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Pirates Morning Report: 19 Hits Will Do It Every Time

Final Score: Pirates 13 White Sox 9

Why The Pirates Won: The Pirate bats really came alive to easily overcome a very poor performance by Rich Hill. The Pirates had 3 doubles, a triple, and 2 home runs to put 13 runs on the board. Bryan Reynolds had a huge game going 3 for 5, with a double, triple, and a home run, driving in 6 runs. Six Pirates had 2 or more hits. It was simply a hitters and bullpen win. I am sure you would have to go back a long way to find the last team that scored 9 runs against the Pirates but lost the game.

Key Moment Of The Game: After 4 and a half innings the score was tied 7-7 in a back and forth slugfest. Then after one out in the bottom of the 5th the Pirates started. Double by Conner Joe, Ji Hwan Bae singles, Jason( I’m pounding the ball), Delay singles, Joe scores, Oneil Cruz walks, and then Bryan Reynolds laces a ball down in the right field corner for a triple, driving in 3 runs and then scoring himself on a throwing error. This made the score 12-7 and you really felt the Pirates had finally taken over the game. The bullpen came through with Will Crowe pitching the last 3 innings, having a shaky ninth but sealed the deal and the Pirates are now 5-2.

Next Game: Tonight, White Sox, in Pittsburgh. The other free agent pitcher Vince( I hope they score 13 runs for me because I am going to need them) Velaquez will make his second start of the year. Hopefully he will fair a little better than Hill did yesterday. Not much negative you can say about this team right now. There are some individuals who are struggling right now but it makes all that struggling a lot easier to take when you are winning. 5 and 2 feels real good.

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Pirates Morning Report: DUJ Gets The Save

Final Score: Pirates 4 Red Sox 1

Why The Pirates Won: Another great starting pitching performance, this time by Mitch Keller. He pitched 7 innings giving up only 1 run on 2 hits, striking out 7 and walking 2. The foul ball home run made things tense for a moment. I always like the fact that the home crowd boos a call that goes against them, even though it is obviously correct. The Pirates offense put up 4 runs again, with Carlos Santana providing a home run and an RBI double. Bryan Reynolds got a double and an RBI on a sacrifice fly. Ke’Bryan Hayes drove in the other run on a beautiful push bunt up the first base line. The bullpen was strong again and Pirates swept the Boston Red Sox right in Fenway Park.

Key Moment Of The Game: It was the bottom of the 9th when DUJ took the mound. I could feel the dread going through my body. The first batter got a base hit and now you knew that this was going to be a disastrous inning. Then two pitches later DUJ induced a double play ball, that Castro and Bae executed nicely and quickly 2 were down. One pitch later a big lazy pop up ended the game and the Pirates are 4-2. DUJ did the job for the 2nd consecutive time, on only 5 pitches. If this guy is getting outs, then maybe this really is going to be our year. It makes you wonder when Robert Stephenson is ready to come back who will be sent down. I always figured it would be good old DUJ. Now I wonder if it could be Crowe or De Jong. They have been conspicuous by their absence. Their next outing could be critical if they are going to stay in Pittsburgh. Like in a lot of cases the mysterious injury could crop up too.

Next Game: Tomorrow afternoon, White Sox, Opening Day in Pittsburgh. Rich Hill will take the hill (can’t help myself), for the Pirates home opener. Let’s hope that he makes a comeback start much like Keller did last night. The Pirates now sit at 4-2 and you would have to call this a very successful road trip. I know it is early, but this team seems to have a different vibe to it already. To paraphrase Muhammad Ali, this team may SHOCK THE WORLD!

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Pirates Morning Report: Contreras Gets First Starter Win

Final Score: Pirates 4 Red Sox 1

Why The Pirates Won: Roansy Contreras pitched a solid 5 and 2/3 innings giving up 1 run on just 3 hits, one walk, while striking out 2. The best performance of the year so far. Of course, he didn’t have much competition. The Pirate bats had just enough firepower to push across 4 runs with Ji Hwan Bae hitting a 2-run homer and Bryan Reynolds hitting a solo shot. He drove in a nice insurance run in the 7th with a single after Tyler (That May Be More Surprising Than Delay’s Home Run), Heineman stole 2nd. Again, the bullpen was solid giving up 0 runs on 1 hit. Last night’s win insured the Pirates of a .500 road trip.

Key Moment Of The Game: The Pirate bats were quiet over the first 1 and 2/3 innings with Cruz getting a walk and then 5 straight outs. Canaan Smith-Njigba struck out but the pitch went right off the catcher’s shin guard to the backstop. Smith-Njigba made it to first on the passed ball. Ji Hwan Bae followed with an opposite field home run right over the Green Monster to give the Pirates a 2-1. Later in the bottom of the 8th inning Bae made a great leaping catch in left centerfield to record the second out of the inning. Another great 9th by Bednar and the Pirates are 3-2.

Next Game: Today, Red Sox in Boston. Mitch Keller goes on the mound today and hopefully will give a better performance than he did on opening day. A sweep in Boston would be nice but the Pirates will have a least a .500 road trip and that is exactly what was needed. A win today will be a really nice bonus to take to Opening Day on Friday. Go Bucs!

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Pirates Morning Report: Another Nail Biting Win

Final Score: Pirates 7 Red Sox 6

Why The Pirates Won: The Pirate offense woke up much faster than Rip Van Winkle did as they blasted 3 home runs, one by Jason ( I Can’t Believe I Did It), Delay, and 2 by Bryan ( You Better Get Your Shit Together And Sign Me To A Long Term Deal) Reynolds. Canaan Smith-Njigba had 2 RBI’s and Jack Suwinski and Ke’Bryan Hayes knocked in the other runs with some clutch hits. Hayes’s batting average is soaring over .100 now. Johan Oviedo gave up 5 runs in the first but was not helped by some shoddy defense. He battled until the 5th inning and then was removed with 2 men on base. Dauri Moreta wiggled out of that jam. Then in the 6th you thought all was lost when DUJ was brought in with runners on 1st and 2nd with 2 out.

Key Moment Of The Game: I will admit DUJ did alright. He gave up a cheap broken bat bloop which made the score 7-6 and struck out the next batter. He pitched a clean 7th inning and so far, a good start for DUJ. Colin Holderman survived a scratch hit and a walk to pitch a tense scoreless 8th. Another swinging bunt hit in the 9th made it interesting for David Bednar, but Bullet Bednar struck out the final two batters to preserve another one run hard fought win for the young Bucco’s.

Next Game: Tonight, Red Sox in Boston. Tonight, Roansy Contreras makes his 2023 debut finally. It will be a challenge, just ask Oviedo. It was nice to see the Bucco’s bounce back from the two losses in Cincinnati. The bats came alive last night, but Austin Hedges is still 0 for April.

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Pirates Morning Report: Bats Take A Nap

Final Score: Pirates 1 Red 3

Why The Pirates Loss: The bats continue to nap. The first 6 batters made outs which meant the Pirates had made 21 outs in a row over the last 7 innings. The Pirates only run came on Bryan Reynolds 1st home run of the season and they could only muster 5 other hits, 4 of them singles. They went 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position. The Pirates have scored 8 runs in 3 games, but 3 of those were gifts from the Reds on walks and a wild pitch. They have had 19hits but there have been a lot of swinging bunts and bloopers. They were fortunate to get the opening win but 1-2 sounds a lot better than 0-3. Vince Velasquez pitch very similar to his predecessors, giving up home runs and could not get past the 5th inning. He only walked one and struck out 3. Another only ok performance by a Pirate starter. The bullpen pitched shutout ball over the last 4 and a third innings, but Will Crowe really needed some leather to keep the Reds from scoring. DUJ was able to throw a scoreless inning even though he gave up a rocket shot double.

The Key Moment Of The Game: The Pirates started the top of the 8th with 2 fluky hits by Castro and Cruz, which gave them 1st and 2nd with no outs. Reynolds hit a fly to right that got Castro to third. McCutchen then hit a pop up to short right field that could not bring Castro home and Santana ended an 0-4 day by grounding out to 1st, with no runs scoring, essentially ending the game.

Next Game: Tonight, Red Sox in Boston. Johan Oviedo will start tonight in Bean Town, and we will see how the young right-hander is able to handle the Red Sox in Fenway Park. Hopefully the Pirates bats will perk up. Ke’Bryan Hayes is hitting below 100. I know it is early but that is not a good sign that he has figured anything out at the plate. The Pirates for some reason always seem to get off to a slow start batting. It just looks like something they are going to have to push through. Hedges is still 0 for April.

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Pirates Morning Report: Giving Up The Gopher Ball.

Final Score: Pirates 2 Reds 6

Why The Pirates Lost: Rich Hill and Chase De Jong could not keep the ball in the park, which accounted for all 6 of the Reds runs. For whatever reason Hill and De Jong could not keep the ball down. They threw some pitches that were unbelievably high. Hill settled down after the first to pitch pretty well, but he gave up 3 runs in the first with 2 of them scoring on a Kevin Newman home run no less. It will probably be his only home run of the season. The Pirate bats seemed to be clicking during the first 4 innings when they got their 2 runs and 7 hits. Then they never got a hit in the last 5 innings and went down quietly to their first defeat.

Key Moment Of The Game: When Chase De Jong came into the game with the score 3-2 Reds in the bottom of the 6th, he just seemed out of sorts. It was like he had not warmed up enough on this cold day. He walked Wil Myers on four pitches, none of which were over 92 MPH and were not even close to the strike zone. He then gives up a single to Tyler Stephenson to put runners on 1st and 3rd. The Pirates almost got a break when Wil Myers tried to go from first to third, but Ji Hwan Bae’s throw was just enough offline that Myers barely beat it on a bang-bang play. Again, De Jong fell behind Jake Fraley 3-0, got one strike, then grooved a slider that was put out of the park and the game was essentially over. I wrote before that De Jong’s performance would be a key to the Pirates success, and this one was an F.

Next Game: Today, the Reds in Cincinnati. The puzzling pick up, Vince Velasquez will take the hill today and we will see if the Pirates found something that no one else had seen. Austen Hedges did not get a hit on April 1 and I’m not fooling. Probably won’t get a chance tomorrow as Delay is likely to start. The suspense continues, will Austen Hedges get a hit in April?

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Pirates Morning Report: We Could Have The Reds Bullpen

Final Score: Pirates 5 Reds 4

Why The Pirates Won: It was a strikeout-walk festival with the Pirates coming out ahead on both counts. The Reds struck out 15 times to “only” 11 for the Pirates. The Pirates walked 9 times, outwalking the Reds by 3. When a ball was put in play it was a shocker. Many have been maligning the Pirate bullpen, but they shined yesterday by allowing no runs on 2 hits, over the last 4 and 1/3rds innings. Mitch Keller’s start was just ok, as he had trouble with his control giving up 4 of the 6 Pirate walks. Oneil Cruz looked great at the plate walking 2 times and crushing a home run in the top of the 3rd. The Pirates only had 6 hits, but it is hard to get hits when the ball is hardly ever over the plate. Even with the pitch clock the game took 3 hours. The manufactured go-ahead run was a pleasure to watch. Ji Hwan Bae, who had a great game, walked to lead off the eighth inning. He then stole second and moved over to third on an excuse me sacrifice bunt by none other than Austin (Will I get a hit in April), Hedges. Oneil Cruz hit a deep sacrifice fly to score the go-ahead run. The bullpen with a little hiccup in each inning shut down the Reds and the opening day victory was ours.

Key moment Of The Game: Even though it was early, getting out of the bases loaded no out jam in the first inning with only 1 run scoring set the tone for the day. A walk sandwiched between two cheap hits loaded the bases. Then double play with a nice scoop by Santana. It is wonder what a real first baseman can do, isn’t it.? A pop out ended the inning and it just felt like this would be the Pirate’s day.

Next Game: Tomorrow Reds in Cincinnati. The line up had some interesting twists to it yesterday with Bae starting over Castro and Cruz leading off. The Pirate management looked like geniuses yesterday. I can’t wait to see what the Saturday line up will be, but for different reasons than I did in 22. In 2022 it would always be my belly laugh for the day. I just checked and see that Rich Hill is going to loosen up his creaky old bones on Saturday. Well, that at least gets my lips quivering.

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Pirates Morning Report: Opening Day

Today starts the 2023 season for the Pittsburgh Pirates as they face off against the Cincinnati Reds in Cincinnati. As I look at the 26 man roster, I am happy with the 13 position players on the team. The pitching staff is another issue but more on them later. I will still hold to the prediction that this team will contend for the division title. As I have written previously there are some unknowns that will determine just how well the Pirates will do. To summarize the unknowns, just how good a manager is Derick Shelton, will management actually try to win games this year, and if this team gets to August playing meaningful games for the first time, how will the players respond? There is also avoiding the disastrous injury. Already the Pirates have 3 pitchers on the shelf. I think the biggest lost is Jarlin Garcia, the free agent left-handed reliever they signed over the winter. He seemed to be a solid addition, but then he got a strange nerve injury to his left arm, to the point he cannot even pick up a ball. There is no telling when he might be back. J. T. Brubaker is on the shelf, but Johan Oviedo should fill in for him quite nicely. What would be considered a disastrous injury. If Mitch Keller, Roansy Contreras, Bryan Reynolds or Oneil Cruz would miss a significant amount of time due to injury, it would be devastating, and all bets are off. Let’s take a look at the position players that are going to start the season.

I like all the decisions that the Pirates made concerning who they kept on the team. Many thought that Travis Swaggerty should be on the team with the very good spring that he had. He has shown nothing in 3 years in the minors and one good spring is not going to change that. If he shows the same batting skills in the minors during the first month and someone is struggling or injured, I’m sure he would get the call up, but I am not sure he will continue to hit in AAA. I felt Jason Delay was the best choice as backup catcher but let’s face it, sending down Endy Rodriguez is strictly a player control move. A switch hitter who is hitting at every level and is a catcher who plays other positions, sure let’s send him down. Especially since we have the worst hitting catcher in all of baseball in Austin Hedges. He better throw out every runner, never have a passed ball, and pitchers better carry him off the field every game for the way he handled them. The team can be divided into two groups. The young and up and coming group. The old veteran group with a few in between. The young group include Oneil Cruz, Bryan Reynolds, Jack Suwinski, Ke’Bryan Hayes, Rudolfo Castro, Ji Hwan Bae, and Canaan Smith-Njigba. Many have stated that this group played a lot last year and the Pirates still did not win many games. The fact remains that this group, particularly the first 5, were rarely in the line up at the same time. The Pirate management team continued to put on the field, way below major league level players, just to ensure losing games. These 5 should be together almost every game with Bae and Smith-Njigba being key bench players. The old group is Andrew McCutchen 36, Carlos Santana, who will be 37 in April, Ji-Man Choi 32 in May, Conner Joe and Austin Hedges who both will be turning 31 during the season. The man in the middle is the backup catcher Jason Delay who is 28. This group needs to stay healthy and improve their play just a touch to make this team a contender. Nobody needs to have a career year. They just have to be a nice 2 WAR player and the Pirates will make a solid move forward. The good news here is that there are plenty of good young players down on the farm, if any of this group gets hurt or really falters. This group should be the steadying influence, if there are meaningful games to be played in August and September. They know what it is like to play in the heat of a pennant race. With the exception of Rodriguez, the Pirates are taking the 13 best players up North. They could not come close to saying that last year. Now for the pitchers, where I do not have the same warm fuzzy feeling.

Back in the fall I wrote that one of the prerequisites for the Pirates to be a contender would be that certain players should not be on the team. They have fulfilled that, except for good old Dwayne Underwood Junior, who will be referred to as DUJ, from this moment on. Now, maybe he is on the team because of other pitchers going down with problems, but this just points to the fact that the Pirates really did not do that much to shore up the bullpen during the offseason. The acquisition of Vince Velasquez is still one that has me scratching my head. There is nothing in his pedigree that suggests he is going to be an average Major League pitcher. He has a career ERA of 4.93 and ERA+ of 85. What I find interesting about him, and Rich Hill is that both have a lot of bullpen experience. Velasquez has relieved 47 times in his career and Hill has come out of the bullpen 129 times. That versatility may make them have a different role than expected as the season moves forward. More on Rich Hill later, but the fact remains that the Pirates are not famous for revitalizing anyone’s career, but maybe Velasquez will be the first. Despite these misgivings I think the bullpen will do alright. The Pirates have to make some 40-man roster moves even as I write this, but it appears that they are going to go with 2 lefties and the core from last year. I think the performances of Will Crow, Colin Holderman, and Chase De Jong will be a big key to the overall success of this bullpen. The starting rotation should do fine and if they don’t, then a lot of young arms are ready to be called up. This pitching staff is the real wild card on this team. They could really stink or be the real strength of this team.

It is very easy to see what the key to success for this team will be. First, the young players have to show some progress. It would be nice to see an upgrade in their play of around 10 to 20%. Second, the old group just needs to be themselves. The perfect example is Rich Hill. His 162 game average stats are 10 wins 7 losses an ERA of 3.85 and an ERA+ 111. Even if he does what he did last year, 8-7 with an ERA+ 98 the Pirates will be just fine. The same could be said of the rest of the veteran group. Carlos Santana has averaged about 19 homers the last 3 seasons. If he only has 2 during the first 60 games then the Pirates are in trouble. Andrew McCutchen’s on base percentage over the last 3 years has been .325. If at the 60 game mark his OBP is under 300 then the things are not going well. You get the picture. It is not a big ask but the veterans need to be themselves if the team is going to have success. Today is one of the great days in sport and I love the fact that it is just called Opening Day. Everyone knows what sport you are talking about without saying any more. The 162-game journey begins today.

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Baseball: The 100 Pitch Count

Baseball pitchers have been a fragile bunch. Over the last 10 years there have been an average of 16 Tommy John surgeries a year on Major League pitchers. Even though the success rate of this surgery is extremely high the rehab period is usually long and hard taking 12 to 18 months. Some pitchers have had to go through this twice. Because of this, organizations do everything they can to protect young pitchers and work them gradually up the ladder into the Major Leagues. When they get in the majors, the magic number seems to be 100 pitches per game. When a pitcher approaches this pitch count, no matter how he is doing, this becomes the time to take him out. There are some exceptions, and we will see these later in the blog, but 90% of the time this is the unwritten rule. Pitchers are taken out even when they are throwing a no hitter. Because of this, many fans and sportscasters wish for the good old days, when pitchers almost routinely pitched complete games, and would never be taken out if they were pitching well, let alone pitching a no hitter. This leads to the question of why do so many pitchers have arm problems today, even though they are monitored much more closely than they were 40 to 50 years ago. My answer to that is who cares, this is just the way things are at the moment. The quest should go on to find out what can be done to help avoid all of these arm problems. Until that happens, major league teams should accept the fact that this is the way it is now and do even more to protect their pitchers. Before we go into that, lets go back 35 seasons to 1988, the first year that pitch counts were on the stats in baseball reference.

Let us look at 5 pitchers from the 1988 season, Orel Hershiser, Frank Viola, the 2 Cy Young award winners, Roger Clemens, Greg Maddux, and Dave Stewart, 3 of the best pitchers from that era. We will look at games started, complete games, and average number of pitches per game. Hershiser started 35 games, completed 15 games, and averaged 101 pitches per game. One game he threw 153 pitches for his season high. Frank Viola started 35 games, completed 7, and averaged 106 pitches per game. Three times he threw 122 pitches and once 121. Roger Clemens was the big workhorse that year. He started 35 games completed 14 and averaged 119 pitches per game. He had one game where he threw 162 pitches and had 12 games of over 130 pitches. No wonder he took steroids at the end of his career. Greg Maddux started 34 games but there were 2 games where no pitch counts were recorded. For the 32 games they did he averaged 105 pitches per game and completed 9 of them. He had an 11 inning 167 pitch game and 6 others that were over 130. Dave Stewart pitched 37 games, completed 14 and averaged 114 pitches per game. Now we head to 2022 and start with Sandy Alcantara the current Cy Young award winner. Alcantara started 32 games, completed 6, averaging 102 pitches per game. His highest pitch count was 117. Gerrit Cole started 33 games, completing 0, and averaged 99 pitches per game. His highest count was 118. Corbin Burnes started 33 games, completing 0, and averaged 99 pitches per game. The most pitches he threw in a game was 115. The stats are about the same for every well know starter in baseball last year. Even though they rarely completed a game their pitch counts did not average that much less than the pitchers in 1988, even though the complete game was much more common. The pitchers of 2022 were really never allowed to get their pitch count to a very high level as they did in 1988. One of the highest in 2022 was Miles Mikolas who threw 129 pitches trying to no hit the Pirates. This pales in comparison to the over 160 pitches that Clemons and Maddox threw that year. There is no question that it takes a lot more pitches today to accomplish the same thing that pitchers did in the 80’s. This is due to more batters being selective or to put it another way, begging for walks. This is the way it is in baseball at the present, and teams should change the way they think about how pitchers should pitch and on how much.

The above data shows that pitchers today get a lot less done on about the same number of pitches. Now it takes about 100 pitches to get through 6 to 7 innings. Pitchers back in the 80’s could complete a game on about the same number. Teams need to make 100 pitches the max any pitcher throws regardless of the situation. This would be the most effective way to help preserve pitching arms. This policy will also help them be more pitcher ready for the playoffs. Another thing that would help pitchers is to abandon the so called waste pitch. If you have a batter down no balls and 2 strikes, just challenge the guy and be damned about the results. In today’s environment every pitch is precious. You got two strikes on the batter get the third one and if he hits hit it out, he hits it out, who cares. The old way of thinking about an 0-2 count has got to stop. Pitchers need to think about throwing strikes on every pitch and forget about burying one in the dirt. It is the only way that pitchers have any chance of going deeper into games than they are now. Here is one last curiosity about pitch counts. How many days rest does a pitcher need if throws 50 pitches. I have often thought what if teams limit pitchers to 50 pitches a game and just start rotating them in the game. Forget about the role playing that pitchers do today. The average number of pitches thrown in a game is about 150. That would mean about 3 pitchers per game. With 12 to 13 pitchers on most teams, that means they would throw about every 4 games. They might even be able to cut that down with more aggressive pitching, by eliminating the waste pitch. Of course, starting pitchers would not like this idea, but in the long run it might be the most effective way to prevent runs. I would love to see some team put this into play. Tampa Bay are you listening? Twelve to thirteen pitchers just rotating through the games every 4 to 5 days. Even though this is unlikely to happen, teams still need to apply the 100 pitch mode as a hard and fast rule. In the long run this will save arms and may make your staff one of the best in the playoffs.

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Pirates Mid-March Report

Spring Training is in full swing with opening day 17 days away. Already the Pirates have a big injury with Jarlin Garcia going down with some kind of unexplained arm injury where he cannot even grip the baseball. Who knows the outcome of this one. He would have been a big part of the bullpen. He had been a solid left hand bullpen guy with no history of arm issues in the past. His injury is not changing my mind about this team being a contender, but it is a blow, none the less. Ke’Bryan Hayes seems to be as fragile as ever, with now a thumb injury being the culprit, but until proven otherwise, I am going to remain optimistic about him and his ability to play a full season. I am not as confident, injury or no injury, that he will become an above average hitter. If he would, then that would be a great asset to add to his superb fielding. The only other thing of note, it does seem like Travis Swaggerty is making some noise this spring. This is a number 1 pick who has done nothing, up to this point, to warrant him playing in the majors. I think the Pirates missed a big opportunity last year in not bringing up for about 2 months, and showing what he could do. Even if Swaggerty continues to have a good spring, I doubt seriously he will beat out Canaan Smith-Njigba for a roster spot. If anything, because they are so thin at outfield, they may wind up keeping both of them. It will be interesting to see if he gets a legitimate shot. Even though the Pirates have given up a lot of runs this spring, the pitchers that you expect to be on the team are doing well. Most of the runs that are being given up are by pitchers that won’t be on the opening day roster. For the most part Spring Training is going well, especially for the starting pitchers.

The main purpose of Spring Training is to get ready for the regular season. It is to stay healthy and work on your game. Despite this, I still read things trying to put significance on spring training performances. They are absolutely 100% meaningless, with so many examples that I am not bothering to even write about them. What Travis Swaggerty is doing in these games I put no stock in. I will be happy to be wrong about this concerning him. The Pirates can always use a bat that is a decent fielder. I think the players are working nicely toward their goal of getting out of the gate well, with the intention of setting up a winning attitude for this team. I am making no real speculation on who is going to be on the opening day roster. We will know this soon enough and then I will give an opinion on how I feel about who is going up North. I will blog about the team a couple of days before opening day and then the Pirate Morning Report will start once again giving a synopsis of each game in a brief concise no holds barred format, sparing no punches. It will be a new year and thing, with the Pirates trying to win games for the first time in about 22 months.