Skenes Was Not Enough

 

Rowdy Tellez is the Sam Travis of Daniel Vogelbachs. So that's one of the reasons the Pirates are in last. 

It's upsetting, because this was a better Pirates team than the last few, and there were more strides forward than usual, but in a year where the NL Central as a whole wasn't very good, someone had to come in last, and despite a great deal of effort, it was going to be the Pirates. Because even as they were competing, they were still plugging Rowdy Tellez, Yasmani Grandal, David Bednar and Michael Taylor into crucial roles. Michael Taylor can do cool things every once in a while, but he hits .200 or less every year while doing it. Tellez is a decent power bat, but he strikes out way more than he actually connects, and even then his power material was not great this year. Grandal was clearly past his prime this year. Bednar's injury made him a liability, and it took the Pirates way too long to yank him out of the closing role. 

Again, considering that one of their other options was Aroldis Chapman, I kinda see why they weren't racing to, but...it's telling. 

And all the while you get Jalen Beeks, Bryan de la Cruz and Isiah Kiner-Falefa to help you and only Beeks really does. De la Cruz has had some good moments, but he's only hitting .206. IKF, despite a return to prominence in Toronto, is only hitting .246 with 10 RBIs. Then Ke'Bryan Hayes, who's already struggling, gets hurt, Joey Bart is on and off the IL, Marco Gonzales gets hurt again and Jack Suwinski once again just can't hit for average. Every time you think this team has the necessary tools to get things going, something else falls apart. And it sucks, because Bryan Reynolds, Paul Skenes, Jared Jones, Bailey Falter and Oneil Cruz really put in excellent seasons this year. And it all gets undone by the other guys.

What does intrigue me is some of the more recent call-ups. First there's Billy Cook, and can I just say how excellent it is that a guy for the Pirates is named Cook. Cook had some early contact moments and has cooled down in some subsequent moments. Then came Nick Yorke, the guy that people thought the Sox were really silly trading for Quinn Priester. Yorke, in his first 3 games, has 3 hits and a steal. Yorke looks like he's gonna be a contact machine as he develops, and he could be the 2nd baseman of the future for this team. This, along with Skenes, Jones, Keller and Falter still doing pretty damn well, makes me feel a little better about this team's development. It just sucks that it couldn't come together this year, because it was going so well early on, for the second year in a row.

Next year had better be something. It feels like it's coming together, they just need luck to be on their side. And potentially a better 1st baseman than Rowdy Tellez.

Coming Tonight: One of the longest tenured Rockies, watching his team become a surprising spoiler at this stage of the season.