Month: May 2025

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Pirates Morning Report: We Were Robbed

Final Score: Pirates 2 Padres 3

Why The Pirates Lost: In a game where the Pirates out hit the Padres 7 to 3, they were robbed of a run in the top of the 8th inning. The Padres made the most of those 3 hits by scoring 3 runs. In the bottom of the 4th, they took a 1-0 lead. They scored more conventionally with a double and a single. The Pirates scored 2 runs in the top of the sixth. They got 2-out hits from Bryan Reynolds and Spencer Horwitz to take the 2-1 lead. The Padres scratched out 2 runs with only one hit in the bottom of the 6th. Mitch Keller walked lead-off hitter Fernando Tatis. Tatis was running when Luis Arraez doubled down the left field line. Tatis scored easily to tie the game. Arraez took third on a rather short fly ball to right field. He scored on a ground ball that slightly handcuffed Adam Frazier. It was just enough to make the throw late, and Arraez scored the deciding run of the game. Mitch Keller is becoming the hard-luck pitcher of the year. He went 6 innings, giving up 3 runs on just 3 hits. He walked 2, but the second one really came back to haunt him. Keller’s record dropped to 1-7. His ERA+ is 115, which is one of the highest of his career. This was a real hard-luck loss for the Pirates. It did not help that they struck out 14 times, including 6 times in a row at one point. Let’s get to that fateful 8th inning.

Key Moment Of The Game: The inning started out benign enough. Isiah Kiner-Falefa struck out, and Oneil Cruz flied out to start the inning. McCutchen doubled. Bryan Reynolds and Spencer Horwitz walked to load the bases. This brought up Henry Davis, who had had a rough go of it to this point. He had struck out twice and popped out to third base. Things were about to get even worse. He fouled off two pitches. He took three pitches well out of the strike zone. This worked the count to 3-2. The sixth pitch was low by a good ball and a half. The umpire called it a strike. Instead of a walk forcing in a run and tying the game 3-3, the inning was over. It was a horrible call. This is why the electronic strike zone should be in the game. These umpires today really botch up the balls and strikes in each direction. The Pirate bats did not have a great game; there was no question about that. Nonetheless, the score should have been at least 3-3 going into the bottom of the eighth. Not a good way to lose a game.

Next Game: Tonight Padres in San Diego. The Pirates lost the opening game of the Diamondbacks series and came back to win the series. The Padres will have to face the left-handed clones Falter and Heaney in the two games. Hopefully, the Pirates can win at least one game and have a .500 road trip. The offense needs to get back on track fast. They need to score at least 5 runs tonight. That will make you feel that the previous 2 games were not just a fluke. Don Kelly got ejected for the 3rd time in his short career. It was on the Davis strike call. Maybe he will catch Bobby Cox. Just 159 to go.

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Pirates Morning Report: Skenes Close To 2024 And Some Interesting Decisions Coming Up

Paul Skenes is right back in Cy Young contention. His 2025 numbers are right around last year with the exception of strike outs per 9 innings where he is a full 2 less than last year. He seems to have his command back with walks per 9 the same as last year. In recent starts he has relied more on his fastball and has touched 100 MPH at times. In the National League he is second for qualifying pitchers with an ERA+ of 195. Only Yamamoto of the Dodgers is ahead at 198. As long as he remains healthy I think he will get even better as the year rolls on and win the Cy Young just like everyone thought he would.

Some Pirates are getting healthy and others are performing very well in AAA. The latter does not seem to make much difference to the Pirates when giving promotions. You have to wonder if the Pirates will try to keep the injured that way to avoid making some tough decisions. These decisions looked a lot easier just 10 days ago. Ten days ago it looked like a no brainer that Henry Davis should be sent down. Now, he is starting to hit and looks better behind the plate. Even before he got hurt I thought Joey Bart and Davis should at least split the time behind the plate. Bart is in the throes of a prolonged batting slump. Bart is now in concussion protocol and Endy Rodriguez is back on the team. If Davis is still hitting what will they do with Bart when he is deemed ready for play. What makes this more interesting is that Rodriguez and Nick Gonzales have not exactly been lighting it up in AAA. Gonzales is 3 for 22 and Rodriguez is 4 for 26. Matt Gorsky has a slash line of 278/.318/.519 at AAA. Malcom Nunez currently on the 7 day IL slashes at .278/.346/484. He is just 24 years old. Gonzales looks to be the next call up. Jared Triolo should be the one sent down when that happens. I have a feeling it will be the little used Nick Solak. He was red hot down in AAA but the Pirates chose to let him languish on the bench while Triolo hits .152. That was after he got 2 hits on Wednesday. Somebody explain this to me please.

The pitching situation is even more crowded. At AAA you have Bubba Chandler, Dauri Moreta, Kyle Nicolas, Carmen Mlodzinski, and Isaac Mattson. The Pirates sent down Mattson instead of Tanner Rainey with his 7.11 ERA. Another explanation is needed. With the exception of Nicolas they are all pitching well. Johan Oviedo will probably start pitching toward the end of June. I have stopped trying to speculate what the Pirates will do. Will they wait until the end of June to bring up Chandler just so they will have one more year of control. The most interesting part of all of this is how long will they put off making any decision unless their hand is forced by injury. This team is starting to show some life. Will this organization finally do something to help them win. I highly doubt it.

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Pirates Morning Report: What The Hell Is Going On? Even Triolo Got Two Hits

Final Score: Pirates 10 Diamondbacks 1

Why The Pirates Won: The offense came alive in a big way. They scored 10 runs on 11 hits and 3 walks. Every member of the starting lineup either got a hit, drove in a run or scored a run. Even Jared Triolo had two hits to raise his average above the Triolo line to .152. The Pirates had 4 extra base hits including Oneil Cruz’s 12th home run that put icing on the cake in the top of the 8th. All of this was more than enough to give Paul Skenes an easy win. He was his usual brilliant self going 6 and 2/3 innings. He gave up no runs, 4 hits, no walks, while striking out 7. This lowered his ERA to 2.15. More on Paul Skenes tomorrow. Two rare days in a row. A big comeback win on Tuesday, followed by a blowout win yesterday. There may be hope for this team after all.

Key Moments Of The Game: After 4 innings the Pirates led 1-0. This looked like it was going to be another close low scoring game for Paul Skenes. In the top of the 5th the Pirates loaded the bases with no outs and Cruz was coming to the plate. Cruz grounded to second. The Diamondbacks completely botched the play allowing the Pirates to score 2 runs. The Pirates had 2nd and 3rd with no outs leading 3-0. The Pirates went back into their old ways and could not score any more runs. Any good feeling the Diamondbacks may have had was squelched by Skenes. He retired the side in order in the bottom of the inning. The Pirates buried them in the 6th by scoring 5 runs. Isiah Kiner-Falefa got the big hit, doubling in 2 runs. The Pirates head to San Diego on a high note. They have a good chance to have a .500 road trip or even better.

Next Game: Tomorrow night, Padres in San Diego. For once the Pirates take some momentum into a series. Tomorrow’s blog will discuss Paul Skenes and some interesting decisions the Pirates will eventually have to make. One was delayed because Joey Bart got hit in the head. Stay tuned.

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Pirates Morning Report: Pirates Rally From 6 Run Deficit, Not Fake News

Final Score: Pirates 9 Diamondbacks 6

Why The Pirates Won: The offense shockingly woke up in the top of the 8th scoring 7 runs. The bullpen shut down the vaunted Diamondbacks offense by retiring the last 17 batters in a row. Bryan Reynolds came out of his slump big time. He went 4 for 4 with a walk. He had a home run, a double, driving in 3 runs and scoring 2. Isiah Kiner-Falefa only had one hit. It was a big one. His bases loaded double in the top of 8th scored 3 runs to tie the game. Reynolds followed that up 1 batter later with a 3 run homer to give the Pirates a 9-6 lead. Henry Davis who replaced the head injured Joey Bart hit a 2 run homer in the top of the 6th to get the ball rolling. At the time it made the score 6-2. To say that this was an unexpected win is a huge understatement. The one hundred club is down to one member, Jared Triolo. However, Spencer Horwitz is looking to join. Davis and Tommy Pham inched above .200 with each getting 2 hits.

Key Moments Of The Game: In the top of the 4th Mike Burrows was cruising along having given up 1 run on a Corbin Carroll home run to lead off the game. He got the first out of the inning. He gave up a triple and a single to make the score 2-0. Then Burrows became his own worse enemy. He walked the next batter. He muffed an easy ground ball by Carroll that loaded the bases. In came Joey Wentz and his luck got even worse. He gave up 3 singles in a row none of which were hit very hard. Before you could say this game is over the score was quickly 6-0. But it wasn’t over. Wentz got the next 2 batters. The Diamondbacks did not get a hit the rest of the game. Without Joey Bart getting hit in the head with a bat Henry Davis would have never been in the game. The Pirates finally got some big hits and pulled out an amazing win.

Next game: This afternoon Diamondbacks in Phoenix. Today is the unexpected rubber match with Paul Skenes going for the Pirates. Obviously it’s not been a given just because Skenes is pitching that the Pirates will win. There is always hope that a big comeback win will give the Pirates some momentum. Certainly if that is true then they must win today. The lineup should be pretty straight forward with McCutchen back as DH and Davis behind the plate. I hope Triolo is not given a start. We don’t have that much momentum.

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Pirates Morning Report: Shut Out For The Ninth Time

Final Score: Pirates 0 Diamondbacks 5

Why The Pirates Lost: Another offensive debacle. No runs on 6 hits and 2 walks. They were 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position. It really wouldn’t have made any difference but Andrew Heaney had a bad outing. In 5 innings he gave up 5 runs, 8 hits and walked 3. The one bright spot Braxton Ashcroft came in and pitched a nice 3 innings giving up no runs. But enough of this already. This is just too good to pass up. Going into the off season both the Pirates and Diamondbacks had obvious needs at first base. The Diamondbacks traded for Josh Naylor. They gave up one pitcher for him. His current stats; slash line .287/.348/.444 for an OPS+ 122. The Pirates traded for Spencer Horwitz or as Greg Brown calls him Hor-A-Witz. They gave up 3 players including Luis Ortiz. Horwitz was damaged goods and had to have wrist surgery. Small sample size, but his slash line is .200/.263/.348 for an OPS+ 68. We all know what the big difference is between these players. Horwitz makes around $800,000 and won’t be a free agent until 2031. Naylor is 10.9 million and will be a free agent next year. The Pirates spent close to that much on Pham, Frazier and Heaney. Even if you want to give Frazier and Heaney a little love did they really need them with the young players they have. Absolutely not. This little scenario explains why these teams are where they are. One fighting like hell for a playoff spot. The other trying to avoid another 100 loss season.

The Key Moment Of The Game: Before I get into that the blog will be coming from San Diego this week so it will be mid to late morning. I watched the Padres last night. Again it was such a pleasure to listen to true professional baseball announcers. They make the game so much better of an experience. When you boil it right down there were no truly key moments. The Pirates were never in this one. Yeah I know they had the bases loaded and no outs in the top of the 8th. Really did anyone think they were going to score. Be honest.

Next Game: Tonight Diamondbacks in Phoenix. Corbin Burnes is going for the Diamondbacks. The Pirates have had some success against him but it would be shocking if they have any tonight. Mike Burrows is going for the Pirates. This looks like such a mismatch. Many times you will get surprised. That sure would be nice.

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Pirates Morning Report: Wham Bam Thank You Pham

Final Score: Pirates 5 Brewers 6

Why The Pirates Lost: Tommy Pham is a gifted player. He is one of the few players in the major leagues that can go 2 for 3 with a walk and an RBI but be the main reason you lost a game. Ryan Borucki did groove a sweeper right down the middle in the top of the 8th on an 0-2 count. Chase Shugart did the same thing the game before. He got away with it as the batter flied out to rather deep left field. Borucki would have gotten away with it too if Pham knew how to judge a fly ball. This was a fly ball that hit about 12 inches before the wall in left field. Any competent left fielder would have caught the ball. Then we come to the bottom of the 8th. Pham led off with a single. He immediately gets balked to second base. Jared Triolo and his .136 batting average are at the plate. The situation was screaming for a pinch hitter. Triolo was allowed to bat. He could not catch up with any fastball, with two being right down the middle. He was an easy strike out. Oneil Cruz was intentionally walked. Pham, who was thinking I probably should have caught that ball, was picked off 2nd base for the 2nd out. This all ruined a nice comeback by the Pirates. The Brewers scored 3 runs in the first, but the Pirates pecked away. Oneil Cruz hit the hardest home run of the season at 122.9 MPH in the third. The Pirates added 2 runs in the 6th and 7th to take a 5-3 lead. Then came the disastrous 8th.

Key Moments Of The Game: Bailey Falter had another shaky first inning. This time, he could not get out of it unscathed. A bad throw by Oneil Cruz allowed the 3rd run to score. The Pirates loaded the bases in the bottom of the 2nd but could not score. Triolo was the big out as his blooper was caught by Jackson Chourio, making a nice running catch. The Pirates scored 2 runs in the bottom of the 6th and had a runner on 1st with 1 out. Jared Triolo then bunted. Do the Pirates understand anything about baseball? He should have done that later in the game. We had a runner on second with no one out in the bottom of the 8th. Of course, Tommy Pham would have been picked off third instead of second. The Pirates out-hit the Brewers 12 to 7. The Pirates had 4 walks to the Brewers’ 5. This game was pretty much gift-wrapped for the Brewers. Everybody deserved better. However, when you play Tommy Pham and don’t pinch-hit for Jared Triolo in a key situation, you get what you deserve. It was a great opportunity lost.

Next Game: Tonight Diamondbacks in Phoenix. They do not have an off day today but must travel and play in Arizona. At least 4 of the players should be well rested since they did not do anything yesterday. I never thought I would say this, but it’s time for the Pirates to split the catching duties between Bart and Davis. Bart has been looking so bad at the plate for the last 2 weeks that a little in-season competition needs to take place. Davis needs one final shot to avoid being a huge bust as an overall no. 1 draft pick. There is nothing to lose at this point. Cherington today said that the Pirates still feel they can make a drive for the playoffs. What should happen is Pham and Triolo should be made to drive to Arizona. I do not think it is a big deal if they arrive by Wednesday.

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Pirates Morning Report: Pirates Win Another Close One.

Final Score: Pirates 2 Brewers 1

Why The Pirates Won: This was the kind of game you would expect from two of the worst run-producing teams in the league. Mitch Keller and former Pirate pitcher Quinn Priester matched each other almost pitch for pitch over the first 6 innings. Keller gave up 1 run on 7 hits. He struck out 7, walking none. Priester gave up 1 run on 6 hits. He struck out 7 and walked one. It was the Brewers’ bullpen that finally cracked in the crucial 7th inning. Each offense put a lot of traffic on the base paths but produced little from it. The Brewers collected 11 hits but scored only 1 run. The Pirates had 9 hits to go along with one walk. They were able to manage a 2nd run, which was the difference in the ballgame.

Key Moments Of The Game: The 7th turned out to be the crucial inning of the game. Caleb Ferguson came in to pitch in relief of Keller. He gave up two weakly hit singles to put runners on 1st and 2nd with no outs. On another weak contact, Jake Bauers grounded into a force out at second. Ferguson hit Joey Ortiz on a 1-2 pitch to load the bases. The Pirates had to bring the infield in. Brice Turang hit a ground ball just to the left of Adam Frazier. He made a nice stop, spun around, and threw a perfect strike to Henry Davis to get the force at home. Don Kelly decided to bring in Chase Shugart to face Jackson Chourio. Shugart fell behind 2 balls and no strikes. On a 91 MPH cutter right down the middle, Chourio hit a fly ball. It traveled 302 ft. to Bryan Reynolds. The Pirates were fortunate that he did not get all of it. With one out in the bottom of the 7th, Isiah Kiner-Falefa singled to left field. Henry Davis lined out to 3rd for the 2nd out. IKF was balked to 2nd base. Lefty Tyler Alexander was pitching for the Brewers. Oneil Cruz has not done well against lefties so far this year. This time, he ripped a low middle-in sweeper 114 MPH into the right center field gap to easily score IKF. Cruz legged it into third for his first triple of the season. Dennis Santana and David Bednar protected the lead. Bednar put runners on first and second with one out in the top of the 9th. He managed to get Turang to hit into a game-ending double play. The Pirates pulled one out 2-1.

Next Game: This afternoon, Brewers in Pittsburgh. No matter what happens today, the Pirates will have a winning home stand. It would be nice to see them go 5-2. Bailey Falter will go for the Pirates today. He has been one of their most consistent pitchers this year. The Pirates head out west this week to play the Diamondbacks and the Padres. This will be a tough road to hoe. Winning this one could give them a little momentum. Oneil Cruz looks like he may be ready to go on an offensive run. It would be nice to see someone do it.

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Pirates Morning Report: Pirates Win A Wild One

Final Score: Pirates 6 Brewers 5 10 innings.

Why The Pirates Won. The Pirates started a new streak by scoring more than 4 runs for 2 games in a row. This time it was enough to pull out an extra-inning win 6-5. Oneil Cruz hit 2 home runs in a game for the first time in his career. They were both solo shots. This meant that the Pirates had to get 10 hits, 5 walks, and a catcher’s interference to score the other 4 runs. Jeez. They left 10 men on base. They continued their trend of single-digit strikeouts, this time with 8. Paul Skenes pitched another solid game. He went 6 innings, giving up 1 run on 4 hits. He walked 2 while striking out 8. He threw 101 pitches to get through the 6 innings. The score was 2-1 when he left the game. The bullpen gave up 3 runs in the final 3 innings of regulation. They got pounded for 6 hits and walked 4. There were some in the bullpen who performed well; they were not named Bednar and Rainey. All is forgiven when you win. The Pirates still have a chance for that 5-2 homestand.

The Key Moments Of The Game: The score was 2-1 going into the top of the 7th when Tanner (Why Don’t They Know That I Can’t Pitch) Rainey entered the game. He did get one out. Then he gave up a walk and 2 singles. The Brewers tied the game and had 1st and 3rd with one out. Dennis Santana came in, giving up a single to put the Brewers out in front 3-2. Santana struck out the next 2 batters to end the inning. In the bottom of the 7th, the Pirates quickly tied it. Andrew McCutchen hit a one-out double. Bryan Reynolds drove him home with a single to center. Caleb Ferguson got out of a big jam in the top of the 8th to keep the score 3-3. William Contreras homered in the top of the 9th. Oneil Cruz homered in the bottom of the 9th. If Cruz stares at his homers any longer and trots around the bases any slower, MLB will have to put a home run trot clock in the game. Each team got their ghost runner home in the 10th inning. The Pirates had 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs. Joey Bart was at the plate. He has had recent struggles at the plate. The Brewers took care of all that by wild pitching in the winning run. God bless them.

Next Game: This afternoon, Brewers in Pittsburgh. Mitch Keller will be going for the Pirates today. The Pirates played their normal frustrating game last night with one exception. They won. Paul Skenes could not pick up a win. For a change, the team did win when he pitched. I thought Canario might be rejoining the 100 club. However, a 10th-inning bloop single that tied the game kept him above .200. Will the Pirates be able to pull out the next 2 games? Maybe they will finally get some momentum.

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Pirates Morning Report: At Least They Scored More Than Four Runs.

Final Score: Pirates 5 Brewers 8

Why The Pirates Lost: Two of the worst hitting teams in baseball produced a combined 13 runs. Unfortunately for the Pirates, they only scored 5 of those 13 runs. Mike Burrows made his first Major League start. He was done in by the long ball. The big blow was by the slumping Christian Yelich. In the top of the first, he hit a 3-run home run to the opposite field that barely got over the glove of Tommy (Maybe A Better Outfielder Would Have Made The Catch) Pham. In the top of the 2nd, Burrows gave up a solo shot by Joey Ortiz to account for the 4 runs he gave up. He pitched 5 innings, giving up 4 hits, walking 2, and striking out 3. It was not that bad of a performance. He was done in by giving up home runs to hitters batting under .200. The bullpen gave up the other 4 runs over the last 4 innings. A rare bad day for the pitching staff. The Pirates put the not scoring more than 4 runs streak to rest by scoring 5. The only problem was they should have scored 10. They had 9 hits along with 7 walks. They struck out 6 times. They were 3 for 11 with runners in scoring position. They left 10 men on base. They grounded into 2 double plays to be tied at the top spot with 49 for the season. In a game where the pitching faltered, the offense could have made this game closer but did not. The Pirates are now 2-2 on the homestand.

Key Moments Of The Game: The Brewers had the 3-0 lead going into the bottom of the 1st. The Pirates looked like they were going to get right back in the game. They loaded the bases with nobody out. Joey Bart grounded into a 5-4-3 double play to end the threat. A run scored, but Spencer Horwitz struck out to end the inning. The Brewers got the run right back with another home run in the top of the 2nd. Yelich hit another home run in the top of the 6th to make it 5-2. The Pirates had 2-out lightning in the bottom of the 6th when IKF and Cruz had back-to-back doubles. McCutchen walked, during which Cruz was wild-pitched to third. Then the rains came. Reynolds struck out when the game resumed. In the top of the 7th, the Brewers scored 3 runs. They were helped by the fact that Adam Frazier is too old to move and bend over. A ground ball that went under his glove drove in the final two runs. The Pirates were able to tack on 2 runs in the bottom of the 9th. They did not break the Major League record, just tied it. This really wasn’t a key moment, but I could not let this go unnoticed. Tommy Pham struck out in the bottom of the 2nd on 5 pitches. He did not swing at one pitch. Daniel (The Turtle) Vogelbach’s philosophy of hitting is having its impact on the Pirates’ players. Pham has a long way to go to get to Vogelbach. Once, while playing for the Pirates, he took 6 pitches to strike out. Then he took 5 more in his next at-bat to make the count 3-2. He did hit the next pitch out for a home run. He took 11 pitches in a row, with 5 being strikes. At least Pham has something to shoot for. He will probably do it now that he is getting to play more again.

Next Game: Tonight, Brewers in Pittsburgh. Paul Skenes will start tonight for the Pirates. That means that his “personal” catcher Henry Davis will start also. Henry Davis played like a major leaguer in his last start. The way some fans and media acted, you would have thought that he should have gotten the Player of the Week award. In his career, he has had 425 plate appearances. His slash line is .190/.277/.262, for an OPS+ of 61. Most of that came during his rookie season when he hit 7 of his 9 home runs. His Defensive Runs Saved as a catcher is negative 4. If he has another good game tonight, I will be shocked. Even if he does, that does not make up for 114 games of awfulness. Some people seem to think so.

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Pirates Morning Report: The Pitchers Win Another One

Final Score: Pirates 3 Reds 1

Why The Pirates Won: The Pirates pitching staff shut down the Reds for the 2nd straight game. Andrew Heaney took 97 pitches to get through 5 innings. He allowed the run on 3 hits. He walked 2 and struck out 4. The bullpen took over the game in the last 4 innings. Chase Shugart, Caleb Ferguson, Tanner Rainey, and Dennis Santana gave up only 1 hit, walked one, and hit a batter. This was the game where the AAA and DFA squad came through. Henry Davis went 2 for 2 with a walk and an RBI. This raised his average to .190. Tommy Pham went 2 for 4 to raise his average to .193. They both contributed to big plays out in the field. Adam Frazier went 2 for 4 with an RBI. He raised his average to .228. Does this change my mind about any of these players? Absolutely not. They should not be on the team. It was nice to see them have a good game, but I will be shocked if any of that trend continues. The offense overall was pretty bad. They had 9 hits and 4 walks, scoring only 3 runs. This time it was enough as the pitchers came through again.

Key Moments Of The Game: The Reds had a lot of traffic on the base paths in the 2nd and 3rd innings but could only score 1 run. Heaney seemed to settle down. He retired the side in order in the 4th and 5th. In the top of the 6th, Chase Shugart came in to pitch. He retired the first two batters. After getting ahead of Spencer Steer 0 and 2, he threw 4 straight balls to walk him. Tyler Stephenson, on the 2nd pitch of the at-bat, ripped a ball down the left field line. Tommy Pham lumbered over to get it. He made a good relay throw to IKF. IKF did likewise with his throw to the plate. For once, Henry Davis made a tag and held on to the ball. The runner was out at the plate by 6 inches. It was pretty much a miracle day for the minor league Pirates. That’s what it takes for the Pirates to win a game 3-1.

Next Game: Tonight, Brewers in Pittsburgh. Tonight opens a 4-game series against the Brewers. They are a couple of games below .500. If the Pirates could ever find some offense, there is a real chance they could go 5-2 on this homestand. Mike Burrows is going to start for the Pirates tonight. Carmen Mlodzinski was optioned to AAA. You have to wonder if that was not at his request. Apparently, he came to the Pirates wanting to become a starting pitcher. The obvious move would have been to move him to the bullpen and send down Rainey or Wentz. Maybe Carmen is not aware of how much relievers are making on the free-agent market. Maybe he will develop, but not a great career move in my opinion. We will see if the Pirates can get a little momentum in these last 4 games of the homestand.