10 Observations: Pitchers dominate opening weekend in Pirates' system

There was a lot of pitching performances worth mentioning opening weekend, something that could be common place.

Welcome back to our weekly feature, ‘10 Observations,’ where we reflect back on some of what we watched over the past week of watching the Pirates’ system.

Just the Pirates and Triple-A Indianapolis were active this past week, but the rest of the full season teams join the mix this weekend.

Murphy - For the guy who raised the most eyebrows about making the initial rosters, that was certainly a big ‘stepped up’ moment for Ryder Ryan. He entered the game with runners on base, got out of it, and then held it down for another inning, eventually earning his first major league win.

A lot was talked about the top-end talent in the bullpen, and even without two of the key pieces, they’ve still been rock solid. As a reminder, you’d probably prefer depth over top-heavy talent in the bullpen.

Looking like the Pirates truly have depth.

Murphy - That Jared Jones debut was remarkable, wasn’t it? I try not to be a ‘fan’ anymore and approach this from a ‘professional’ point of view, but seeing that I watched Jones move from Bradenton up to this was fun.

From a baseball fan's perspective, that was just fun. Double-digit strikeouts in your major league debut aren’t going to happen often.

When you add Paul Skenes pitching in Triple-A, it was a strong day overall for the Pirates’ organization.

This was a little bit of a glimpse of what I got to do last year, just so much strong pitching to watch on a day-to-day basis, sometimes overlapping to making for a really entertaining watch.

Murphy - A little more on Jones, especially that fastball. We talk about shape a lot on here, and oh boy, Nola, myself, and the rest of the group chat were drooling over the final results after seeing them.

Having 19” of Inverted Vertical Break (IVB) and a Vertical Approach Angle of -3.7 and that kind of extension doesn’t seem fair. The 97.1 mph his fastball averaged gained a few ticks of perceived velocity, and the movement made it unhittable.

Just looking at that graphic (and not the whiff% part), I could have made a strong assumption he missed a lot of bats with his fastball that day.

He had 11 whiffs on 38 fastballs for a whiff rate of 28.9%, which is suitable for a fastball if that’s how the statistic was calculated. Instead, those 11 whiffs were on 26 swings, for a 42% whiff rate.

Just incredible.

Murphy - Speaking of fastball shape (insert eye roll), you have to mention Paul Skenes’ first Triple-A start, right?

By definition, his fastball had a ‘dead zone’ shape in terms of IVB and Horizontal Break (HB), but after watching that outing, I don’t think it will matter.

With his velocity, command, and approach angle (-4.4 VAA), hitters won’t touch that, especially at the top of the zone.

The rest of the stuff creates enough tunneling opportunities to keep hitters off-balance. He had 12 whiffs on 46 pitches thrown, half of which came from the fastball. Then, the rest of the pitches picked up six whiffs on nine swings.

Murphy - I get checked in the comment section about Liover Peguero often, which is fair. The talent is there, but it’s good to get a reminder of the other side of the coin where he doesn’t always seem to have a plan at the plate.

So, when he has a good game like he did on Saturday, it’s just as important (if not more) to see how he responds to that.

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Overall, it was a solid weekend for Peguero. I still think there is a way to get everyone involved with him and Jared Triolo in the majors, but I can’t argue that they both get maximum at-bats for now.

Murphy - If Michael Plassmeyer is making multiple starts in the majors, something went wrong, but he looks like he can be a solid Triple-A starter.

Getting the Triple-A Opening Day start, the lefty struck out six over four innings pitched. The slider picked up a whiff rate of 36% last year in Triple-A, and it has good separation with the fastball (-0.9” IVB compared to the fastball’s 16.3”).

Having a solid depth piece like that can go a long way in avoiding having to overuse arms, especially since organizations have fewer players to work with this year.

Murphy - Quite a weekend for pitchers. Quinn Priester racked up 20 whiffs on 41 swings on Easter Sunday, finishing with nine strikeouts in 5.2 innings pitched. An encouraging outing from Priester.

I'm not sure what kind of success he’ll have in the majors, but his pitch breakdown is probably ideal. He threw 76 pitches total, 43 of which were sinkers or sliders.

The four-seam that got beat up so much last year? He only threw it 10 times, saw increased velocity (the shape was MUCH improved), and got two whiffs on four swings.

Murphy - I don’t know if his control will allow him to pitch comfortably in late-game situations, but Hunter Stratton has the pure stuff to do it. He picked up his first career save on Sunday, got two strikeouts and four whiffs on eight swings.

He threw a 97 mph fastball on the corner that was just completely unhittable.

Stratton was a guy I thought could sneak his way on the team. Although injuries are why he’s on it, the way he pitched in the Spring warranted a roster spot regardless.

That said, the control has been fairly good in the majors compared to the minors.

Murphy - I Saw Nick Gonzales had himself a solid little weekend, so I was curious and went back and watched each plate's appearances.

Unfortunately, it was about the same. He clobbered fastballs and had six whiffs on 14 swings against breaking pitches. He even had some struggles making contact with a couple of fastballs up and in.

It’s nice to see him pick up a couple of hits, but it also seems more of the same when it comes to what he does well and what he struggles with.

Three games, sure, but something to remember and monitor going forward.

Murphy - That was a solid four-game debut for Michael A. Taylor, who drove in three runs and swiped a bag against the Marlins this weekend.

I don’t think he will get to 21 home runs like last year, but he can perform like this (obviously, the .385 average won’t stick) and easily still be a bargain at $4 million.

I also like him as the nine-hole hitter to turn the lineup back to the top.