Bucs At the Break

On June 25, the Pirates sat at 36-40, had come off of a recent seven game losing streak, were continuing to parade a string of minor league pitchers out of the bullpen, and were about to embark upon a series of thirteen games against teams with better records than they had (Astros, Brewers, and Cubs).  The potential certainly existed for the Pirates to totally blow themselves out of any hopes of contending for post-season positions.  

And it certainly looked that way when they dropped that opening game of the stretch to former teammate Gerrit Cole and the Astros.  However, they bounced back with two blowout wins over the Astros, and finished up that thirteen game span leading up to the All Star Break with a record of 8-5.  They are still in fourth place in the NL Central, but they are only 2.5 games out of the wild card spot, and, more significantly, only 2.5 games out of first place in the division.  And they have won many of these games in simply amazingly exciting ways.  

I have to admit, I did not see them coming through this stretch as they have.  After the Break, they face another thirteen games against teams above them in the standings, Cubs, Phillies, and Cardinals.   If they can fashion another 8-5 record, or better, in those games, then you have to think that the Front Office will simply HAVE to make an effort to add a piece or two to put the team into a position to make a run for a playoff spot.

They have gotten to this point mainly with an unbelievably potent offense, led by the two guys you see above, Brian Reynolds and Josh Bell.  Reynolds, came to the team in the Andrew McCutchen trade two years ago and is a solid candidate for  Rookie of the Year honors.  In 67 games, he is hitting .342 with 7 HR, 33 RBI, and an OPS of .950.  Bell has been other worldly this season.  In 88 games, he is hitting .302 with 27 HR, 84 RBI (best in all of MLB), and a 1.024 OPS, and while it is totally unfair to make such a comparison, he is having  they type of season the likes of which I have not seen with the Pirates since Willie Stargell was in his prime.  I was in attendance at Friday's game and saw him hit a three run home run that was LOUD off of the bat, with an impossibly high arc to it, and that cleared the PNC Park right field stands with ease.  The only word for it was "majestic".  Even thought he Pirates ended up losing that game, it was worth everything to be there just to see that home run.

I am still concerned with the Pirates pitching.  Starting pitching, thought to be the strong point coming not the season, has been wracked by injuries and inconsistencies.  The bullpen, save for Felipe Vazquez, has been terrible, as pitchers like Geoff Hartleib, Montana DuRapau, and Doyvadas Neverauskas keep getting trotted out and getting pummeled.  Something has to be done to improve upon the pitching staff if the team is to contend.

In any event, this team has earned the right to be watched closely, and I, for one, am looking forward to see how these next thirteen games evolve.

#letsgobucs

Josh Bell On Fire

Before the baseball season goes any further, The Grandstander just has to stop and pay a brief tribute to Pirates first baseman Josh Bell.  

Here's is how 2019 has started for him:

Games - 43

At Bats - 162

BA - .333

Runs - 30

Home Runs - 14

RBI - 43

OPS - 1.106

It is unfair to say this about any young player, but he has been invoking memories of Willie Stargell this season.

Awesome. Wow!

The Pirates at the 20% (actually 19.1%) Mark

I have always said that I would wait until a team played about 30 games, and batters accumulated around 100 at bats, and pitchers got a reasonable amount of innings under their belts before making any pronouncements on a team and a season.  Well we are now at that point.  The Pirates have played 31 games and sit at 16-15, good for fourth place in the NL Central, three games behind the first place Cubs.

They got to this point with, thus far, three distinct periods of this still young season.

The started at 12-6 and sat in first place.  This was sparked by unbelievably terrific starting pitching from Jameson Taillon, Trevor Williams, Chris Archer, Joe Musgrove, and Jordan Lyles.  It also featured some, shall we say, "uneven" work from the bullpen with set-up guys Richard Rodriguez and Keone Kela coughing up leads that they were brought in to protect, often times by giving up soul-crushing home runs.  Still, 12-6 was good for first place at that time.

There then followed an 0-8 tailspin wherein the starting pitchers regressed a bit and the hitters failed to, well, hit.  More on that later.

They have just completed a five game stretch where they have gone 4-1.

Before looking at the shortcomings, let's focus on three guys who have more than held their own.

The offensive performance of Josh Bell was a big question going into the season, and he has more than delivered.  He is batting .287 and leads the team with 8 home runs and 25 RBIs.  His OPS is .981.  Can't ask for much more than that.  Critics keep mentioning that he is less than elegant defensively at first base, to which I say, if he keeps hitting like this, the Pirates will live with his shortcomings with the leather.  I always said that if Pedro Alvarez could only have managed to hit .260 or so, he'd still be playing at first for the Pirates. (Well, he would have been gone by now via trade or free agency because the Pirates wouldn't have paid the going rate, but you get my drift.)

All-Star reliever Felipe Vazquez has been absolutely lights out as the team's closer. In fourteen games and 15.2 IP, he is 1-0 with a 0.57 ERA, 26 K to only 5 BB, and nine saves in nine opportunities.  He would probably have even more saves but for the performances of Rodriguez and Kela alluded too above.

And then there is rookie outfielder Brian Reynolds.

Reynolds came to the Pirates from the Giants in the Andrew McCutchen trade last year.  He should probably still be in Triple-A, but injuries forced the Pirates to bring him to Pittsburgh.  He has responded by hitting in his first eleven games, and batting .405 (albeit in only 37 ABs) with one HR and four RBIs.  He will undoubtedly cool off, but until then, he's not leaving Pittsburgh any time soon.

Now, what are the concerns?

Injuries.  The Pirates have had a litany of guys on the Injured List, including starters and guys expected to play  big roles like Corey Dickerson, Starling Marte, Gregory Polanco, and Lonnie Chisenhall.  Now starting pitchers Taillon and Archer are on the IL, so what has been the strength of the team, it's starting pitching, now has some big question marks.

Lack of offense.  It is at the point where if the Pirates fall behind by three or four runs, there is almost no hope that they have what it takes to overcome such a deficit.  consider these batting averages:

Adam Frazier .257

Colin Moran .239

Starling Marte .211

Cole Tucker .208

Jung Ho Kang .146 (with 30 Ks in 82 ABs)

Francisco Cervelli .176

Too many weak spots in that batting order for any team to contend.  It is a batting order that forces its pitchers to hold the opponents to two or fewer runs a game, and that is just not sustainable over 162 games.

A word on Cole Tucker.  Like Reynolds, he was brought up from Indianapolis, probably too soon, due to injuries on the big club.  He probably needed to get a couple of hundred AB's in Indy this season before advancing to Pittsburgh, but he does appear to be the real goods, a kid well worth that first round draft selection in 2014.  He is over matched at times by NL pitching right now, but he can and will hit, and for sure he is a major league short stop defensively right now.   He may well be the next "Face of the Franchise" for the Pirates.

Conclusions?  Well, they now sit at 16-15, and appear to be a team that will be flirting with that .500 mark throughout the season.  My Las Vegas bet in January, that the Pirates will win "Over 79.5 Games" will probably not be decided until the last week of September, which will certainly cause me to maintain interest right to the end.

The Grandstander will check in once again at the One-Third Pole, or fifty-four game mark, of the season.

Josh Bell ARRIVES!!!!!!

It was my plan to do The Grandstander's traditional "Bucs at the Break" post later this evening or tomorrow morning, and I will do that, but I cannot let any more time pass without commenting on the unbelievable debut this weekend of Pirates prospect Josh Bell.  You know the story - Bell brought up just to provide an extra bat off of the bench for the final three game series against the first place Cubs before the All-Star Break, just in case they need a pinch hitter, and he'll be headed back to Indianapolis after the weekend.

The debut on Friday was nice - a first pitch pinch hit single off of no less than Jake Arietta, that contributed to a rally that led to a Pirate victory.  Nice story, but what happened last night topped that.  

Sent up as a pinch hitter with the bases loaded in the fifth, and the Pirates holding a one run lead, Bell parks one on the river walk over the right field grandstand.  Grand slam!  And a close, back-and-forth game becomes a rout in the Bucs favor.

So far here's the log on Bell: 2 AB, 4 pitches faced, 2 hits, 2 runs scored, 1 HR, 4 RBI, 1.000 BA, 3.500 OPS.

Yeah, I'm having a little fun with the numbers here.  Two at bats doesn't even qualify as a "small sample size", but still, what an impressive debut.   Has any Pirate EVER had a better one?

And how do you send this kid back to Indy?

 (Photos courtesy of the Pittsburgh Pirates.)

Pirate Chat Goes to Altoona

Thanks to Pirate Chat member Tom Elling, it was "Pirate Chat Night"  (it was even recognized as such in the game program!) at People Natural Gas Park in Altoona, PA last night.  A group of twenty Pirate Chatters....

gathered on a beautiful late Spring evening.....

and watched the Pirates Double-A affiliate pound out 13 runs on 17 hits and defeat the Binghampton Mets, 13-4.

We got to see Curve pitcher Jacob Creasy boost his record to 6-0, and we saw highly touted Pirate prospect Josh Bell...

collect three hits and a bases loaded walk.  When Bell finally arrives at PNC Park in 2017 or so, I will now be able to say, in the tradition of my late grandfather, Bill Madden, "I seen that kid when he was a bush leaguer!"

As with most minor league ball games, the game itself was the least of the evening.  Last night was "Star Wars Night", as witnessed by these sights:

Star Wars Night also featured Curve players wearing special uniform shirts with Jabba the Hut on them.  Thankfully, I was unable to get a close-up photo of these, because they may well have been the ugliest shirts ever worn by a professional baseball team.

And coming up in July - "Bania Mania Night" featuring the guy who played comedian Kenny Bania on "Seinfeld".  Marilyn said that on the inside of the door of the stall she used in the ladies room, there was poster of Kenny Bania!  Think about that - Kenny Bania on the INSIDE OF A STALL DOOR IN A REST ROOM.  Creepy.

All in all, it was faun evening, marred only by the fact that what should have been a two hour trip took us three and half hours.  Thanks to our friends at PENNDOT, a small section of Route 22 being resurfaced in Murrysville,  it took us one hour to traverse about a four mile stretch of that road.  We then encountered a huge back-up getting off of I-99 in Altoona, that then took us another forty minutes to go about a mile.  We missed the top of the first inning, but all was well that ended well.  

I will close with a look at the signature view from the Curve's beautiful ball park in Altoona.

Gerrit Cole Arrives, and Other Pirates Thoughts

Gerrit Cole, the young man who was the subject of so much sturm und drang  on Facebook's Pirate Chat and other social media when he was sent to the minors at the close of Spring Training, will make his debut as a Pirates this coming Tuesday when he starts against the San Francisco Giants.   This start will come just a little over two years after Cole was selected by the Pirates with the overall Number One selection in the major league entry draft.  Despite all the criticism - much of it coming from this particular Grandstand, I admit - of the Pirates and the NHR for keeping guys in the minor leagues too long, Cole's ascension to a starting pitching assignment, against the defending World Series Champs, no less, has been remarkably swift.  In the grand scheme of things, Cole's "long-awaited" debut, will not have taken all that long after all.

I had promised myself that when Cole did make his first start, I would be at PNC Park to see it.  Turns out that Tuesdays happen to be our Caring Place night, so, alas and alack,  I will not be there to usher in the Gerrit Cole Era.  Perhaps this is a good thing, because I recall being at Three Rivers Stadium for the debuts of both Doug Frobel and Chad Hermansen, so Cole doesn't need that particular mojo going for him.  The DVR will be cranked up and I will rush home to see what I hope will be the first of Cole's 200 wins, give or take a few, that he will register for the Pirates over the course of his career.

******

It was a tough week for the Bucs who after taking 3 of 4 from the Tigers, were swept by the Braves and lost 2 of 3 to the Reds.  At the beginning of that stretch, I had wished for a 5-5 record, but I'll take 4-6.  They will have to do better against the Reds in future match-ups, but the important thing is that there WILL be more games against the Reds this season, and remember, the Pirates are 4-3 against them so far in '13.  And, of course, there are still a lot of games to be played against the Cardinals, who don't seem to ever lose a game. 

It also looked like the best cure for such a stretch was a three game series against the Cubs, as the Pirates go for a sweep today.

******

Speaking of the Major League Entry draft,  the Pirates selected 41 players this week, many of whom will be selling insurance or coaching high school baseball five or so years from now (as will most guys drafted by the other 29 MLB teams), but it will be fun to see which guy drafted after the 30th round will catch fire and become the Next Big Thing in the Pirates system and, we hope, at PNC Park someday.  Wasn't Dave Parker drafted after the 30th round?  And, of course, all eyes will be on the two first round choices, OF Austin Meadows and C Reese McGuire.  As high schoolers, they are a long way from Pittsburgh and PNC Park, but the potential of big things lie ahead for both of them, and, as I said, it will be fun following them along the way.

******

I am ready for the following headline when young Mr. Meadows becomes a Pirate and has his first multi-home run game:

AUSTIN POWERS BUCS TO BIG WIN

Of course, by the time Meadows finally does arrive in Pittsburgh, the pop cultural reference to "Austin Powers" will be completely lost to everyone reading the newspaper, if, indeed, there still are newspapers then.

******

Sticking with the theme of Pirates draft choices,  one of the more intriguing story lines over the past two seasons has been that of Stetson Allie.  You all know the story, a high school pitcher who could throw at close to 100 mph, Allie was drafted in the second round in 2010, right behind Jameson Taillon, given first round bonus money ($2 Million) to sign, but then bombed as a pitcher to the point where the Pirates decided to make him  a first baseman.  In 2012, Allie didn't do much of anything, and he was starting to look like another very expensive bust of a draft pick, but in 2013 playing in Low Class A West Virginia, Allie has become Babe Ruth:

AB - 224

BA - .326

HR - 16

RBI - 55

OPS - 1.016

But here is the curious thing.  If you go to the Pirates website, you can link into the the Pirates "Top 20" minor league prospects to follow how they are doing, and Allie does not appear in the Top Twenty.  I am not sure what this means.  It could be that he is #21 on the list and will crack it once Cole get promoted, or it could mean that he is the next Brad Eldred. Whichever it is, it will be fun to watch the Stetson Allie Story play out over the next couple of seasons.

******

One of Allie's teammates in West Virgina, OF Josh Bell, is on that Top 20 list, and is ranked at Number Six.  His numbers in 231 AB's are as follows...BA of .277 with 8 HR, 45 RBI, and an .815 OPS.  Good, but not as good at the numbers Allie has posted.  Again, I don't know what it all means.