Tag: sports

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Pirates Morning Report: All Star Break, Part One

The Pirates made it to .500, 48-48 thanks to a finishing 4 game winning streak. The Pirates are 7-0 against the Marlins and the White Sox. I will never belittle those wins. The Marlins beat the Reds in the last game before the break. This does beg the question, did the Pirates really improve, or did they take advantage of poor competition. In the 3 phases of the game, hitting, pitching, and defense, let’s see what happened. They got a lot better pitching, stayed the same hitting, and surprisingly got worse on defense since we last took a look at the Pirates, 31 games ago. Let us look at the team numbers first. The offense continues to stink but at least they did not get worse. If you listen to the broadcast booth you would think this team is ready to become the 27′ Yankees. Dream away child. In runs scored they are still at 20th in the league at 4.19 runs per game. In on base percentage they have fallen to 27th from their lofty perch of 24th. In the comparison stat OPS+ there are now only 2 teams in all of baseball that hit worse than they do. There is no question their pitching has gotten them to .500. They showed vast improvement in every category. In runs allowed they went up to 14th from 19th. In fielding independent pitching, they had a huge improvement going up to 7th in baseball from 19th. In the comparison stat of ERA+ they went up two places to 12th. Going through each position and area according to WAR the Pirate rotation is hitting elite status as they are ranked 3rd in all of baseball. Too bad the rest of the team can’t even come close to that. The next highest ranked position is left field where Bryan Reynolds has played the most at 12th. Where the Pirates stink the most is centerfield (30th), pinch hitting (26th), catcher (25th), right field (22th), and the bullpen (22nd). Then we come to what I feel is the most disappointing part of this Pirate team the defense. In defense efficiency which takes in all aspects of a team’s defense not just errors, the Pirates now are 25th, falling 8 places. Essentially, they are one of the worst fielding teams in the league.

Looking at the individual players here are the culprits that are having horrible offensive seasons up to this point. OPS+ is the comparison stat on how a player compares with his constituents. It takes into consideration the run scoring environment, the competition and the ballpark the player plays in. It comes out simply a whole number with 100 being league average. Being a league average hitter is absolutely fine and if the Pirates had about 8-9 hitters at league average or above, they would probably be in first place. Here are the Pirate players that probably could not get a hit even if there were only 5 players on the field. Their OPS+ is in parenthesis. Yasmani Grandal (42), Ke’Bryan Hayes (74), Michael Taylor (53), Jared Triolo (59), Jack Suwinski (63), Henry Davis (45), and Alika Williams (48). With the exception of Hayes, these players are hitting at a rate of 37 to 48% worse than the league average. Even though I know this won’t happen, there is not one single reason that I can think of for these players to be on the team when play resumes after the break. More on that in part 2. Even with his hot 6 to 7 weeks Rawhide Rowdy Tellez sits at 92. What Rowdy are we going to see after the break. The April May Rowdy or the June July Rowdy. The other aspect of the Pirate game that will have to improve is the bullpen. You cannot be the 22nd best bullpen and make the playoffs. Hopefully the defense will improve just by the normal course of events.

Finally let’s set the record straight. This is not the second half of the season. The season is 60% over. The Pirates have played 96 games and there are 66 games to go. With the expanded playoffs the last two years, 87 and 84 wins have made the final playoff spot. Both years that final playoff spot made it to the World Series. Let’s compromise here and say it will take 86 wins to make the playoffs. The Pirates would need to go 38-28 to get to that point. I do not see that happening in the team’s current state. In my view the Pirates need 2 outfielders, a catcher, and at least on more bullpen arm. How they will go about that or even if they will go about that will dictate how this season will go. Part 2 on Friday.

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Pirates Morning Report: Bending But Not Breaking

Final Score: Pirates 1 Dodgers 0

Why The Pirates Won: Jared Jones and the Pirate bullpen combined to shut out the Dodgers despite allowing a lot of traffic on the basepaths. The Dodgers got a runner to 3rd in 5 innings and a runner on 2nd one other inning. They were a Pirate like 0 for 12 with runners in scoring position and stranded 9 runners. Jared Jones pitched 6 innings giving up 3 hits, 3 walks, striking out 6. He finished strong retiring the last 6 batters he faced striking out 4 of them, throwing his last pitch of the game at 99 MPH. The bullpen had its shaky moments as we will see but came through when it mattered to preserve the shutout and the win. The anemic offense of the Pirates scored their only run on a Jack Suwinski home run in the 3rd inning. They only managed 3 other hits while striking out 13 times. Rawhide Rowdy despite his big game on Sunday was certainly hearing the boo birds last night. I guess one game does not erase a season of awfulness. At least the Pirates won’t be swept by the Dodgers.

The Key Moment Of The Game: Aroldis Chapman came in for the top of the 8th and immediately I had trouble breathing. On the 5th pitch Shohei (I Am Very Trusting) Ohtani hit a seeing eye ground ball through the infield. Miraculously Chapman got a called 3rd strike on Freddie Freeman that was low. Then he walks Will Smith on 4 pitches. Breathing very shallow at this point with my brain thinking he is going to walk the next 2 batters. On the first pitch Teoscar Hernandez hit a down the middle slider 107 MPH that Chapman thought had left the park but was caught by Jack Suwinski 380 feet from homeplate. This did move Ohtani to 3rd. Chapman struck out Andy Pages on 6 pitches and I collapsed on the floor. Sweet Jesus a miracle had happen. On the 2nd pitch of the at bat Henry Davis made a nice stop on a fastball that was way low and inside to the right-handed batter that kept the tying run from scoring. The Pirates pulled out a tight tense game. Fortunately, Shelton did not have to make many moves. He did have, of all people, Hunter (Christ I Hope I Don’t Get In) Stratton warming up in the 6th inning. Unbelievable!

Next Game: Tonight, Dodgers in Pittsburgh. Paul Skenes will start tonight, and you have to wonder how long that even he can keep the Dodgers at bay. The Dodgers are sending lefty James Paxton to the mound, so Rawhide Rowdy won’t be hearing the boos tonight.

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Pirates Morning Report: What Is Derek Shelton Thinking?

Final Score: Pirates 4 Blue Jays 5

Why The Pirates Lost: This loss goes right on Derek Shelton, starting with the bizarre decisions he made in the bottom of the 5th inning, and continuing the rest of the game concerning the bullpen. More on that in the key moment of the game segment. The Pirate offense collected 11 hits and walked 4 times but could only score 4 runs. They left 13 men on base and were 3 for 16 with runners in scoring position. Rowdy (Of All People) Tellez had the big game driving in all 4 runs going 3 for 4 with a walk, to raise his average to .194. Is it an omen, that despite Tellez having his game of season, that the Pirates still lost. This lost left the Pirates with a record of 27-32, 9 games out of first place. When the Pirates had a chance to win a big series on the road, their manager played it like the season was over, and the Pirates were just playing out the string. Maybe that’s the way management looks at this team now. It is the only explanation for what happened in the bottom of the 5th inning.

Key Moment Of The Game: The Pirates had just taken the lead in the top of the 5th, 3-1 on a double by Rawhide Rowdy. In the bottom of the inning Quinn Priester gave up 2 singles to start the inning. He managed to get a pop out but gave up another single, making the score 3-2 Pirates, putting runners on 1st and 3rd with one out. Priester then got a big strikeout on Bo Bichette for the 2nd out. That’s when the Pirates headed into the Shelton Zone. Even with Priester’s history of really going south quickly, you could argue that he could have been left in to see if he could get out of the jam. Let’s give that the benefit of the doubt. I really did not have a big problem with lifting him. To bring in Hunter Stratton was totally asinine. The entire bullpen except for Luis Ortiz had not pitched since Friday. David Vogelbach was the batter. He is downright horrible against left hand pitching. We had at least, to my knowledge, two left handers in the bullpen. Aroldis Chapman and unless he has some unknown injury, Jose Hernandez, who has not pitched since May 23rd. Besides the fact that Hunter Stratton has been mostly ineffective, of all the relievers that were used in the 14 inning debacle he threw the 2nd most pitches. If a lefty would have been brought in, the Blue Jays might have pinched hit for Vogelbach. Would that have been so bad considering how Vogelbach has been hitting the Pirates. Needless to say, The Turtle rips a double to center field on a 1-2 pitch that was thrown right down the middle to score the tying and go ahead runs. Despite the fact the entire bullpen was well rested, Shelton allows Stratton to come out for the next inning to ensure that the Blue Jays score an insurance run. Then he brings in Carmen Mlodzinski who threw the most pitches of any member of the bullpen on Friday. For the 8th he brings in the most ineffective member of the bullpen Kyle Nicholas just to give the Blue Jays even more of a chance. The A team of the bullpen just sat on their behinds and won’t pitch until at least Tuesday with the Pirates off today. Rod Serling must have been smiling down from above to see his television show right on the baseball field. Cue the music please.

Next Game: Tuesday, Dodgers, in Pittsburgh. I am almost hoping for a Dodger blow out so Bednar can pitch the 9th so he won’t get rusty. Rowdy Tellez should still be DFA, over and out.

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Pirates Morning Report: Pirates Bounce Back For Solid Win

Final Score: Pirates 8 Blue Jays 1

Why The Pirates Won: Even though it took him 106 pitches, Mitch Keller pitched another solid 6 innings. He gave up 1 run on 5 hits, 1 walk, while striking out 8. Then Luis Ortiz piggy backed him with 3 very strong innings only allowing 1 hit, no walks, striking out 3 while throwing only 36 pitches. The bats came alive right in the 1st inning, highlighted by a Ke’Bryan Hayes 2 run homer to take a 3-0 lead right off the get go. The Pirates continued to add on, finishing strong by scoring 5 runs in the last 5 innings and collecting 11 hits for the game. It was hard to believe that this was the same team that played the night before. The Pirates will have a chance for a series win today.

Key Moment Of The Game: In the bottom of the 1st with Pirates just getting that 3-0 lead, Keller gave up a one out triple to Daulton Varsho. He walked Vladimir Guerrero Jr. on 5 pitches and the Blue Jays had 1st and 3rd with one out. Keller struck out Bo Bichette on 3 pitches. This brought up Daniel (The Turtle) Vogelbach, the famous Pirate leadoff hitter. Can you believe that the Pirates had this guy leading off to start the 2022 season. Typical for The Turtle he did not swing at the first 5 pitches to work the count to 3-2. Unbelievably he swung at the 6th pitch which was out of the strike zone to strike out. If he had taken it in the usual Vogelbach fashion, the Blue Jays would have loaded the bases. Instead, Keller got out of the inning with no runs scoring. Keller did give up a run in the bottom of the 6th but by then the score was 6-0 Pirates.

Next Game: This afternoon, Blue Jays in Toronto. This will wrap up this brief road trip and determine if it will be a winning or losing road trip. The Pirates in their own goofy way still have not announced the starting pitcher. I almost don’t want to know. The Sunday goofy lineup may be at its peak today. Well, I just looked on the website and they say it will be Quinn Priester. Who is going down? Only the Shelton knows for sure. I wish I could just understand their thinking. Tuesday starts a homestand against the Dodgers and the Twins. They need to get their act together now.

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Pirates Morning Report: Pirates More Inept Than Blue Jays

Final Score: Pirates 3 Blue Jays 5 in 14 innings.

Why The Pirates Lost: From the bottom of the 9th on there were 11 times that a team had a runner on 2nd base with nobody out and they failed to score 6 times. The Pirates did not get a hit the last 8 innings of the game. The fundamental of situational hitting went out the window for both teams. Inept hitting was pretty much equal, although the Blue Jays did get a huge 2 out hit in the bottom of the 11th to tie the game 2-2. Of course, baseball fans would not have been put through such an appalling performance by both teams stretching out for 14 innings if Ji Hwan Bae had not lost a big high lazy fly ball in God knows what by none other than Daniel “The Turtle” Vogelbach, that tied the game 1-1 in the bottom of the 7th. All of this wasted another solid performance by Bailey (It Was Shelton’s) Falter again. Over 6 innings he gave up 2hits and 2 walks throwing only 81 pitches. Shelton then decides to take him out for a bullpen that stinks. Sure enough, the combination of Colin Holderman and Ji Hwan (Blind As A Bat) Bae gave the Blue Jays their tying run. Five of the Pirate starters hung big O for collars led by Connor Joe going 0 for 6. Grandal and Reynolds were next going 0 for 5. Stop the presses Rawhide Rowdy did get a hit.

Key Moments Of The Game: If you count ineptness there were about 25 key moments to this game. No question the big hit by George Springer in the bottom of the 11th with 2outs to tie the game 2-2 kept the Blue Jays alive to play another mediocre 3 innings. What really hurt was it was on a 1-2 count. Hunter Strickland decided to throw a four-seam fastball right out over the plate. This was the 21st inept moment. The walk off homer to win the game again with 2 outs was huge, if for no other reason it put the fans out of their misery. The Pirates lost another game to a floundering team to put their record at a floundering 26-31

Next Game: This afternoon, Blue Jays in Toronto. Mitch Keller starts today and has looked great his last 4 outings. The interest is high for this game to see how many innings the Pirates can go without getting a hit. Right now, it stands at 8. The Blue Jays are throwing a lefty so it will be unlikely that Tellez will get 2 starts in a row, but with Shelton you never know. This guy rolls the dice like managing is gambling in Vegas, and not a thought out skill. He has the record to prove it too.

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Pirates Morning Report: Mind Boggling Last 6 Innings

Final Score: Pirates 5 Giants 9 in 10 innings

Why The Pirates Lost: Bryan Reynolds hit a grand slam home run in the bottom of the 4th to give the Pirates a 5-0 lead. From that moment on, the Pirates got one more hit, 2 walks, struck out 10 times and made 15 consecutive outs at one point. They did not get a hit from the 5th to the end of the game. Jared Jones pitched what I consider his standard outing now, 6 innings, 3 runs, with at least one home run. A good outing but certainly not phenom like. The bullpen thought they would get into the act by giving up 6 runs, 6 hits, but “only” 5 walks in 4 innings of work. In that 6 inning span the Pirates went from a team looking like they were going to win 3 in a row to a team that looks in total disarray. I don’t know what is worse, seeing them fill the bases and never scoring, or never getting on base period for a protracted period of time.

Key Moment Of The Game: Despite the horrible batting over 4 and 2/3 innings, the Pirates were clinging to a 5-4 lead going into the top of the 9th. Colin Holderman had limited the damage in the 8th when Aroldis Chapman walked the bases loaded to start the inning. Holderman allowed only one run to score which made the score 5-4. He got the first 2 outs in the top of the 9th. The count went to 2-2 to Luis Matos. He threw two sweepers in a row and Matos hit the 2nd one to left field for a base hit. Holderman opened the at bat by throwing a 99 MPH sinker. Reynolds booted the ball and Matos was able to make it to second. Holderman threw 3 straight sweepers to LaMonte Wade Jr. He ripped the third one to right field for a base hit to tie the game. Holderman threw a lot of sweepers in the 8th too, but when you have a 98+ MPH sinker why are you throwing the sweeper that much. Regardless, once the game was tied you knew it was over. The 10th was a disaster and the Pirates fell to 23-27. What a team!

The Next Game: This afternoon, the Giants in Pittsburgh. Paul Skenes goes today for the Pirates and hopefully they can secure a series win. The big bad Atlanta Brave are coming to town. They haven’t been that big or bad lately winning only 8 of their last 17 games. I don’t know if that is good or bad. Are they due to come out of this mild funk? Let’s hope not. That’s what makes last night lost sting even more.

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Pirates Morning Report: Send Down Suwinski, DFA Tellez PLEASE

Final Score: Pirates 5 Cubs 4

Why The Pirates Won: A battling start by Jared Jones as he struggled through 6 innings giving up 3 runs, 7 hits, walking 0, striking out 7 while throwing 91 pitches. There were only two 3 up 3 down innings, but when he needed an out Jones was able to persevere. The Cubs were only 1 for 5 with runners in scoring position. The bullpen did the job, with very encouraging performances by Aroldis Chapman and David Bednar. Chapman threw 17 pitches, with 12 being strikes in a clean 7th inning. Bednar had a 3 up 3 down 9th with not even a loud foul being hit off of him. The Pirates offense thanks to a misplay in right field had just enough to pull out this tight win. What was not encouraging was the performances of Rowdy (They Are Putting Me In For Defensive Purposes?) Tellez and Jack (6 Swings And Misses, 3 Called Strikes, 3 Foul Balls) Suwinski. By the way that adds up to 4 strike outs in 4 at bats. Neither one should be playing in the majors at the moment. It is hard to win games with only 11 position players. Somehow the Pirates managed to pull out this game to improve their record to 20-25.

Key Moment Of The Game: Going into the bottom of the 8th the Pirates were leading 5-3 when Colin Holderman took the mound. The first pitch he hit the batter. Cody Bellinger on an 0-2 pitch hit a little dribbler in front of the plate. Yasmani Grandal’s throw was not good, but our defensive specialist Mr. Tellez made a half ass effort on trying to catch the ball. It got past him allowing the Cubs to have runners on 2nd and 3rd with no outs. Holderman got the next batter to hit a sacrifice fly and the score was 5-4. From the Pirates point of view, Holderman miraculously struck out Ian Happ who crushes Pirate pitching. Just to make things interesting he walked the next batter and fell behind 2-0 on Nick Madrigal. He got 2 strikes and then Madrigal hit a weak ground ball up the middle that Alika Williams made a nice play on to end the inning. The Cubs scored a run without getting a hit, but it could have been much worse. Bednar pitched the magnificent 8 pitch 9th and the Pirates escaped with the win.

Next Game: This afternoon, Cubs in Chicago. Paul Skenes makes his 2nd start and hopefully will be able to lead the Pirates to the 2nd win of the series. Last night was a huge win for the Pirates but can they keep the momentum going in of all places Chicago. It will be hard, especially when you have only 11 major league players to choose from to start the game.

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Be The Czar Of Baseball

Daily writing prompt
What’s a job you would like to do for just one day?
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For one day I would love to be the Czar of baseball. I would have complete autonomy over the game and make the following changes. Add two more teams immediately making a 32 team league, forming four 8 team Divisions. The first year I would do it by geography. There would be no American and National League. The schedule would be entirely within the division. Each team would play each other 22 times going back to a 154 game schedule. With each team playing each other that many times a true division champ should be crowned. The divisions would be named Aaron, Ruth, Robinson and Clemente. At the end of the season the division winners would play each other in an eleven game series. The series would run 3, 3, 2, and 2. If after 10 games the series was tied then the team that scored the most runs in the series would have the home field advantage for game 11. If the runs are tied, then there would be other tiebreakers to determine home field. The World Series would be 11 games with the same format. The next year, the teams that finished 1, 3, 5, and 7 in the Aaron division would move over to the Ruth division. The teams that finished 2, 4, 6, and 8 in the Ruth division would move over to the Aaron Division. You would do the same thing in the Robinson and Clemente division. That would guarantee a new division winner in two of the divisions. The fans in each city would get to see four new teams. The following year the Aaron and the Robinson division would make the switch, along with the Ruth and Clemente. Third year Clemente-Aaron, and Ruth-Robinson would be making the switch. Fans would get to see different teams every year. This would put back more significance to the regular season with only 4 teams advancing to the playoffs. It is abundantly clear that baseball is not really a playoff sport with such a long season. For two straight seasons the National League has sent the 6th seed to the World Series. I can envision those tremendous 11 game series right now and crowning a true and deserving champion.

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Pirates Morning Report: It’s Time For Replacements.

Final Score: Pirates 2 Rockies 3

Why The Pirates Lost: You’re kidding right. The Pirates made the no brainer move, pun intended, sending down Henry Davis and recalling Yasmani Grandal. It is time for this management team to get some testicles and shake up this team. The replacements are ready and are hitting. Check out these slash lines and this is not a misprint. Ji Hwan Bae .414/.516/.577, Nick Gonzales .358/.420/.575 and Jake Lamb .394/.483/.606. Now I know this is AAA but all of these players are slugging well over .500 and Bae is getting on base more than he is making outs. Who would these guys replace. Try ANYBODY. For now, I will take Jack Suwinski, Jared Triolo, and Rowdy (Rawhide) Tellez. Last nights game had some mind boggling stats. Six innings the Pirates went 3 up 3 down. Six innings they failed to get a hit. Their hitting coach said it is all about the process. WELL, THEIR PROCESS STINKS DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. Their problems can be summed up by one pitch in the bottom of the ninth to Ke’Bryan Hayes. The first pitch was right down the middle. It couldn’t have been more down the middle and Hayes just looked at it for a called strike. That is one great process. The Pirates are now 14-19 losing their last 5 games. Here is the real scary thing. In the last three series, the Pirates have faced teams with worst records than theirs, when each series started. Their record is 1-6. Can’t wait to play the Dodgers and the Braves.

Key Moments Of The Game: Anytime a Pirate came to the plate. When the Rockies scored their first run on a home run you knew the game was over. Cruz did hit a home run in the bottom of 9th to make it close, but you knew they were going to lose.

Next Game: This afternoon, Rockies in Pittsburgh. Jared Jones will start for the Pirates. Jones is debating whether or not to fake an illness. He was seen in the locker room staring at 2-day old Sushi. He might have been thinking why are Suwinski and Tellez playing. What is the thinking here. I do not think there are going to be any miracles. There are 3 solid options in AAA. This team needs help. How about giving them some management.

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Pirates Morning Report: Thirty Two Games In

The Pirates stand at 14 wins and 18 losses. Talk about a tale of two halves. First 16 games 11-5, the last 16 games 3-13. I will take a look at the offense, defense and pitching. With all the stats and analytics today, it still boils down to three things when it comes to batting and pitching. Batting you have to get on base, score runs and then compare how you are doing with the rest of the league. The comparison stat is OPS+ with 100 being league average. This stat compares a batter with the rest of league based on the ballpark, competition and a variety of other factors. With pitching you have to be good at what you can control, home runs, walks and strikeouts. This is Fielding Independent Pitching known as FIP. As a pitcher you have to prevent runs and the comparison stat here is ERA+, again with 100 being league average. I always use Baseball References Defensive Efficiency to evaluate how a team is fielding. This takes in all aspects of fielding not just errors. Let us see how the Pirates shake out.

The Hitting: They are 15th in on base percentage, 21st in runs scored and 24th in OPS+. Quite frankly I thought they would be worse. All the runs they scored in the beginning of the season must have helped them score more runs than 9 other teams in baseball. These stats show that they are not that bad about getting on base but have not been able to take advantage. Right now, the Pirates have 5 players hitting above league average. A very small sample size Joey Bart (154), Connor Joe (140), the surprising Alika Williams (120) Bryan Reynold (115) and Ke’Bryan Hayes (101). On the opposite side of the spectrum, we have Henry Davis (44) Jack Suwinski (55), Jared Triolo and Rowdy Tellez each at 61. This means they are performing 39 to 56% below the major league average hitter. In my view all of these players are disappointing if not surprising. The biggest surprise here is Triolo. I thought he would have to perform like he did the last 2 months of the season for the Pirates to have success and he has not come close. As a whole the team has lacked power which was supposed to be a plus. There are only 4 teams that have hit less home runs than the Pirates. Ke’Bryan Hayes has been one of the disappointments here. The last 2 months of the season he slugged .501. So far this year it’s .345.

Pitching: The Pirate staff is 17th in FIP, 15th in runs allowed and 12th in ERA+. This time I thought the Pirates might be better. The rotation did get off to a slow start and the hitting bailed them out in the first 10 games or so. The Pirates are right in the middle of the pack with these key pitching stats. This has not been good enough to overcome the horrible hitting over the last 2 weeks. The Pirates have 3 starters that are above average, Martin Perez (144), Jared Jones (126), and Quinn Priester (122). Out of the bullpen, we have small sample size Colin Holderman (317), Josh Fleming (184), Hunter Stratton (136), Luis Ortiz (131), and Roansy Contreras (100). What is amazing that 2 pitchers with ERA+ well above 100 are in the minors, Ryder Ryan and Jose Hernandez. Missing from the list is Mitch Keller, Aroldis Chapman and David Bednar. Despite all the hype about Mitch Keller being the Pirate ace and what a great year he had last year, the truth is 2022 and 2023 were the same. His ERA+ was 104 for both years. This computes to being 4% better than the average starter in baseball. Nice, but not someone you want to pitch in game one of a playoff series. If this team is going to do anything Bednar and Chapman better get their act together even if they start to hit again.

Fielding: The Pirates are 12th in Defensive Efficiency. I thought they would do better, but this is still one of their highest positions. Part of the reason I don’t think they are better is because they have not played Michael Taylor enough. I know this team needs offense, but this is a premier centerfielder, and you need to play him, bat him 9th and take your lumps. He is not really doing that bad at the plate when you compare him to Tellez, Davis and Suwinski and they are either terrible or below average fielders. This is one aspect of the Pirates that needs to get better even though it is tied for the highest ranking of any phase of Pirate baseball at the moment.

What’s Next: I was going to speculate on what some of moves the Pirates might make. Trying to predict what this management team might or might not do is just about impossible. First of all, their bizarre batting orders and line ups are enough to drive you crazy. That could be an entire blog but let me give a couple of examples. When Andrew McCutchen is put in the lineup he should bat in one spot and one spot only, lead off. HE IS NOT A CLEAN UP HITTER. The opening game against the Giants they started Oneil Cruz against a left hander. The next night against a fire balling right hander he is on the bench. WHAT THE HELL IS THAT? Like everybody else I will just wait until later today to see if the Pirates are going to make any personnel changes. Looking ahead there is good news and there is bad news. The bad news is the Cubs, Brewers, and Reds are looking like they are going to make this a 3 team dog fight. That could be the good news too, if they keep knocking each other off. All three, unlike the Pirates, are looking like very good baseball teams. The good news is the Pirates cannot be this offensively inept all season or can they? Can Hayes get his power back? Can the whole team get their power back? Will Triolo start to hit? Will they start to get more both offensively and defensively out of the catcher’s spot. Will management start playing players that are performing and not players who are projected to perform? Will the bullpen mainstays Bednar and Chapman turn it around? Finally, what if any changes are going to come today? Only The Shelton knows. All the preceding questions need to be answered with a yes if this team is going to contend.