The Pittsburgh Pirates lost a competitive series against the Cardinals,
but then responded by beating the Rockies in an exciting series in Colorado.
With multiple important series coming up, will the Pirates be able to make a
post-season push?
The good, the bad, and the ugly for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
That’s the theme of this series – shout out to the Italian man himself, Francisco
Cervelli, for the inspiration. Let’s jump into the week that
was!
The good and the bad sections will be self-explanatory,
looking at both the good and the bad of the week. The ugly will simply be a
section that covers all of the other random notes of importance from the week.
THE GOOD
The Pittsburgh Pirates have quickly become one of the more
exciting teams to watch in MLB. New players and rejuvenated players are
stepping up in a big way every game – making the majority of the games the
Pirates are playing competitive. One of these players is the Pirates’
ace, Jameson
Taillon.
Listen to this: Taillon has quietly not given up more than
three earned runs in any start since May 22nd against the Reds.
Since that game, Taillon has picked up seven wins, including
a complete game win against the Rockies on Tuesday. The below video highlights
Taillon’s most recent complete game.
Taillon is actually tied for the most complete games across
all MLB pitchers this year with two. Even though this may not seem like a huge
feat, Taillon’s 2.8 WAR and 3.68 ERA is no joke. Let’s hope Taillon continues
to stay hot throughout August.
Gregory
Polanco has been playing at a stellar level for over two
months. Polanco hit .306 in June and .301 in July. More impressively, his OPS
flirted with, and crossed the 1.000 mark during this span. Not many players
accomplish that feat. Polanco has had a slower start to August, but the month
is young and even an average August from Polanco would be huge down the stretch
for the Pirates. This is Polanco’s month to put his doubters to rest.
Adam Frazier was
controversially called up to the Big Leagues after sporting an ugly .223
batting average in AAA Indianapolis. Since his call-up, Frazier has a
.423/.447/.757/1.204 line. Yeah, that’s insane. Oh, he also single-handedly
saved the game on Wednesday with a defensive gem.
Hopefully, Hurdle continues to start Frazier every single
game until Frazier cools off. The Pirates need to capitalize on his hot bat and
glove.
GM Neal Huntington is continuing to rack up the wins.
Both Chris Archer and Keone Kela were
key contributors in the series deciding game against the Rockies on Wednesday.
Even though Archer did not pitch a fantastic game (lots of
3-2 counts, only 5 innings), he kept the Pirates in the game and picked up his
first win as a Bucco.
Kela pitches like a stud. Seriously though, his curve ball
is so nasty that it actually left the Pirates’ broadcasters speechless. Kela
needs to be used in high leverage situations whenever he is available. For me,
he is a clear number two behind Felipe
Vazquez. Kyle Crick is
good, but not Keone level good.
Like I said, Neal is racking up the wins. This past week,
the active GM acquired shortstop Adeiny
Hechavarriafrom the Rays.
Hechavarria was acquired through the waiver process for
prospect Matt Seelinger who is not ranked as a top 30 prospect for the Pirates
and was drafted in the 13th round of the 2017 draft.
Hechavarria is a pure rental player that will become a free
agent after this season. He brings to the table slightly below average
offensive capabilities and gold-glove defense. My prediction is that
Hechavarriais used as the primary back-up for Jordy Mercer moving
forward and may even be used as a late game defensive substitution.
THE BAD
Reality tells a somber story – the Pirates really did not
make up any ground this week in the playoff race. The series win against the
Rockies was clutch and needed, but it was offset by the series loss against the
Cardinals. As of Thursday morning, the Pirates are still sitting fourth in the
NL Central, 7 games back of the Cubs for the division lead, and are behind four
other teams for the second Wild Card spot. The Bucs will need to go on another
large winning streak that includes some series sweeps if they truly want a
chance at making the playoffs.
The reality of the Wild Card race in the National League
highlights how costly it is for the Pirates to lose any series against other
competing teams. It is because of this reality that I believe Clint Hurdle
needs to reconsider how he is managing games. Instead of approaching in-game
situations by weighing the cost of decisions on future games, he needs to be
maximizing his chance at winning the current game. There are not 100 games left
in the season, there are less than 50 – and the Pirates need to try to win
every single one.
I bring this point up to highlight Hurdle’s decision making
during the second game of the Cardinals series.
Going into the 5th inning of that game, the Pirates had a
huge momentum swing, since they had just scored three runs to tie the game at
four. Both starting pitchers were struggling, and Hurdle made the correct
decision to pull Ivan Nova before
the 5th inning even started. In his place, Clint Hurdle put on the mound
inexperienced rookie pitcher, Alex McRae.
McRae immediately gave up two runs in the 5th inning and one run in the 6th
inning – deflating the Pirates momentum and pushing the game out of reach.
Hurdle could have replaced Nova with any arm in the bullpen;
no one was marked as unavailable for the game. But, instead of putting an
experienced, high-quality bullpen arm (which the Pirates actually have a
plethora of); Hurdle raised a white flag and threw McRae to the wolves. I could
literally read the disappointment on the Pirates’ player’s faces. Of course the
players were rooting for McRae to pitch well – but they were most
certainly doubting Hurdle’s decision.
Clint Hurdle cannot throw away close games just because he
is worried about over using the bullpen for some future game. We are past
that point in the season. This sort of decision making is detrimental to the
club, plain and simple. Win the game in front of you, and worry about
tomorrow’s game tomorrow.
THE UGLY
Tyler Glasnow has
had two great starts for the Tampa Bay Rays. FanGraphs put out an interesting
article that highlights some of the changes that Glasnow
has already made that could be helping. I am actually very interested to see
how Glasnow pitches the rest of this season and during the entirety of the
next. I have lost a lot of faith in the Pirates’ ability to develop young
pitching. I have also lost a lot of faith in the Pirates’ current pitching
strategy. Gerrit Cole leaving
the Pirates and pitching lights out in Houston could just be a coincidence, if
Glasnow does the same in Tampa, the Pirates will need to make some major
adjustments in the pitching department.
Two players on the Pirates’ AAA affiliate, the Indianapolis
Indians, combined to have a historic
night this past week. Kevin Newman and Jacob
Stallings both hit for the cycle in the same game. This has
never happened in MLB before, but has happened at least on other time in the
minor league system (that I can find). Either way, there is a lot to be excited
about the Indians who currently sit at 64-51 on the season – good enough for a
4 game lead in the INT West division.
The future middle infield tandem for the Pirates are
also performing extremely well in Indianapolis. Second baseman/shortstop Kevin
Newman is batting .303 on the year with 27 stolen bases, and only 48 strikeouts
across 419 at-bats. Even though Newman is not hitting for a lot of power (4
home runs), Newman is hitting for average and has above average speed and good
to average defense. Second baseman Kevin Kramer is
hitting .301 on the season with .840 OPS that is boosted by 12 home runs and 27
doubles. Both of these players are well on their way to solidifying starting
positions on the 2019 Pirates’ team and could also be called up once rosters
expand in late 2018.
One player that will no longer be exciting fans in
Indianapolis is Jung Ho Kang.
Kang is officially out for the season and will be having
surgery on his wrist. Other than Kang, the Pirates have done a good job
clearing their disabled list on both the Big League and AAA rosters. The only
other significant names that are out are Chad Kuhl and A.J. Schugel.
That’s all for this week! Let’s go Bucs!
THE PITTSBURGH PIRATES WEEK AHEAD
AUGUST 10TH –
Pirates @ the Giants 10:15
AUGUST 11TH –
Pirates @ the Giants 9:05
AUGUST 12TH –
Pirates @ the Giants 4:05
AUGUST 14TH – Pirates
@ the Twins 8:10
AUGUST 15TH –
Pirates @ the Twins 1:10
AUGUST 16TH –
Cubs @ the Pirates 7:05
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