Lineup: Adam Frazier 2B, Gregory Polanco RF, Starling Marte CF, J-Bell 1B, Corey Dickerson LF, Fran Cervelli C, David Freese 3B, S-Rod SS & Kuhl P. Clint is hitting the reset button with the lineup, keeping Freeser and S-Rod on the card while Jordy (.171 last two weeks) and Colin Moran (.194) take a seat. The skipper said it was just a rest break for the infielders, and we believe him as Freese and Rodriguez are both hitting .190 over the past two weeks, so it can't be for the hot bat. Fraze, if you're wondering is hitting .194 over that time. Max Moroff is two-for-six since his recall; of course, he's who's sitting.
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| Mad Max waiting for his shot (photo Pittsburgh Pirates) |
Pitchers: RHP Chad Kuhl (2-1, 4.57) opens against RHP Jordan Zimmermann (1-0, 7.71). Chad was projected by many, including moi, to be the Pirates breakout hurler this season. So far, he's been making "fake news" charlatans of us all. Chad started in the Opening series against El Tigres; the Bucs won 8-6 as Cool Chad went 5-2/3 IP and was charged with four runs. Zimmerman is following a lousy 2017 campaign with a lousier 2018 season; he was the starter in March when the Pirates whupped the Tigers by a 13-10 count, giving up four runs in six frames. There should be some scoreboard action tonight; God knows the Buccaneers are due to run into a couple of pitches.
Notes:
- Don't let the earlier sweep get ya napping. Detroit has won 5-of-7; this will be the third straight series against teams that were on rolls.
- Joe Musgrove has gone through his two bullpen sessions without any problems and will toss a sim game tomorrow.
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| Joe Musgrove making progress (photo via MLB.com) |
- The Pirates played 13 straight games before yesterday's off date; they have 13 more consecutive contests before their next day off on May 7th, the first of three straight unscheduled Mondays that month.
- 19-year-old OF'er Calvin Mitchell of the WV Power, who fell to the Bucs in the second round of the 2017 draft, is on Baseball America's Hot Prospect list. He also made the MLB Pipeline Team of the Week.
- Jared Wyllys of The Sporting News has a piece on Gerrit Cole's sizzling start at Houston; Cole credits some of it to comparing notes with guys like Justin Verlander & Dallas Keuchel and some to no fear in missing his spot; he says he doesn't nibble as much as he did in Pittsburgh. He also has almost completely ditched his sinker, picking up the slack with more four-seam, slider and curve action.
- The Rockies called up RHP Brooks Pounders, who the Bucs traded in 2011 to KC for Yamaico Navarro. Brooks has two seasons/24 outings in the bigs, with the Royals and the Angels, where he averages better than a K an inning, but has also given up 10 HR in 23 IP, yikes.
- 32-year-old Matt Hague, who had signed a minor league deal with Seattle, was released from the Mariners AAA Tacoma club after hitting .226.
- Cincy native Dave Parker was part of the "Parkinson's Awareness Give Back Night" held by the Reds at GABP tonight.
Ya know, I always thought somebody would give Hague a look in the bigs, given his generally pretty good body of work in Triple-A and given how weak the first base position has been around the majors for some years now. But he's managed a grand total of just 84 big league AB's, nearly all of them in a cup of coffee with the Pirates in 2012. I would imagine that he is probably angling for some kind of coaching, managing, or front office position given that he is still playing in the minors at age 32---well past the point at which he is anything other than an emergency callup if someone gets hurt.
ReplyDeleteCould be, Will - he prob makes a little more than the average MiLB'er as a depth piece, but that's not saying much. I thought he could be a James Loney type at first given a shot, but teams like 1B who can lose a few baseballs. Steve Pearce had a little muscle and it got him 12 big league seasons, albeit as a bench guy.
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