Looking at the Pipeline top 30, after Seth the next pitcher is Levi Sterling at *12th.* I certainly don't take these things as gospel, but a year ago I didn't think I'd be saying they really need to add some pitching prospects. (Not a knock on Sterling, btw. He's been really good despite a mediocre ERA.)
That was my original thought to actually have Dotel/Mlodzinski share a game, but Yohan might be back up in the majors by then. The Pirates haven't announced a starter for tomorrow so I would be fine seeing Dotel/Jones share a game. Jones last 3 starts have been 13 innings 14 earned runs 22 baserunners.
Spencer still has yet to find his swing, though 2 hits yesterday makes me hope he may soon find it. O’Neil doesn’t strike me as the kind of player to get right back into it at a high level. Gonna take some time, I’m guessing…
That's not too concerning. For whatever reason, they've been doing this day on/day off rehab assignments with everyone this year. If he doesn't play today for Altoona I would be more concerned.
So with BA, Pipeline, and FanGraphs updating their post-draft top prospect lists, it looks the the Pirates have a combined 14 players spread across the three top 10s.
Outliers, meaning prospects that only show up on one list, are Edgleen Perez (pipeline #10), JDLS (fangraphs #5), and Barco (fangraphs #10).
FG is the outlier on draft guy bumps with Curiel at #8, Ruiz at #13, and Rembert all the way down at #30.
BA did a pretty good lengthy podcast on an overview of the trends with a 2026 draft. One thing they noted, is a lot of teams are drifting away from the power over hit profiles that high, and focusing a lot more on players with good contact skills. It certainly something I noted within this draft class… Lots of the college bats just failed to hit 300 overall. I know batting average is a fairly archaic statistic at this point, but at the college level it still has some deserved weight. If you can’t hit any SEC, how the hell are you gonna hit in the Show?
I enjoyed hearing him say how it was his goal to be a bigger leader to the team this year. He earned much respect from us all. He approaches things the right way. Going along with leadership is owning up to it when the "real" results are not good. Especially when guys are on base, that is when a good pitcher has to pitch his best.
I don't think the defense has done Skenes any favors, but it is the same defense for Ashcraft who is (12-5) compared to Skenes who is (9-11). Ashcraft has also pitched a little deeper into games which gives a good pitcher a better chance to win games.
I know a starting pitcher doesn't have 100% control over whether the team wins or not, but I would just like to see him get a little more pissed when the team loses and he didn't pitch well.
Another interesting thing from yesterday: Tweet from PPG reporter "Interesting note from Rafael Flores Jr. Said he switched his setup behind the plate from left knee down to right knee down today.
“It got to a point where I needed to throw somebody out. Today was the day, and I made the change and it worked out.""
Dude, you _also_ just got banned for a month haha. The team is so bad it's no longer worth getting into pissing matches about them so I doubt I get banned anymore. Just chilling and waiting for Cherington to get fired at this point. I haven't even turned a game on for a month!
Great deep dive by Eno in The Athletic today about Skenes. Talks about his drop in velo (and mentions that he is throwing a bit more across his body this year) and drop in movement in his pitches, mentioning his reliance on his fastball compared to other pitchers that have had drops in their stuff+ this year (like Alcantra).
I especially appreciated this part of the article, though: "For the season, he has the ninth-best strikeout-minus-walk rate, an enormously powerful predictive stat. He sits between Jacob deGrom and Cristopher Sánchez on that list. He gets there with the eight-best strikeout rate, just behind Zack Wheeler and some dude named Tarik Skubal. And this skill has continued through the slump: he's ninth in K-BB since June began, he's 14th since July began, and in his worst stretch over the last 30 days, he's 27th. None of those numbers predict a middling ERA.
The advanced ERA estimators agree. His xERA, which looks at the quality of contact along with the strikeouts and walks, thinks he should have a 3.11 ERA. His SIERA, which does something similar and usually does well in projection battles, says he should have a 3.10 ERA. Last year, when he had a 1.97 ERA, his SIERA said he should have had a 3.10 ERA. In terms of component results, not much has changed. The defense behind him has been a little worse — only 10 pitchers have had worse defense behind him this year — and the luck has been a little worse."
In other words, he doesn't seem to be overly concerned by Skenes performance. Velo drop is concerning but seems to suggest a bit more a change in mechanics than injury. And the overall performance might be more bad luck and bad defense than anything larger.
Do I think he made mechanical tweaks in an attempt to keep him injury free for his career? Yes. Do I think that has limited some of his effectiveness? Yes. Do I think he was out performing his peripherals last year? Yes. Do I think something has changed this year? Also yes.
Skenes the 3rd time through the order this year has an ERA of 6.92. That is bad. If you look at the metrics though, he is still k/9 10.7 and bb/9 of 1.4. He just is running a .434 BABIP. Fip of 2.66 and xFIP of 2.97.
Do I think it is purely luck? No. I think if you look his changeup went from unhittable when used (ops of .240 last year and .257 in 24) to a more normal .670. The velocity tick down has made his changeup look like hitters are Jared Triolo this year instead of Cam Devanney up there. I think the difference between a 98.2 average 4 seam last year and a 96.8 this year makes the change up more hittable.
I did a quick look, (man fangraphs and TJ Stats are cool sites!) and it used to be lights out if Skenes got ahead in the count. Now, players are getting into 1-1 counts and 2-1 counts and instead of being completely baffles, they are just bad (2025 had 0.457 OPS and 0.559 OPS in those counts, and now they are 0.704 and 0.753 OPS). What does this mean? I dunno exactly, but players certainly went from uncomfortable to more comfortable. Maybe seeing a pitch or two lets them pick it up a little. maybe he is hitting JUST a little more of the zone, or closer to the zone when out.
Some of that will normalize from a sky high BABIP in certain situations, but I bet you that something is playing differently this year. Is the slider being picked up easier vs the sweeper with him dropping his curveball this year? Also why is his slider in the zone less this year but getting lit up as his worst pitch (on TJ stats). Is it purposeful he has 2 inches less of horizontal break on the sweeper or is that because of his mechanics switch and the less rotation?
Individually, his 4 seamer, sweeper in isolation got 'better' this year from last year from xwOBA on tj stats, but his slider and sinker and his change got worse. Takes someone more knowledgeable than me to go from here, but do those get better if he is pumping 2 mph gas more?
i can buy some of that, and i definitely don't think he's injured, but handwaving this year to luck seems pretty dense.
They had a dogshit defense the last two years as well, and for two years he both overcame that fact and outpitched his peripherals. This also ignores the fact that he's been routinely protected this year from taking even worse beatings.
Nobody seems to care to dig into this, but he's a completely different pitcher from the stretch this year. The entirety of his decrease in performance comes with men on base.
Opponents have an .852 OPS against him wRISP (the anti-Pirates), compared to .666 overall. MLB average wRISP is .742. So wRISP, Skenes turns into Justin Lawrence.
His K rate and BB rate are essentially unchanged from the past couple of years. He has a slightly higher fly ball rate, which leads to a few more long balls. The biggest difference is in his strand rate. Prior to this year it was in the low 80s, which is high. This year it is in the mid 60s, which is low. Previous work has suggested this is a matter of luck, and should regress back to the mid 70s. Thinking ahead to next year, I would be a lot more worried about Keller and Chapman that Skenes.
I think there is a whole lot to like about Paul Skenes and Miss Livvy - does he ever go anywhere that he and the Pirates do not get tons of positive "pub"! And, that's just the "dress-up" stuff and what he does on his own by just dropping by places is all gravy for the 'burgh! Where do you think his projected 1st Year Arb number will be? I would think $12 ish
Interesting post-game conversation after the Field of Dreams game....why was Arraez batting cleanup? There are differing opinions.
Some think it's brilliant to eliminate swing and miss in the middle of the order. Got me thinking about Nicky G. at #4 yesterday. I'm not sold on it but hey the game is changing. Still think you want Arraez up top so Schwarbs can drive him in.
Full disclosure needed, Pirates had 7 hits and 5 earned runs off a position player. I turned off the game at that point, as it was already well in hand.
I really dislike the position player pitching part of today's game. It is unwatchable and alters the stats. They should have a designated minor leaguer pitcher that they rotate during the season. This pitcher (27th man) can only be used late in blowout games, but he is at least a professional pitcher.
I like the designated 27th man idea. Not only for the blow-out games, but have that pitcher be the one to finish out extra-inning games. Get a pitcher that has to be good for at least 80 pitches. The team can live or die with this pitcher in extra inning (but I guess going to the bullpen would still be allowed).
Folks can complain all day about pitch counts, but usage now is what it is. The rules need to bend to reality, just expand to 27. They went to 26 but it didn’t keep pace.
And development systems need to up the supply. That hasn’t kept pace, either. Don’t know what the answer is there.
On the other side, pitchers could pitch complete games every day if they threw soft enough. No one want to see that that, but no one wants to see teams throwing 6 pitchers a game throwing 100 mph.
I have suggestions that I'm sure no one wants to hear. :)
I can't help thinking that the insistence on pitchers lighting up the radar is a big reason nobody can throw strikes any more.
Which makes me curious to see how the Pirates' 2026 college pitching draft fares. My draft day impression was they dialed back the radar fixation a tad.
In the era when hitters put the ball in play, giving up a walk was even worse than a walk in today's game. An Aroldis Chapman that seems to strike out 3 every inning and walk 2, the walks don't hurt as much. I wonder if strike out pitchers today, don't fear the walk as much.
I also heard Verlander say in today's game you can't just give up the 3 and 1 single anymore because in today's game, everyone can hit a homer (instead of the single). That might cause more walks as well.
I'm not sure any of that applies to the minor league games that you see on a constant basis.
the strike zone is also about 6" smaller in all directions now. it's fun to think about what past eras of pitching would've been like if they had to actually throw the ball over the plate.
ironically, i suspect that would've only accelerated to evolution towards velo and spin.
I do think how the pitching has changed over the years, mainly throwing several pitchers going max effort, has skewed batting averages way down. There are also is enough bad pitching and facing position players every once in a while that might skew the averages back in the upward direction.
Apologies if this was posted elsewhere and I didn't see it but Baseball America's most recent podcast features the director of broadcasting for the Marauders and it is super interesting. I'd love to hear especially what the guy who's on here that used to work in broadcasting thinks (can't remember your username, sorry, but your insights were really helpful when we were talking about MiLB broadcasts earlier this year). Enjoy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-f1dcvMyz4w
(edit: realize it's actually premiering right now but they had posted it on podcasting apps yeseterday)
Braxton Ashcraft was as good as we have seen this year out of the Pirate Rotation and tends to make the future look a lot brighter. Kelly with a good decision to allow him to pitch a complete game, even though it was over early. He was very efficient, but is now 24 innings past the number of innings he pitched in AAA and MLB (117) in 2025.
For 2026 to date he is second on the team to Paul Skenes in fWAR 2.9 to Skenes 3.7, and both are in the Top 20 SP's in MLB (Fangraphs) - Skenes at 7th and Ashcraft at 17th. He struggled to stay healthy enough to pitch full years in the minors and is very deserving of the excellence he has shown this year. He and Bubba Chandler are both in their first years of MLB Service.
Great to see Rafael Flores, Jr. hit a couple of long balls yesterday - yes, the second was against a mop-up position player, but they all look the same on the stats sheet! Endy Rodriguez has looked very good and I fully expect he will go into 2027 as our No. 1 Catcher. After him it is a tossup, because Henry Davis was shaky coming into 2026 and has not had a very good year with the bat or the glove. 2025 3rd Round Pick Easton Carmichael, 22, cruised through A+ with 16 HR, .868 OPS before being promoted to AA, and Axiel Plaz, 21, is right behind him at A+ with an .869 OPS in almost 300 AB's. Richard Ramirez, who just turned 21 is doing very well at A Ball.
Teams needing a backup Catcher will be asking about Flores because of the power bat, but I fully expect that he and Endy will be the Catching tandem for the Pirates in 2027.
I saw somewhere that the Red Sox dropped Driveline which is where Henry Davis trains/trained in the offseason. Apparently they didn’t like the approach they were coaching. I’m convinced there is a better hitter in there somewhere but someone needs to teach him a different approach. The ungodly number of popups that guy produces is maddening.
Love that outing by Ashcraft but also concerned about the total number of innings. Of course how does a pitcher ever get to those numbers if he doesn’t far surpass previous years?
BTW following Curt Schilling on X the past couple of days has me convinced Pirates should replace Bill Murphy with Schilling. I’d love to see him get a shot as a pitching coach.
I don't like Schilling as a person at all. I've followed him his entire baseball career, and he is a jerk. There is a reason he doesn't have a real baseball job.
Maybe? I don’t know him at all, but if he can coach pitching and get guys to succeed then I’m all for it. Pretty sure there have been a few jerks as both players and coaches. That doesn’t bode well for them as human beings but if they know baseball that is why you hire them. My plumber may be a jerk but if he can fix my bathroom after it is flooded, I’ll take him.
Several years ago when I went to spring training, I never saw a guy report as out of shape and fat as Schilling did. I am OK with that as long as you take the John Kruk approach and can make fun of himself about it. But to constantly here Schilling bad mouth others saying he went about it the "right way", I don't trust the guy. Not sure about the whole bloody sock thing either.
Schilling is an Advanced Squad Leader player. Couple of guys I went to grad school with who were in military history used to play Squad Leader with him in his hotel room when he was in town. Anyone who played Squad Leader back in the day is OK by me. He was something like the president of Squad Leader gamers and would literally play anyone known to the community. Very good guy by all accounts.
As for Davis, isn't about time he gave up the beer-league softball swing and started his AB much more upright and open with his hands higher... like Melkel says? The guy has to be just plain mule stubborn to not give up that garbage swing after so much failure.
Finishing up his age 27 season and well short of the Mendoza Line! Unless something strange happens, he will be Arbitration Eligible after this season. He has served the purpose for why he was drafted so highly - save money so that the Pirates could Draft and have the money available to sign Bubba Chandler.
The Pirates are loaded with Catching with Endy and Rafael at the MLB level, followed by Carmichael, Plaz, and Ramirez. Hard to see any projection that has Davis playing for the Pirates at the MLB Level in 2027!
Looking at the Pipeline top 30, after Seth the next pitcher is Levi Sterling at *12th.* I certainly don't take these things as gospel, but a year ago I didn't think I'd be saying they really need to add some pitching prospects. (Not a knock on Sterling, btw. He's been really good despite a mediocre ERA.)
Termarr with an ACL and LCL tear.
Usually a 9 to 12 month recovery period.
ACL is the long recovery. The LCL is a lessor injury.
Feel bad for the kid but it makes no difference to the system given he's been so bad.
Seems like it'd be pretty safe not to put him on the 40-man. Regardless of roster stuff, it's gotta be quite a blow to the young man.
Yep, feel for the young man. I can't see a team taking him in the rule 5 draft, knowing his recovery timeline.
Man, ACL *and* LCL? That's a new one for me.
I think we've seen Oneil's last game in black and gold.
Based on what exactly?
He's likely done for this year and traded in the offseason!
Hatred. All emotion. No reason.
Garcia optioned to AAA. Yohan on paternity leave. Cook and Dotel brought up.
Rather see Dotel get stretched out in AAA and get some starts in September.
Maybe he can get a start or tandem start tomorrow.
They could build him up in the majors, send Mlod back to his long relief role and send Mattson back to AAA when Yohan returns.
give him Mlod's starts.
That was my original thought to actually have Dotel/Mlodzinski share a game, but Yohan might be back up in the majors by then. The Pirates haven't announced a starter for tomorrow so I would be fine seeing Dotel/Jones share a game. Jones last 3 starts have been 13 innings 14 earned runs 22 baserunners.
Cruz not expected to be activated this weekend (well, at least tonight), per Colin Beazley.
Hand injury—I don’t really expect much from him the rest of this year anyway.
Spencer still has yet to find his swing, though 2 hits yesterday makes me hope he may soon find it. O’Neil doesn’t strike me as the kind of player to get right back into it at a high level. Gonna take some time, I’m guessing…
Notice he didn’t play last night.
That's not too concerning. For whatever reason, they've been doing this day on/day off rehab assignments with everyone this year. If he doesn't play today for Altoona I would be more concerned.
So with BA, Pipeline, and FanGraphs updating their post-draft top prospect lists, it looks the the Pirates have a combined 14 players spread across the three top 10s.
Outliers, meaning prospects that only show up on one list, are Edgleen Perez (pipeline #10), JDLS (fangraphs #5), and Barco (fangraphs #10).
FG is the outlier on draft guy bumps with Curiel at #8, Ruiz at #13, and Rembert all the way down at #30.
BA did a pretty good lengthy podcast on an overview of the trends with a 2026 draft. One thing they noted, is a lot of teams are drifting away from the power over hit profiles that high, and focusing a lot more on players with good contact skills. It certainly something I noted within this draft class… Lots of the college bats just failed to hit 300 overall. I know batting average is a fairly archaic statistic at this point, but at the college level it still has some deserved weight. If you can’t hit any SEC, how the hell are you gonna hit in the Show?
I’m going with FanGraphs on the draft guys.
until seeing them in pro ball, at the very least.
BA loved the Pirates’ draft because it basically tracked their rankings.
I would just like Skenes to say his performance is not acceptable to him and as such he let the team down.
He's learning from his coaches and FO elders that accountability isn't a Pirates thing.
I enjoyed hearing him say how it was his goal to be a bigger leader to the team this year. He earned much respect from us all. He approaches things the right way. Going along with leadership is owning up to it when the "real" results are not good. Especially when guys are on base, that is when a good pitcher has to pitch his best.
I don't think the defense has done Skenes any favors, but it is the same defense for Ashcraft who is (12-5) compared to Skenes who is (9-11). Ashcraft has also pitched a little deeper into games which gives a good pitcher a better chance to win games.
I know a starting pitcher doesn't have 100% control over whether the team wins or not, but I would just like to see him get a little more pissed when the team loses and he didn't pitch well.
They have the same ERA, but Paul has the better expected ERA.
Another interesting thing from yesterday: Tweet from PPG reporter "Interesting note from Rafael Flores Jr. Said he switched his setup behind the plate from left knee down to right knee down today.
“It got to a point where I needed to throw somebody out. Today was the day, and I made the change and it worked out.""
I didn't think they were going to win again this season, weird.
Yeah that would have been weird.
They still have 3.9% playoff odds!
Well that's good news then. My sources were telling me 3.8%
What are the odds of that handle being banned in the next week?
Dude, you _also_ just got banned for a month haha. The team is so bad it's no longer worth getting into pissing matches about them so I doubt I get banned anymore. Just chilling and waiting for Cherington to get fired at this point. I haven't even turned a game on for a month!
Hopefully 100%
Great deep dive by Eno in The Athletic today about Skenes. Talks about his drop in velo (and mentions that he is throwing a bit more across his body this year) and drop in movement in his pitches, mentioning his reliance on his fastball compared to other pitchers that have had drops in their stuff+ this year (like Alcantra).
I especially appreciated this part of the article, though: "For the season, he has the ninth-best strikeout-minus-walk rate, an enormously powerful predictive stat. He sits between Jacob deGrom and Cristopher Sánchez on that list. He gets there with the eight-best strikeout rate, just behind Zack Wheeler and some dude named Tarik Skubal. And this skill has continued through the slump: he's ninth in K-BB since June began, he's 14th since July began, and in his worst stretch over the last 30 days, he's 27th. None of those numbers predict a middling ERA.
The advanced ERA estimators agree. His xERA, which looks at the quality of contact along with the strikeouts and walks, thinks he should have a 3.11 ERA. His SIERA, which does something similar and usually does well in projection battles, says he should have a 3.10 ERA. Last year, when he had a 1.97 ERA, his SIERA said he should have had a 3.10 ERA. In terms of component results, not much has changed. The defense behind him has been a little worse — only 10 pitchers have had worse defense behind him this year — and the luck has been a little worse."
In other words, he doesn't seem to be overly concerned by Skenes performance. Velo drop is concerning but seems to suggest a bit more a change in mechanics than injury. And the overall performance might be more bad luck and bad defense than anything larger.
Velocity is a concern, especially when your 4 seamer is 95-96 and your change is 91. Those are his two favorite offerings.
Do I think he made mechanical tweaks in an attempt to keep him injury free for his career? Yes. Do I think that has limited some of his effectiveness? Yes. Do I think he was out performing his peripherals last year? Yes. Do I think something has changed this year? Also yes.
Skenes the 3rd time through the order this year has an ERA of 6.92. That is bad. If you look at the metrics though, he is still k/9 10.7 and bb/9 of 1.4. He just is running a .434 BABIP. Fip of 2.66 and xFIP of 2.97.
Do I think it is purely luck? No. I think if you look his changeup went from unhittable when used (ops of .240 last year and .257 in 24) to a more normal .670. The velocity tick down has made his changeup look like hitters are Jared Triolo this year instead of Cam Devanney up there. I think the difference between a 98.2 average 4 seam last year and a 96.8 this year makes the change up more hittable.
I did a quick look, (man fangraphs and TJ Stats are cool sites!) and it used to be lights out if Skenes got ahead in the count. Now, players are getting into 1-1 counts and 2-1 counts and instead of being completely baffles, they are just bad (2025 had 0.457 OPS and 0.559 OPS in those counts, and now they are 0.704 and 0.753 OPS). What does this mean? I dunno exactly, but players certainly went from uncomfortable to more comfortable. Maybe seeing a pitch or two lets them pick it up a little. maybe he is hitting JUST a little more of the zone, or closer to the zone when out.
Some of that will normalize from a sky high BABIP in certain situations, but I bet you that something is playing differently this year. Is the slider being picked up easier vs the sweeper with him dropping his curveball this year? Also why is his slider in the zone less this year but getting lit up as his worst pitch (on TJ stats). Is it purposeful he has 2 inches less of horizontal break on the sweeper or is that because of his mechanics switch and the less rotation?
Individually, his 4 seamer, sweeper in isolation got 'better' this year from last year from xwOBA on tj stats, but his slider and sinker and his change got worse. Takes someone more knowledgeable than me to go from here, but do those get better if he is pumping 2 mph gas more?
appreciate the tip and the cliff notes, ham.
i can buy some of that, and i definitely don't think he's injured, but handwaving this year to luck seems pretty dense.
They had a dogshit defense the last two years as well, and for two years he both overcame that fact and outpitched his peripherals. This also ignores the fact that he's been routinely protected this year from taking even worse beatings.
Nobody seems to care to dig into this, but he's a completely different pitcher from the stretch this year. The entirety of his decrease in performance comes with men on base.
The stretch... . That is what they need to be looking at the pitching lab.
Opponents have an .852 OPS against him wRISP (the anti-Pirates), compared to .666 overall. MLB average wRISP is .742. So wRISP, Skenes turns into Justin Lawrence.
Pitch tipping?
That last sentence.
His K rate and BB rate are essentially unchanged from the past couple of years. He has a slightly higher fly ball rate, which leads to a few more long balls. The biggest difference is in his strand rate. Prior to this year it was in the low 80s, which is high. This year it is in the mid 60s, which is low. Previous work has suggested this is a matter of luck, and should regress back to the mid 70s. Thinking ahead to next year, I would be a lot more worried about Keller and Chapman that Skenes.
Bad luck bad defense blah blah blah. He's just not passing the eye test. It's got to be either mechanics or injury.
“only 10 pitchers have had worse defense”
Score one for the eye test.
That’s what stood out for me. Stop playing people out of position!
I think there is a whole lot to like about Paul Skenes and Miss Livvy - does he ever go anywhere that he and the Pirates do not get tons of positive "pub"! And, that's just the "dress-up" stuff and what he does on his own by just dropping by places is all gravy for the 'burgh! Where do you think his projected 1st Year Arb number will be? I would think $12 ish
So called great pitchers overcome it.
Interesting post-game conversation after the Field of Dreams game....why was Arraez batting cleanup? There are differing opinions.
Some think it's brilliant to eliminate swing and miss in the middle of the order. Got me thinking about Nicky G. at #4 yesterday. I'm not sold on it but hey the game is changing. Still think you want Arraez up top so Schwarbs can drive him in.
Full disclosure needed, Pirates had 7 hits and 5 earned runs off a position player. I turned off the game at that point, as it was already well in hand.
I really dislike the position player pitching part of today's game. It is unwatchable and alters the stats. They should have a designated minor leaguer pitcher that they rotate during the season. This pitcher (27th man) can only be used late in blowout games, but he is at least a professional pitcher.
I like the designated 27th man idea. Not only for the blow-out games, but have that pitcher be the one to finish out extra-inning games. Get a pitcher that has to be good for at least 80 pitches. The team can live or die with this pitcher in extra inning (but I guess going to the bullpen would still be allowed).
Folks can complain all day about pitch counts, but usage now is what it is. The rules need to bend to reality, just expand to 27. They went to 26 but it didn’t keep pace.
And development systems need to up the supply. That hasn’t kept pace, either. Don’t know what the answer is there.
On the other side, pitchers could pitch complete games every day if they threw soft enough. No one want to see that that, but no one wants to see teams throwing 6 pitchers a game throwing 100 mph.
I have suggestions that I'm sure no one wants to hear. :)
I can't help thinking that the insistence on pitchers lighting up the radar is a big reason nobody can throw strikes any more.
Which makes me curious to see how the Pirates' 2026 college pitching draft fares. My draft day impression was they dialed back the radar fixation a tad.
In the era when hitters put the ball in play, giving up a walk was even worse than a walk in today's game. An Aroldis Chapman that seems to strike out 3 every inning and walk 2, the walks don't hurt as much. I wonder if strike out pitchers today, don't fear the walk as much.
I also heard Verlander say in today's game you can't just give up the 3 and 1 single anymore because in today's game, everyone can hit a homer (instead of the single). That might cause more walks as well.
I'm not sure any of that applies to the minor league games that you see on a constant basis.
the strike zone is also about 6" smaller in all directions now. it's fun to think about what past eras of pitching would've been like if they had to actually throw the ball over the plate.
ironically, i suspect that would've only accelerated to evolution towards velo and spin.
Bet you feel better after getting that off your chest.
There’s a lot of s*** pitching these days. I figure facing a position player is just a bit more of it.
I do think how the pitching has changed over the years, mainly throwing several pitchers going max effort, has skewed batting averages way down. There are also is enough bad pitching and facing position players every once in a while that might skew the averages back in the upward direction.
Apologies if this was posted elsewhere and I didn't see it but Baseball America's most recent podcast features the director of broadcasting for the Marauders and it is super interesting. I'd love to hear especially what the guy who's on here that used to work in broadcasting thinks (can't remember your username, sorry, but your insights were really helpful when we were talking about MiLB broadcasts earlier this year). Enjoy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-f1dcvMyz4w
(edit: realize it's actually premiering right now but they had posted it on podcasting apps yeseterday)
Braxton Ashcraft was as good as we have seen this year out of the Pirate Rotation and tends to make the future look a lot brighter. Kelly with a good decision to allow him to pitch a complete game, even though it was over early. He was very efficient, but is now 24 innings past the number of innings he pitched in AAA and MLB (117) in 2025.
For 2026 to date he is second on the team to Paul Skenes in fWAR 2.9 to Skenes 3.7, and both are in the Top 20 SP's in MLB (Fangraphs) - Skenes at 7th and Ashcraft at 17th. He struggled to stay healthy enough to pitch full years in the minors and is very deserving of the excellence he has shown this year. He and Bubba Chandler are both in their first years of MLB Service.
Great to see Rafael Flores, Jr. hit a couple of long balls yesterday - yes, the second was against a mop-up position player, but they all look the same on the stats sheet! Endy Rodriguez has looked very good and I fully expect he will go into 2027 as our No. 1 Catcher. After him it is a tossup, because Henry Davis was shaky coming into 2026 and has not had a very good year with the bat or the glove. 2025 3rd Round Pick Easton Carmichael, 22, cruised through A+ with 16 HR, .868 OPS before being promoted to AA, and Axiel Plaz, 21, is right behind him at A+ with an .869 OPS in almost 300 AB's. Richard Ramirez, who just turned 21 is doing very well at A Ball.
Teams needing a backup Catcher will be asking about Flores because of the power bat, but I fully expect that he and Endy will be the Catching tandem for the Pirates in 2027.
Endy will probably have a career ending injury in the offseason opening a jar of pickles.
I saw somewhere that the Red Sox dropped Driveline which is where Henry Davis trains/trained in the offseason. Apparently they didn’t like the approach they were coaching. I’m convinced there is a better hitter in there somewhere but someone needs to teach him a different approach. The ungodly number of popups that guy produces is maddening.
Love that outing by Ashcraft but also concerned about the total number of innings. Of course how does a pitcher ever get to those numbers if he doesn’t far surpass previous years?
BTW following Curt Schilling on X the past couple of days has me convinced Pirates should replace Bill Murphy with Schilling. I’d love to see him get a shot as a pitching coach.
I don't like Schilling as a person at all. I've followed him his entire baseball career, and he is a jerk. There is a reason he doesn't have a real baseball job.
Maybe? I don’t know him at all, but if he can coach pitching and get guys to succeed then I’m all for it. Pretty sure there have been a few jerks as both players and coaches. That doesn’t bode well for them as human beings but if they know baseball that is why you hire them. My plumber may be a jerk but if he can fix my bathroom after it is flooded, I’ll take him.
but i bet you'd get pretty sick of your plumber teaching YOU to fix your toilet...
Not if he were good at it.
This team could use some jerks badly. The culture they've built is the wimpiest, weakest culture as an org I have ever seen. Losers.
Several years ago when I went to spring training, I never saw a guy report as out of shape and fat as Schilling did. I am OK with that as long as you take the John Kruk approach and can make fun of himself about it. But to constantly here Schilling bad mouth others saying he went about it the "right way", I don't trust the guy. Not sure about the whole bloody sock thing either.
Schilling is an Advanced Squad Leader player. Couple of guys I went to grad school with who were in military history used to play Squad Leader with him in his hotel room when he was in town. Anyone who played Squad Leader back in the day is OK by me. He was something like the president of Squad Leader gamers and would literally play anyone known to the community. Very good guy by all accounts.
As for Davis, isn't about time he gave up the beer-league softball swing and started his AB much more upright and open with his hands higher... like Melkel says? The guy has to be just plain mule stubborn to not give up that garbage swing after so much failure.
Finishing up his age 27 season and well short of the Mendoza Line! Unless something strange happens, he will be Arbitration Eligible after this season. He has served the purpose for why he was drafted so highly - save money so that the Pirates could Draft and have the money available to sign Bubba Chandler.
The Pirates are loaded with Catching with Endy and Rafael at the MLB level, followed by Carmichael, Plaz, and Ramirez. Hard to see any projection that has Davis playing for the Pirates at the MLB Level in 2027!
I hope you're right.