Brubaker has matched believe it or not. 14 of their 22 quality starts came from two guys. Wow.

The point of all of this is really that the league has changed. Bullpenning is a thing, and it’s happening everywhere. If I asked you to name the best pitching staff in baseball you might say the Brewers, and they’re averaging 5.3 innings per start. Nobody is worried about them killing their bullpen because their bullpen is air tight, but rest assured, their starters are only averaging 84 pitches per start, 2 more than your Pirates.

I think there is plenty to criticize Derek Shelton for, but his handling of the pitching staff is really a creation of this league and the evolving management of arms more than having a quick hook that’s an outlier amongst his competition.

I also think it will improve slightly when he’s given better options, but not much. I think the data bears that out, at this point having a starter go 6 innings as an average would be an unbelievable departure from the norm.

I’m old enough to remember this being different.

In fact MLB didn’t even start tracking pitch counts as a stat before 1988. The league average then was 96 pitches per start to go along with 6.4 innings per start on average.

The game has changed and it isn’t going to go back to that. Just isn’t.

I say this because if you plan to be a baseball fan going forward but you remember Nolan Ryan tossing 140 pitch complete games and his comments about how he would have openly fought if they tried to pull him, you’re going to have to just see this as a nice story from history. Just like my Grandfather told me stories of his father driving before stop lights were a thing.

I’m not here to tell you it’s better, I’m just here to tell you it’s different and I’d recommend moving on to the next thing on your list of things to beat up the Pirates Skipper for executing. This is how he and 29 of his peers want to do things. More importantly, it’s what the doctors have told them to do.

Being an outlier here is the type of thing that could actually get you tossed out of conversations on Free Agent pitchers. Every pitcher will tell you they could do more, every one of them in a quiet moment will tell you they appreciate having their arm protected.

I’m no scientist or doctor, but I certainly can’t sit here and tell you arms are healthier today, they simply aren’t. The increased velocity and torque on breaking pitches is wrecking elbows like the Kardashians destroys young girls self images. Until someone decides a 97 mile per hour fastball isn’t better than 91, this is going to be the norm.

It’s not what I’d prefer either, and yet it is what I expect. You should too.

Pirates Drop Series Finale 5-2

8-26-21 – By Gary Morgan – @garymo2007 on Twitter

Stop me if you heard this one. The Pirates had yet another opportunity to sweep a series, and this time they had arguably their best starter and put out very close to their best lineup. OK, they didn’t rest Hayes or Reynolds is like my threshold for a pretty good lineup.

The Bucs struck first scoring 1 run in the 4th and 5th helped by one of the new guys.

Bryse Wilson did his part, returning from the IL to toss 5 scoreless innings and he would leave the game with a 2-0 lead. Unfortunately the bullpen wouldn’t hold up for a third straight game. Nick Mears gave up a run, Anthony Banda gave up 2, and Kyle Keller matched him.

Aided by a brutal and ill timed error for a guy who by all rights shouldn’t be playing, Polanco.

Yeah, this game looked much more familiar than the last two.

Diamondbacks win 5-2

News & Notes

  • Luis Oviedo closed out the 9th for the Pirates tonight. He would toss a scoreless inning of relief, and quietly here, he’s done so in each of his last 5 outings. Good sign.
  • Yoshitomo Tsutsugo at the plate has been a very welcome addition, in the field, not so much. His at bats will primarily come from taking them from Colin Moran.
  • There can’t be many still holding onto excuses for Gregory Polanco playing. Tonight he played a single into a virtual triple. He did go 2 for 4, but if I’m going to say defense is why Yoshi will struggle to find playing time, I’m certainly going to echo that for a guy hitting under .200 who’s had all season to show otherwise.
  • Ke’Bryan Hayes continues to drive the ball, the pop is very much so coming back to his bat. Only amounted to one hit tonight but he’s getting good wood on the ball.

Punished Because Of Position-Jared Triolo

8-25-21 By Craig W. Toth (aka @bucsbasement on Twitter

Almost two weeks after he signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates out of Houston University for the full slot value-$870,700-associated with him being the 72nd Overall Pick (Competitive Balance Round B), Jared Triolo dug into the box on a sweltering Sunday afternoon at Monongalia County Ballpark in his fifth professional ballgame for the now defunct Class A Short Season Pirates Affiliate, the West Virginia Black Bears. With one on and one out in the bottom of the first Triolo turned on the ball, sending it over the wall in left field for his first career home run, as yours truly looked on from the seats down the third baseline; all while my youngest tried to keep an eye on Cooper.

At the time of his selection, Triolo was seen as a very safe and solid pick due to his perceived low floor, bat to ball skills, possible untapped power potential, quickness/plus speed, defense and strong arm. In his career with the Cougars, he slashed .317/.406/.447 with 14 homers and nearly as many walks (92) as strikeouts (112); along with a strong performance in the Cape-.276/.364/.423 with 4 homers-mixed in.

In his first season of professional ball, beyond the few games I saw him play, he did struggle at times; ending the season with a .239 AVG and only one more homer, but with 24 additional extra hits-5 of them triples. So, all in all a fairly solid entrance into the Pirates Farm System for the fairly safe pick, and one that did earn him New York-Penn League All-Star Honors.

Now, as with all of the other 2019 draft picks-including Blake Sabol, Matthew Fraizer, who I have already written about-Triolo found himself with no 2020 MiLB Season, but like Fraizer did put some work in during the Fall Instructional League; which brought up some similar questions concerning his class/level assignment as he probably would have found himself in Greensboro last year, when they were still Low A.

With the new alignments, Triolo-the former top 30 prospect according to MLB Pipeline and current 46th ranked prospect with a 40 FV on Fangraphs-still found himself in Greensboro to start the year, but this time as a High A ball player. And all he has done this year is hit; slashing .290/.344/.457 with 31 extra base hits-13 of the over the wall. And to top it all off he just had his 20 game hitting streak snapped. For him this is the potential power that scouts saw in his 6’3”, 212 lb frame, with it not just coming to pull side.

Which begs the question; why haven’t we heard more about Jared Triolo? Well, if you look on the Grasshopper’s roster, he is obviously not the highest ranked prospect of the bunch. Also, at times there have been other players that have outshined him; including the aforementioned Matthew Fraizer. However, I feel like one of the simpler explanations is, he plays a position that is not seen as one of need within the organization. Third Base.

You see, there happens to be a guy on the Big League roster who probably has the hot corner locked down for the foreseeable future, and hopefully longer if he can find himself in between the batter he was in 2020 and the one he is now; although he might still be there either way. So, in essence, why worry about who is playing third base in the minors? Even though it’s been mentioned a number of times, people continue to forget that positions on the field don’t always matter as much as we think they do; especially in the lower minors, and sometimes even after a player has found his way up to Double-A, Triple-A or in some instances, the Majors.

So, for now I am going to take my own advice to forget about the position, and think about the possible future that Jared Triolo could have in the Pirates Organization.

In the immediate future it would be hard to see why a promotion for the last month of the season shouldn’t be a possibility, though it doesn’t look like too much movement is going to happen in the levels above him; which would point toward him joining the Curve in the Spring. Of course, I am not opposed to this idea, and I certainly don’t think it would be detrimental to his development in anyway as he will only turn 24 in the off-season on February 8th; leaving plenty of years for him to make his way up to PNC.