Today's Game: First pitch is at 4:10 and will be aired on AT&T SportsNet & 93.7 The Fan.
Lineup: Adam Frazier 2B; Phil Evans 3B; Bryan Reynolds CF; Colin Moran 1B; Jake Stallings C; Gregory Polanco RF; Erik Gonzalez SS; Ka'ai Toms LF; Chad Kuhl P. It's a mystery to us why Shelty won't use his best four players in the same lineup after waiting so long to get them all back.
Pitchers: RHP Chad Kuhl (0-3/5.61) vs. RHP Corbin Burnes (3-4/1.97 ERA). Chad's making his third start since coming off the IL, and he's shown more control and efficiency on his return. But he's still got to prove himself; his FIP has gotten higher every season he's been in the league. The good news is that he's been excellent against the Brew Crew: in nine career outings (eight starts), he's 4-0/2.12 and his first MLB win was at Miller Field in 2016. This year, he's gotten a no-decision in one start v Milwaukee, giving up three runs in five innings in April. Burnes is following a strong 2020 campaign with an even better 2021 season. He's given up two or fewer runs in 10 of his 12 starts with a .708 WHIP, and last year he was 1-0/2.38 with 17 K in 11-1/3 IP over two starts v the Buccos.
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| Kells will have to figure it out at Indy - photo Dave Arrigo/Pirates |
Notes:
- RHP Mitch Keller has been optioned to Indy (pitching coach Joel Hanrahan is highly regarded; we'll see if he can rebuild Mitch) and RHP Trevor Cahill will go back on the 10-day IL (left calf). RHPs Wil Crowe and Geoff Hartlieb were called up to take their spots.
- Ke'Bryan Hayes extended his hitting streak to nine games last night while Adam Frazier's 13-game string ended.
- The Pirates have now lost five straight games. They've gone 11-28 since being a game above .500 (12-11) in late April.
Tomorrow's Game: The finale begins at 2:10 with Wil Crowe expected to go against Adrian Houser. The match will be carried by AT&T SportsNet & 93.7 The Fan.
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ReplyDeleteThe Keller demotion was overdue and richly deserved. We'll see if I am right about this, but I suspect Keller is the first domino to fall and that there will soon be others, particularly if the Pirates keep losing at their current pace. To be sure, all of the injuries definitely hurt this year's team, but there have also been some glaring underachievers.
ReplyDeleteIt looks to me like Gregory Polanco is finished. A real shame, because while he was never going to be great, he had a power-speed combo that was very appealing even if he never hit for much of an average. But he's down to the Mendoza Line and it's time to pull the plug on him.
Kevin Newman tore the cover off the ball all spring and of course he wasn't going to keep that up in the regular season, but he's now at nearly 1,000 major league at bats, and while he hit .300 in half of those at bats (the 2019 season), he's hit around .215 in the other half. And like Polanco, he is definitely trending in the wrong direction. It's probably too soon to give up on him just yet, but if any viable alternatives start playing well in the upper minors, I think he'll be on the pine at minimum (and probably out the door this coming offseason).
Chad Kuhl is a guy I always liked. He throws hard and is a definite competitor. I know he had the TJ surgery and it takes time to come back from that, but he is another one who is too old and too experienced to be struggling as badly as he is.
Eric Gonzalez gets a bit of a mulligan because he is generally thought of as a utility guy, and so expectations are lower. But---cue the broken record---he is yet another young veteran Pirate who is in what ought to be the prime of his career and yet just is not getting it done. As you know I was a Newman fan coming into this season, but even I have to admit that Gonzalez would probably be the starting shortstop by now if he had done diddly-squat to this point in the campaign (he hasn't).
To tie this up into a nice, neat package: coming into this year I saw no reason to blow this team up to the point of non-competitiveness, and Ron, you and I talked about this before and we agreed that as the Opening Day roster looked on paper, the 2021 Pirates appeared to be a team that would avoid not just 100 losses, but 90 as well, which would put them in the 75-ish wins territory---not bad during a rebuild and competitive enough given the circumstances. But things are not going according to plan. If they're going to keep stinking like this, they might as well get what they can for everybody worth trading and get on with it.