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.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 