Throw for Broke

 

The Pirates have been so bad for so long that this team, that is likely to still miss the playoffs, is championship caliber almost. At last, a Pirates team that seems to actually know what it's doing and has enough young players to build on...potentially. 

The Paul Skenes thing is a little scary, no joke. He's not pitching as well as he was last year, or even earlier in the season, and people are worried he's gonna need surgery. He was better in his last start against the Tigers, but gave up 3 runs and only struck out 5. Something is probably up, and to be perfectly honest, there being the potential for work stoppage next year might be the best thing for him. But the silver lining is that this year it's not all on Skenes, and Braxton Ashcraft, Bubba Chandler, Jared Jones and Carmen Mlodzinski have all been picking up the slack. Jones got here late but has been pretty durable, with a 4.50 ERA, 72 Ks and a 1.203 WHIP in 14 games. Not perfect but he's eating innings and doing what he should be doing. Ashcraft has been the defacto ace, and he's got 13 wins, 159 Ks and a 3.68 ERA, very impressive. Chandler has improved greatly since the first few months, and has a 4.23 ERA and 108 Ks. And Mlodzinski has a 4 ERA and 81 Ks over a season split between long relief and spot starts. He seems to have a handle on things as a starter, which certainly helps. I feel like this rotation's maybe one arm away from greatness, and it looks like Mitch Keller might not be that guy anymore. I have no idea who the next young arm up at bat is, but I suppose we'll find out next year [I hope].

The array of young people stepping up and saving this team has spread to the lineup, as now Rafael Flores has popped up as a fun outfield bat, he's got 6 homers and 12 RBIs in 19 games. He's right there with Esmerlyn Valdez who, while he has slowed down, as 14 homers and 41 RBIs. It does continue to piss me off that Jhostynxon Garcia continues to not work in the majors, as once again on a come-up he struggled to get anything done, and even Jacob Gonzalez, who looked like a steal from the White Sox, is hitting around .210 in 29 games despite being a strong fill-in for Konnor Griffin. The veteran core of this team [Reynolds, Lowe, Cruz, Gonzales, Mangum] has been very helpful, and there's enough steady power and impressive offensive flair to go around. It's also just very good to have Oneil Cruz back, as he was just getting things together when he got hurt. 

Sadly, despite all the great bullpen additions [Lake Bachar, Kirby Yates, Luke Weaver, Camilo Doval], the Pirates still are a long-shot for the postseason. They have won 5 of their last 7 and cut the Tigers down to size a little, but they're still four or so games back from the main wild card scrum, and may not have done enough to really go for it this year. Hopefully it can be built on so that they don't run into this problem again in another two years.

Coming Tonight: Nobody knows who he is, or where he came from, but he's been a nice under-the-radar success for a team that recently made waves by getting the hell out of last place.

Waiting for Paul

 

This is Jared Jones. He throws really hard and plays for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Jones currently has 39 strikeouts, which is the second most in all of baseball. It might also be one of the highest strikeout totals in someone's first 5 games or something like that, bottom line is he's doing things that not a lot of rookies have done, and he's doing it in Pittsburgh. 

However, the Pirates, who were 11-5 last week, are now 12-11, meaning the Pirates have once again squandered a huge start by being the Pirates. They're currently in fourth place in the NL Central, and a lot of the pieces that were delivering in week 1 are now barely hitting for average and don't have more than 10 RBIs to show for it. The team has series against the Brewers and Giants, two tough teams, before a much gentler batch of games against the Rockies and A's, and with the more tepid tides pulling into Pittsburgh, fans are growing worried. They saw this team's potential, and even with someone like Jared Jones, or even the last three powerful rookies, Ke'Bryan Hayes, Henry Davis and Oneil Cruz, they're still not playing as well as they should be.

And I know that things aren't great. I know they just lost like 6 in a row. And I know that Quinn Priester doesn't seem like a very sturdy fifth rotation option. But it is wild to me that a Pirates fan can look at a rotation where Mitch Keller, Jared Jones, Bailey Falter and Martin Perez are all performing extremely well, and have each contributed excellent starts throughout April, and go 'this needs Paul Skenes'.

I think it is fairly understandable that the Pittsburgh Pirates are being extremely careful with Paul Skenes. They're making sure he only pitches a few innings in Indianapolis, spacing his starts out, and they're definitely ensuring he has enough time in the minors, even if Wyatt Langford can do what he's doing. The state of pitching right now is dire, and everyone's been throwing so hard in developmental leagues that they're at risk of blowing a gasket by the time they hit the majors. Paul Skenes throws hard, and nobody can hit him. But at any point, he could wear out his arm and need surgery. It happened to Andrew Painter last year and we still haven't heard from him.

Rushing Skenes and injuring him minutes into his rookie campaign is the worst thing the Pirates could do. After what happened to Jasson Dominguez, it's a possibility, and not one they want on their conscience right now. So I get why they haven't promoted him. If they're doing well enough right now, and if Priester and Falter can still at least keep runs down, we don't need Paul Skenes. And might I also add...the Pirates HAVE a rookie who can throw smoke right now. Jared Jones. Remember him, top of the post? So like, it says a lot for a fanbase to see someone playing beautifully and pitching like a god and immediately go 'WE WANT BETTER'. Skenes and Jones in the same rotation is a great idea, but we will get there naturally, otherwise it'll be like the 2010s Mets rotations where they're never healthy at the same time and the moment they are is like the moment in This is the End where Michael Cera is being really mean to Jonah Hill and Christopher Mintz-Plasse, like this is what we wanted all along only now it's nowhere near as happy.

The Pirates could be slowly on the upswing, though. Andrew McCutchen's getting hot again, that's always a good thing. Aroldis Chapman can still hit 100, he's been useful. Nobody's really hitting for power but you can see people starting to. So maybe it won't be all bad. 

What I'm saying is, Pirates fans...have a tiny bit of faith. They may not need Skenes. The O's didn't necessarily need Holliday, did they?

Coming Tonight: Speaking of people from strong rotations that can throw really hard...