Realistic Expectations For The Pirates

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-h7rz9-143a6e6

Craig and Chris talk about the role of newly promoted prospect Henry Davis, Derek Shelton’s motivations, fan’s perception concerning the hot start and the current priorities of the team. 

Brought to you by ShopYinzz.com! Craig Toth covers the Pirates for Inside The Bucs Basement, and joins his buddy Chris at a 9-foot homemade oak bar to talk Pittsburgh Pirates Baseball. Listen. Subscribe. Share. We are “For Fans, By Fans & All Pirates Talk.” THE Pirates Fan Podcast found EVERYWHERE podcasts can be found and always at BucsInTheBasement.com! 

Dismal Offense Continues, Losing Streak Extended to Eight Games: (34-38)

06/20/23 – By Ethan Smith – @mvp_Ethan on Twitter

The Pittsburgh Pirates offense is toast, but at least toast is hot right when it comes out of the toaster.

Pittsburgh’s offense was on a historical pace in April, was up-and-down in May, but as we near the end of June, the offense has now entered a portion of the season where seemingly, nothing is going right.

The Pirates were shutout Saturday in Milwaukee. They were shutout Monday night vs the Cubs. Now, the have another evening without scoring a run.

On the bright side, the pitching in this series vs Chicago has been there as Johan Oviedo followed in Osvaldo Bido’s foot steps with a quality start, going six innings while only allowing five hits and two earned runs.

Only problem? No run support, again.

The majority of the “offense” in this one came from Connor Joe and Ke’Bryan Hayes, who each finished the evening with two hits while Tucupita Marcano added the other Pirates hit.

Oviedo left the game with a 2-0 deficit, but Dauri Moreta, who has seen an increased role as of late with the bullpen in a state of flux, would give up two runs in the seventh to make it 4-0 Cubs, which at this point feels like blowout territory with an offense this bad.

Do I sound like a broken record? Yes, but its awful folks. Is it Andy Haines? Maybe. Is lack of talent on the roster that played over their heads in April? Maybe. But at some point, something has to change and someone will eventually take the fall if this continues and that will likely be Andy Haines.

But for now, the Pirates losing streak was extended to eight games with yet another loss to the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday night and now sit in fourth place in the NL Central after entering this nine-game stretch against Milwaukee and Chicago as the number one team in the division.

Rich Hill(4.31 ERA) will face Kyle Hendricks(3.18 ERA) in the series finale tomorrow.

News & Notes

  • Pirates losing streak extends to eight games and still remain winless against Milwaukee and Chicago
  • Oviedo: 6.0 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 3 K
  • 23 consecutive scoreless innings from the Pittsburgh Pirates
  • Cubs leap frog Pirates in NL Central standings, dropping Pirates to fourth

Excuses, Timing, and Stubbornness. The Rise and Fall of the 2023 Pittsburgh Pirates

6-20-23 – By Gary Morgan – @garymo2007 on Twitter

On April 9th, Oneil Cruz broke his ankle.

On April 29th the Pirates won a baseball game and went to 20-8 in the standings.

Of all the excuses we’ve heard for why the Pirates fell all the way from that lofty record to their current 34-37, the one that most often is rushed right past is this one. The Pirates lost what was almost universally seen as their best bet at a generational offensive threat a little over a week into this season, and it’s barely spoken as a major determining factor in what has transpired.

Maybe that’s partially because in the immediate aftermath the Pirates went from 6-3 to 20-8. Not to be flippant, but the rest of the team made sure we didn’t have to think the season was over. They rose above the injury, picked each other up, made it look like the team had insulated themselves enough with veterans to survive the loss, hell, maybe even thrive through it.

Plus, he was going to be back right? I mean, they’re playing like that, AND they could get this dude back somewhere around the trade deadline? I’m in.

This was after they already survived losing JT Brubaker to Tommy John surgery, but nobody cared about that one seemingly. He was a 5th starter to many, certainly few thought about the innings loss or his overall steadiness, we had a kid we wanted to see more in Oviedo and even Vince Velasquez was throwing well.

Michael Burrows went down the same way, so did Vince. Now they have 3 rookies in the rotation and one was faltering.

So in short, the team had some huge losses, dealt with them well, and as they piled up the team almost seemed to think they’d somehow just keep doing what they do and eventually the way they played would just come back to them.

Now, for me to reference all those bad things, and not even all of them mind you, I’m simply listing excuses off. Every team deals with injury, every team either has the tools in reserve to deal with them or not.

That doesn’t make them untrue, I mean we can’t pretend this stuff didn’t happen, but at what point should this team have woken up and realized this wasn’t headed in a good direction anymore. What could they have realistically done differently? Did the GM just believe this start was fake or because they won a bit early they somehow weren’t worth investing in?

That’s what many would have you believe right? I hear that all the time. Make a trade! Call Up X, Y and Z! Sit so and so he’s killing the team!

It’s all valid to want, is it all valid to expect?

Let’s start with when the panic button should have been hit. Basically, when did we all know these players that had done so much well for a month were out of gas and poised to go south.

Was it the swing through the AL East? Maybe? But didn’t most of us just assume the AL East was such a powerhouse losing those series was kinda assumed? Maybe being swept in successive series still should have been a wakeup call.

Losing to the Rockies who they had just destroyed in Denver was at least concerning following those AL East matchups right? I think that’s probably where I first thought, hey, this looks different.

So at least for me, let’s say May 10th is when I first thought, this might not return to the mean.

Even so, there they were, still leading the division or very close to the top all through the month. Nobody won much in the division and they were still winning a game here and a game there, even rebounded a bit on a West Coast trip against San Francisco. Swept the Cardinals right after that and then won a series against the Mets sandwiched around a loss to the A’s. Culminating in this miserable 7 game losing streak in the division.

So let’s say, May 10th, you’re out there looking for help. How do you get it?

Well, a trade for one, but there have been next to no significant trades made in April/May historically, let alone this year. It’s hard, teams don’t know what they are yet to a degree and the ones that do tend to have not much to offer.

You can go out and find a guy who’s being overpaid and underperforming, but would you want that? Maybe you kinda have to just for MLB competence but if you go get a guy like Patrick Corbin, I’m sure the Nationals would love someone to take him and probably for next to nothing, but he’s league average if I’m being extremely kind and makes 24 million dollars this year, 35 next year. Man, I’d rather not see them pay a guy like Corbin 10 mil more per year than they’ve ever paid a player. He’s not that much of a difference maker.

I’m using him as an example, but that’s the type. You need a guy who is on a team that knows they aren’t going anywhere, he also has to be getting a borderline if not totally insane salary, and for all of that you get a guy who likely isn’t helping all that much.

You could find a team that has themselves suffered a significant injury. For this one, you’re going to hate me, but I’m sorry, I want to paint an accurate picture of what I mean.

The New York Mets lost Edwin Diaz in the WBC. Star closer on a star studded team expected to compete for the NL East title. Now, where they are now doesn’t mean back on May 10th they would have felt so down on themselves, if in fact they do currently. They’ve also suffered losses to their rotation but still have depth in the minors that could potentially be pried away.

The Pirates have a couple chips here that would have hurt. An example of something the Pirates might have been able to pull off would be Yerry De Los Santos for Joey Lucchesi. These are valued very similarly. The Mets aren’t using Joey anymore in the majors, and bluntly, he’s not great but he has a big league arm, is left handed and can start ballgames.

Real value with control out, real value with control in. He may not be an answer here in the long run, but he might have helped stem the tide and not force kids into the rotation. Worst case, he slots in as a pen lefty.

Not great right? Well, the Mets would have had to look at their three starters who are 36+ and presume they simply weren’t gong to need Joey. The Mets would have to also think Yerry was polished enough to help this year.

Jumping through hoops here to invent something that could have been done, and I’m not even supposing it’d help as much as you’d need it to.

I just don’t think trades at that point were realistic. Even now there aren’t a lot of teams “out of it” so these conditions largely remain in place. I’d also say, while they haven’t been perfect, the Pirates starting rotation is hardly their worst issue.

Lets move on.

They could of course call up their own talent.

We’ve seen some of that, especially in the bullpen. Lots of youngsters, lots of scrap vets, lots of throw everything against the wall and hope something sticks.

I mean, this version of the bullpen probably has some of you quietly wondering if Duane Underwood Jr. was actually all that bad.

That’s an ongoing effort, with some guys starting to find a nitch like Carmen Mlodzinski and the aforementioned Yerry.

Henry could have come up earlier I suppose, but as I’ve said repeatedly now he just arrived in less at bats than any 1:1 pick since 1978, I mean, this was already fast.

I’m not seeing anyone else who is just pounding on the door. Endy will soon I’m sure, but he’s about it. Nick Gonzales or Liover Peguero would be welcome if only they’d show some consistency but as of yet it’s eluded them.

In time, Priester, Jones, Nicolas, could all be ready to help, but probably not now.

I just don’t see enough help to really matter.

Finally, there’s coaching.

The hitting plan isn’t working. The immediate push back is that this group simply isn’t offensively talented.

OK, who isn’t capable? Really.

Austin Hedges? Clearly. Jason Delay? With more playing time he’d be exposed likely. Josh Palacios? I guess, but he’s been better than what the Pirates have grown themselves aside from Suwinski.

Look, the players take their share of blame, always have, always will. At the end of the day, this is their career and if they don’t like the approach being preached, they can push back, I mean, say what you will, but Andy Haines isn’t changing Santana’s approach developed over more than a decade in the league. But when playing time is tied directly to executing the things this staff wants to see, you’re going to adapt and try to be what they want you to be.

I say all of this stuff because when we sit here and paint a picture of a management team that simply doesn’t care because they didn’t see this year’s team as being competitive, to me it’s dishonest to not look at all the losses, all the options at hand.

I do think there comes a realization at some point where you come to believe you just have your hands tied.

Maybe just the stubbornness of still thinking this approach can work for a winner is the one change this team could make before the trade deadline really heats up.

The Pirates offensive philosophy creates an environment designed to turn borderline players into league average, but on the other side of the coin prevents the aggressiveness and situational awareness to allow for greatness.

Realistically, this team is probably a close to .500 team by the time all of this is said and done if they don’t add to the roster, but I don’t think we got here because the GM decided he would prefer they not compete this year, I think we got here because they never really had enough to survive significant losses and eventually the hitting approach cuts everyone off at the knees.

This team needs to make changes, but my first one would be in the dugout holding a clip board helplessly watching hitter after hitter desperately try to walk in a run with the bases loaded.

Bido Ks 7, Davis Doubles in Debut As Pirates Drop Opener 8-0 (34-37)

6/19/23- By Michael Castrignano – @412DoublePlay on Twitter

Mired in a lengthy losing streak, the Bucs turned to their 2021 #1 overall pick, Henry Davis, to try and turn the tables back in their favor. Everything about his arrival – from the announcement mid-game, the national hype among fans and media alike and the Monday evening crowd of an announced 23,083, all the expected pomp and circumstance – seemed to be in direct contrast to everything else we know about the 23-year-old.

Calm. Quiet. Subdued. Happening far away from the team, the media and the fans. One-on-one with his manager. This is much more in-character for the Louisville Slugger. His talent showing on the field, at the plate, between the bases, letting his play do the talking. And since a baseball game was played tonight, I guess we should talk about it.

Osvaldo Bido took the mound for his second career start and once again opposed the Cubs and their starter, Drew Smyly. The similarities don’t end there, unfortunately, as Bido battled through rain in the 2nd inning. He got Dansby Swanson to line out before Christopher Morel grounded into a fielder’s choice but then the rain came. He got behind on Yan Gomes before he singled and then threw four straight balls to Miles Mastrobuoni to load the bases. As the rain was pouring down, Bido continued struggling to locate and surrendered a 2-run single to Mike Tauchman and an RBI single to Nico Hoerner to put the Cubs up 3-0 early.

Davis, appropriately, got the first hit for the Bucs with a lead-off double in the third inning. 

It was one of just 3 hits that the Bucs bats managed against Smyly, who dealt with traffic on the bases throughout the night as he walked 5 batters in 5 innings of work but wiggled out of bases loaded in the third and fifth innings to keep the Pirates off the scoreboard.

Bido performed well outside of the rain-drenched second inning, lasting 6 innings with 5 hits, 3 runs, 2 walks and 7 strikeouts. Recently added southpaw reliever Ryan Borucki took over in the 7th and allowed a single to Nick Madrigal – who stole 2nd – and an RBI single to Tauchman – who advanced to 2nd on an ill-advised throw home by left fielder Connor Joe. He got Hoerner to fly out to right field before his day was done. 

Yohan Ramirez came on and allowed the runner to score in the 7th and 3 more scored in the 8th – partly due to a costly throwing error by Ji-hwan Bae – and left with 2 outs in the frame. Yerry de los Santos struck out Ian Happ to end the inning. Yerry would pitch a clean 9th inning as well.

Cubs bullpen combined to cover the final four innings allowing just 2 hits and striking out 3 as they won for the sixth time in their last seven games.

News & Notes

  • The Pirates were shut out for the 8th time this season. The bats combined for 10 runners left on base and were 0-6 batting with runners in scoring position.
  • Henry Davis finished the night 1-for-3 with a double, a walk, a strikeout and a hard lineout to deep center (105.1 MPH off the bat, traveled 392 feet and expected batting average of .750).
  • Tonight’s attendance was the most in a Monday game at PNC Park since April 1, 2019 against the Cardinals (37,336) – which was the home opener that season.
  • The Pirates look to try taking game two tomorrow with another rematch as Johan Oviedo faces off against Marcus Stroman again. Game starts at 7:05PM. Lets Go Bucs!

Five Pirates Thoughts at Five

6-19-23 – By Gary Morgan – @garymo2007 on Twitter

He did it.

You hear prospects every year talk about making the show this season. Every year guys talk about what they need to work on, and how much they can’t wait to get here and help. Almost every time when the kid isn’t in AAA or just got drafted a couple years ago, most of us just shrug. “Glad he feels that way, but we all know it’s too early” many of us say.

Clearly, Henry Davis is different. He wanted it now, and he with his bat and maturity forced it into existence.

It’s Henry Davis Day Pittsburgh, lets go.

1. Henry to the Rescue?

That’s what many will expect anyway. I’ll settle for looking like he belongs in the league for now. The beauty of Davis’ approach at the plate is in the simplicity. His swing is simple, it’s quick to the ball, it’s not handsy but he’s capable of using his hands to adjust to velocity.

The power is so real, he doesn’t have to hit the ball square to do damage. It’s a welcome addition to this team.

Can he help this team offensively? I sure hope so, but bluntly, I’ve never seen Davis hit like a current Pirates MLB player. I say this, knowing full well the hitting plan this organization deploys from MLB on down comes from their current hitting coach.

Here’s what I mean. My hope is that Davis is given the room to just come up here and do what he does, but we’ve seen rookie after rookie come up here and look like world beaters only to get Haines in their ear and turn into Daniel Vogelbach with a better body.

Defensively, well, I’m not sure what to expect. My guess is we see him catch a bit, play RF a bit and DH some too. The team is keeping 3 catchers for now and many of you will recall, this is what I said would happen, albeit I made the supposition with Endy in mind. I expect this will look something like this. Davis catches 2 or 3 games a week to start, he plays RF a game or two, he DH’s a game or two. 5-6 games a week, and if his AAA fire still looks to be burning, he’ll take more and more catching time away. I expect Jason Delay to barely play, effectively acting as a true backup catcher while Davis and Hedges are both in the lineup when Davis plays elsewhere.

I was wrong on this one big time. I 100% thought Endy would get the call regardless of what Henry was doing, I simply didn’t believe they’d make the call with the number of at bats Henry has in MiLB. No 1:1 draft pick since Bob Horner in 1978 has had fewer MiLB at bats before reaching MLB.

That’s 45 years of evidence that this simply doesn’t happen often. That said, he was clearly the most ready looking minor league player in the system offensively speaking, so I’m very happy to see the team make what I’m sure wasn’t an easy decision.

A bit of inside conversational stuff, I don’t base my opinions entirely on my own observations, I develop them from conversations too, and I can honestly say in April and May when I had some of these talks, there wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell he was going to reach MLB before September. This very much so wasn’t the plan.

Happy to see them adapt, happy to see this young man achieve one of his goals.

Wanna know what his next one is? That’s right, win a World Series with the Pittsburgh Pirates. They all say that, I know, but he’s already done something nobody saw as realistic in 2023, why not trust he’ll achieve the next before he’s done here? For those of you who only skim read, ***Not predicting 2023 as a World Series victory***

2. Keeping 3 Catchers….WHY?

I said they’d do this when I thought the call up would be Endy, and the reasoning stands firm today with this call.

The Pirates don’t plan on Henry or Endy carrying a heavy load behind the dish from the jump. They plan on having them float around and as it comes to bench construction, having your backup catcher playing elsewhere in the field is risky, you may very well need to call on one for an injury or even just a pinch hit. It’s not that they can’t have a guy bounce from RF to catcher, it’s more that if they do, they’d still like to have a safety net in place.

This won’t survive both Endy and Davis. 3 is a luxury, 4 is stupid.

Take Endy out of the equation, Davis would have to show not only is he serviceable back there, he’d need to show he definitively has more Catching value than either Hedges or Delay. And listen, don’t let the catching interference or lack of offense confuse you, have an open mind when you watch Henry catch, if you do, I promise you’ll see what has been handled excellently that was taken for granted.

No, I don’t think it’s so drastic that Henry shouldn’t catch, but there is value in making sure guys like Keller know they can bury that curveball and bounce it off the plate with a runner at 3rd. Give him time and he’ll wrestle away the position but in the meantime, Jason Delay is holding a spot for the eventual call up of Endy.

I see this as more about not using that 13th position player much and prioritizing insurance at an important position than wanting to keep stinky players.

3. What Do You Do with the Lineup Now?

Henry adds something and I’m not blind, Derek Shelton will probably initially bat him 6th spot on (smart or not, although I’d go with not).

Here’s what I’d do right now.

First, vs left handed pitching.

  1. Cutch DH
  2. Reynolds LF
  3. Davis C
  4. Castro SS
  5. Jack CF
  6. Santana 1B
  7. Hayes 3B
  8. Joe RF
  9. Bae 2B

Now, vs Right handed pitching

  1. Bae CF
  2. Reynolds LF
  3. Henry C
  4. Jack RF
  5. Santana 1B
  6. Hayes 3B
  7. Cutch DH
  8. Castro 2B
  9. Marcano SS

Obviously they’ll have rest days, obviously Davis won’t always start at catcher, I actually think they need another lefty stick (Endy?), but for right now, this is what I’d do.

4. Are We Accelerating Prospects Now?

Boy, sure feels that way. Davis, Solometo, Jones, Mlodzinski, it just feels like the Pirates finally realized in order to ever really get somewhere, they need to start moving some of these prospects.

Some have felt a bit quick, some have felt like they were a long time coming, but all of them are not characteristic of what we, as Pirates fans, are accustomed to.

Henry forced the issue, and with the pitching, well, injury forced that. The Pirates top end of the system has been absolutely decimated by attrition and it’s forced some quick promotions throughout the system.

I do think something tangible we can take from this is that when the team sees a guy as outplaying his level, it won’t be long before they get the bump.

Being on the 40 man doesn’t seem to play in to the decision all that much. What level the player started at doesn’t seem to matter. What matters is the performance, and no I don’t mean stats, I mean execution of things that will be required at the next level, whatever that may be.

This is a good thing, and as of tonight we’ll have seen two of Ben Cherington’s draft picks reach the league, a 2020 pick and a 2021 pick. Nobody from those two years is crazy to see making a jump.

The foundation is set, time to raise the walls.

5. Being Swept Twice is Horrible, but There Might be a Bright Side

The Pirates are now 2 games under .500 and down in the division. They earned that by not being a competent baseball team on their entire road trip.

But honestly, I think this team needed punched in the mouth. They barely paid a price for sucking the entire month of May away. They keep losing one and wining one and losing two and winning one, and staying in it while the inept division floundered around them.

Yup, a good smack in the mouth, one that draws a little blood, is good for a team like this.

I’m not saying guys are sitting around the locker room comforting themselves with “Hey, we’re still in first place”, or “Nobody thought we’d be where we are” not even “trust the process”.

I am saying though, a team like this needs to see consequences for dropping that winnable game, not rewarded by looking at the standings and seeing the Brewers stink too.

If they turn it around starting tonight, Henry Davis will get a boatload of credit for it from fans, even if he’s 1 for 4 with an infield knock, but internally, they’ll know it’s really about 9 guys and a pitcher doing what is required to win a ball game.

I never trust a player to thrive in MLB until I’ve seen them get kicked in the teeth and come back from it, because that will absolutely happen to almost everyone and coming back from it is more important than worrying if it might happen at all. Well, same applies for a team. Get beat up, show me how you get off the mat.

Time for every decision to start being about winning the game at hand, not the game next year at the same time.

I’ll ad in here, veterans starting to see the cavalry called up can sometimes wake them up a bit too.

Bottom line, the season isn’t over, use the adversity as a learning moment instead of an obituary.

Prospect Promotion News Overshadowed by Another Bucs Bullpen Blow-up (34-36)

6/18/23- By Michael Castrignano – @412DoublePlay on Twitter

A common thing happened today as the Pirates lost again, by a score of 5-2, their 6th straight and 2nd consecutive series being swept. A rare thing will happen tomorrow, however, as the Pirates 2021 first overall pick, Henry Davis, is expected to make his major league debut when the Bucs return home to take on the Cubs. Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh-Post Gazette was first with the news.

Now, back to the game. Offense was poor once again as the Pirates mustered just 4 hits over the day. One of those was a big blast as Bryan Reynolds took a full count fastball and sent it 410 feet to right field. This gave the Pirates a 2-0 lead in the third inning.

Unfortunately, the Bucs bats fell asleep outside of this as the Brewers came back to life. Christian Yelich hit a 1 out double in the 5th and scored on a Jesse Winker single to left, cutting the score to 2-1. Pirates starter Luis Ortiz lasted 4.2 innings, allowing just 1 run off 4 hits with 3 walks and 6 strikeouts. He was pulled with a man on in the 5th after only throwing 84 pitches, an odd move by Shelton to pivot to the struggling bullpen when his starter was doing well.

Carmen Mlodzinski relieved him, getting the final out in the 5th and throwing a 1-2-3 sixth inning. Angel Perdomo had a shutdown 7th inning but walked the first batter in the 8th and was lifted for Dauri Moreta, who walked the next batter and then got a routine fly out to right before a William Contreras single to right drove in the tying run. Right fielder Jack Suwinski had a chance to make the out but his throw was too far up the third base line. After another walk, Moreta was lifted for David Bednar, whose first pitch to Raimel Tapia almost ended up over the fence.

Luis Urias would follow with a 2-run single to left but Pirates were able to get him out trying to stretch for a double. Brewers turned to closer Devin Williams who shutdown the Bucs in order to clinch a series sweep for the Brew Crew.

Milwaukee starter Freddy Peralta went 6 innings, 2 hits, 2 runs, 3 walks and struck out 9 Pirates. Including Williams, the Brewers bullpen covered 3 innings, allowed just 2 hits, 0 runs, 0 walks and struck out 2.  Comparing this to the Pirates pen – 4 innings, 2 hits, 3 walks, 2 strikeouts and 4 runs allowed – is not great as their relief issues continue snowballing.

News & Notes

  • Carlos Santana hit his 350th career double in the 2nd inning of today’s game.
  • The Reynolds home run was his first since May 26 in Seattle.
  • Henry Davis is currently listed as the Pirates #3 overall prospect on MLB.com and #44 overall prospect. He will be the first #1 overall pick to join the Pirates since Gerrit Cole made his debut on June 11, 2013.
  • He also has the fewest ABs of any #1 overall pick to reach MLB in 45 years.
  • While there is no word of the corresponding move for Davis, it has been disclosed that both Hedges and Delay will remain on the team.
  • The Pirates head home tomorrow to host the Chicago Cubs. Scheduled starters are LHP Drew Smyly against RHP Oswaldo Bido. Game starts at 7:05PM. Lets Go Bucs!

Minor League News and Brews: Passed Up, Blocked and Playing Inside A Bandbox

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-9tck6-1436303

Craig talks about prospects that could be seen as being passed up and/or blocked in the farm system, and takes a quick look at the away ballparks within the South Atlantic League. #LetsGoBucs #30MinutesOfBucs #MiLBNewsAndBrews

Craig Toth covers the Pirates for Inside The Bucs Basement, and is a huge Pittsburgh Pirates Baseball Fan; especially when it comes to the Farm System. Listen. Subscribe. Share. We are “For Fans, By Fans & All Pirates Talk.” THE Pirates Fan Minor League Podcast found EVERYWHERE podcasts can be found and always at BucsInTheBasement.com!

Pirates Swept in Wrigley, Lose 7-2 Thursday Night To Cubs: (34-33)

06/15/23 – By Ethan Smith – @mvp_Ethan on Twitter

The Pittsburgh Pirates have lost the first three games of a nine-game stretch against the NL Central, failing to win a game at Wrigley Field in their first series facing the Chicago Cubs in 2023.

Pittsburgh’s offense started well early, scoring two runs in the third inning against Chicago’s top pitcher Marcus Stroman. Tucupita Marcano would kick off the scoring with an RBI single, followed by a Carlos Santana RBI.

Stroman would settle in for the remainder of his outing, pitching six innings while striking out five.

Johan Oviedo failed to go deep into the ballgame, pitching 4.1, and yet again the Pittsburgh Pirates surrendered a big inning as the Cubs put up five runs in the fifth, effectively taking the Pirates out of the game, something we saw in the previous two games of the series as well.

The Cubs would add insurance in the sixth from a Christopher Morel sacrifice fly, bringing us to the final score of 7-2.

This stings, alot, for the Pittsburgh Pirates to be swept in Wrigley, but despite this, they will enter their series Friday against the Milwaukee Brewers with a 0.5 game advantage for first place in the NL Central, while Cincinnati and Chicago trail by 1.0 and 3.5 games respectively.

Pittsburgh looks to and needs a bounce back performance in Milwaukee and it’ll start on Friday night when Rich Hill(4.23 ERA) faces Julia Teheran(1.48 ERA).

News & Notes

  • Pirates will enter series v Brewers w/ a 0.5 game lead on Friday
  • Pirates move to 5-24 in Wrigley Field since Bryan Reynolds debuted with Pittsburgh
  • Johan Oviedo: 4.1 IP, 8 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 8 K
  • Marcus Stroman: 6.0 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K
  • Pittsburgh drops to 34-33 on the season

Top 5 Pirates Prospects Performers: More Than A Day Late, And At Least A Couple of Bucks Short

6-15-23 By Craig W. Toth (aka @BucsBasement on Twitter)

Each and every week of the Minor League Season I pull out my notebook and write down the Pirates Prospects that I am considering as the Top 5 Prospects in the Pirates Farm System for the previous week. Like, literally write them down with a pencil on a piece of paper.

Yesterday and today for some reason I decided to look over each of the previous weeks’ candidates to see if I was missing something; because it sure seemed as if my hand was just methodically writing down the same names over and over again.

Solometo, Jones, Terrero, Cheng, Harrington appeared so often that I had to do another double-take. Sure, other familiar names like Davis, Priester and Pegeuro were sprinkled in; with the occasional Shackelford, Massey and Triolo. Still, these often appeared below aforementioned regulars.

As the season progresses I am positive that others will join them-especially as the Florida Complex and Dominican Summer Leagues get into full swing-along with players that may have gotten off to slow starts for one reason or another.

It simply struck me as odd that there wasn’t much room for an internal back-and-forth during the process.

The answers were fairly easy, and there weren’t really many other options.

This is obviously not meant to downplay the performances these prospects have put on, at this point in the season.

Maybe it’s more of an indictment of the overall state of the system. Although, I’m not ready to go that far just yet.

For now, let’s make note of it; or put it a pin in it, to address at a later date. Especially if my pencil keeps writing down the same names; and, they down have anyone forcing the debate.

1) Anthony Solometo-LHP (Greensboro)

There’s really nothing more to say about the young man, other than the fact that he’s looked really good all year.

On the year he has a 2.30 ERA with a 1.16 WHIP and 68 strikeouts in just under 59 innings of work. Plus, he has only allowed 2 homers thus far; in spite of the many hitter friendly ballparks in the South Atlantic League.

And, now he is being ramped up to take on two starts a week. A challenge that he has faced head on.

On the week he tossed 10 scoreless innings, walked only one batter and struck out 11; including 7 in his second outing on Sunday.

2) Tsung-Che Cheng-SS/2B (Greensboro)

At this point, I’m not sure how much of Cheng’s game we can even chalk up to the bandbox effect that exists while players don the green and orange uniforms of the team from Greensboro.

He merely seems to be playing at a whole other level.

On the season-across 217 plate appearances-Cheng is slashing .307/.418/.567 with a 170wRC+ and a very impressive 15.6% BB to 16.1% K-rate.

Naturally some of this power will most likely go away once he arrives in Altoona; but, I wouldn’t expect the approach at the plate to go anywhere.

3) Jared Jones-RHP (Altoona)

Jones had his best start-since returning from a brief IL stint-this past week; taking a no-hitter into the seventh inning, before surrendering a homer to end his bid.

On the season he now boasts a 2.21 ERA with a 0.98 WHIP and 41 Ks in almost as many innings. However, the biggest development has been his continual drop in free passes at every level throughout the system; going from 4.64 per 9 in Bradenton to 3.74 with the Grasshoppers, and finally 2.88 in a Curve uniform.

Recently positioned in the Top 100 Prospects according to Baseball America, Jones has as high of a ceiling as any pitcher in the Pirates System.

4) Enmanuel Terrero-OF (Bradenton)

One of the potentially surprising regular additions to the Pirates Top 5 this season has been Terrero. On a team that was supposed to be stacked with players like Termarr Johnson, Javier Rivas, Alexander Mojica, Thomas Harrington, Shalin Polanco and Owen Kellington-among others-Terrero seemed to get lost in the shuffle.

Nevertheless, as we know now, this didn’t last very long.

Over the first month of the season, Terrero batted .319 with a .950 OPS, 2 homers and six stolen bases. After a dip in the month of May-.271 AVG and a .686 OPS-he has caught fire again to the tune of a .367 AVG and .958 OPS.

On the season he is currently slashing .304/.406/.424 with 13 stolen bases, 2 homers and a 136 wRC+ at just 20 years old.

With promotions likely coming throughout the season in the coming month(s), I would think that Terrero may be passed over this time around; however, I wouldn’t rule out a cup of High-A coffee toward the end of the year.

5) Jack Brannigan-3B (Bradenton)

Drafted as a two-way player out of the University of Notre Dame in the third round of last year’s draft, Brannigan voiced the desire to play the field; as opposed to going straight to the bullpen due to his success in the Cape-28 strikeouts in 14.2 innings

In the end the Pirates have given him the chance mostly because of his defense and near elite arm. Although, for the moment they are also benefiting from his bat.

During the past week Brannigan smashed 4 homers and a double on the way to an OPS of 1.271.

Even so, his slash line still sits at just .233/.400/.477 on the season; at a level where he almost a full year older than the competition.

Which means, if he wants to keep himself off the mound, he is going to have keep this up.

Conclusion

There you have it! My Top 5 Pirates Prospect Performers for the second week of June 2023; a couple days late.

Now remember, let me know if I missed anyone, and who your Top 5 would be. And, be sure check back each and every Tuesday-ish during Minor League Baseball Season; which could definitely be true next week. Starting Saturday I will be up on the Allegheny River-with all of the fam-and, I’m not sure what the WiFi situation is.

Editor’s Note: Of course when you fall behind, news creeps up on you. At least this time it is positive; and very well deserved.

This Team Must Choose an Identity; Are We Trying to Win or Train?

6-15-23 – By Gary Morgan – @garymo2007 on Twitter

The Pirates management group probably didn’t expect the division to be this bad. They probably didn’t expect the team to overperform in April. Most likely felt May was a correction.

Thing is, as we sit here on June 15th, the Pirates are still in it. Still leading their division, still over .500, and yup, still not winning games they could or should.

Here’s the thing though, at least a decent percentage of this in my mind points to a team that isn’t sure what they’re managing.

Derek Shelton has been tasked with overseeing what amounted to a 3 year tryout and development camp. They’ve done some good things in that time and helped some players really start to find themselves. I have no doubt the Pirates hoped the roster they put together for 2023 would perform better. I’m sure they thought they’d even win a few more games, but nobody was under the impression they’d put together a division contending team.

As we already covered, no matter what they thought, they are in fact in it now.

Does someone want to nudge Derek Shelton and Ben Cherington and let them know? Because I’m still seeing a team that thinks winning a game comes in second to training or development.

For example, it’s incredibly important to this team and this team’s future to help Roansy Contreras through what he’s dealing with, and if this was 2022 and they were already 10 games back and 8 games under .500, ok, put him in the pen, try to fix him on the fly. This isn’t 2022 though, this is 2023, you’re in first place, up big on a division rival, you just got a decent outing from a call up you didn’t expect to get one from.

Carlos Santana is quite literally sacrificing his body for you to get outs, but you’re prioritizing training over winning.

What the Pirates are trying to do here is thread a needle. Here’s the ideal outcome for this situation. Osvaldo Bido starts for 4-5 turns, Roansy comes in as his “piggyback” for those turns, and hopefully by the end of that time Roansy is ready to try a script flip where Bido comes in for him, if it takes, ok, Ro is fixed and we move on with life.

If that effort costs you 3 or 4 wins in 2022, so what. If that effort costs you 3 or 4 wins in 2023, well, I think you see the difference.

But which is it? Are we trying to win or are we trying to develop? You certainly can do both, but when the effort directly interferes you don’t have that opportunity.

Jack Suwinski gets the opportunity to hit lefties, Rodolfo Castro doesn’t get the opportunity to face righties often. Both of these decisions are made by the same manager. One is an effort to see if a potentially dynamic talent can be even more so, the other is made out of fear of losing. Game on the line last night, Roansy who had shown even in his clean inning he had no interest in throwing a baseball over the plate was left in to die. Rodolfo Castro was lifted for Marcano to pinch hit.

Which is it boys? Are we training or trying to win?

As a season unfolds, plans should adapt. They clearly have to a degree, we already discussed how in a couple different ways, but you’d hope they lean heavily toward the winning games side of things because if they don’t, pretty soon the only choice on the table will be development.

If the answer to this group is development as opposed to winning, ok, well, get the prospects up right? I mean the reason they aren’t is because “to win” you have to have that super great defensive catcher right?

See what I mean?

Their decisions tell me one thing, despite where they are in the standings, this management team has openly decided to ride the fence and see which direction they fall later. That might very well be smart, but you can’t manage a team to win like that and bluntly, you can’t really develop the way you’d like either.

We could do this all day.

You let Rich Hill throw 119 pitches in an effort to win. He hasn’t done that in YEARS, has a history of injury and is one of the 2 veteran arms this team has left with very little MLB ready talent to back them in AAA if any.

That win was SUPER important.

Why wasn’t last night’s contest?

Listen, sometimes you just get beat. Most losses don’t send me to the site to start going after a problem, but I can’t shake the feeling that management doesn’t believe in the team this year, and considering how many of these players are under team control for years to come, perhaps that’s not the message you want to send.

This isn’t about thinking Roansy is no longer someone worthy of working with, it’s about suggesting the position this team has managed to put itself in should make it important to have that training take place where it can’t hurt the team.

In management of any kind really, sending mixed messages is worse than offering none. Everyone down to the individual should know without a second thought what the goal is, and if it’s not winning, I’d simply suggest you never ever easily surrender a chance to get in the dance, World Series ready or not, it’s never guaranteed the future you think you see is actually coming.

Don’t waste the opportunity you now have, even if it wasn’t planned.