In quasi-related news, Det is sending down Spencer Torkelson, the can’t-miss college hitter in the 2020 draft.
BA had an article the other day suggesting that early first-round college hitters aren’t working out that well. I didn’t have a chance to read it, but I noticed Dylan Crews isn’t tearing up AA.
I'm probably wrong but I would be very cautious taking a right handed college bat early in the first round. I think most rh only hitters have the hardest adjustment to make once they reach the majors. Velocity, off speed and breaking pitches are the best they've ever seen, especially from RHPers. The control and command is better as well. Most of the best college bats can rush through the minors with good results but still struggle with mlb pitching. In recent years these hitters never really had to adjust back even when there was warning signs (Gonzales). Some will get sent back down make the adjustments to potentially succeed (also Gonzalez) while others either don't or can't. I'm not saying this isn't true with left hand hitters but they do have a visual advantage in a larger sample.
Dylan Crews was initially my favorite college bat last year but got passed by Langford and Schanuel (only as a hitter) by the draft. The latter 2 have still struggled, both brought up to soon in my opinion. What I've seen from Crews, his approach has changed from a gap to gap with a right center focus to a pull power hitter. His strike outs have increased and batting average has went down. The game itself is probably dictating the approach players are taking but hopefully they are able to figure out what works. Torkelson seems to be similar to Crews with his approach, if he can revert his game back to gap to gap (knowing he's a 20 to 25 hr player with a decent average) or try to be a low average 30+ hr player will probably determine if he has a future.
Sorry I got long winded, it's an area of interest for me.
I feel kind of bad for Koch as he’ll likely retire with that career batting average of .000. But he did walk and caught a Skenes’ win, so he’ll always have that which of course is something the rest of us can only dream of.
I DFA him and purchase the contract of Heller immediately. Might mean sending Mlod or Nicholas down, perhaps Hernandez if you are never going to use him but this pen needs a different look
There'll be lots of grousing about Priester and Stratton, but the simple, never-changing factor that dominates with this team is that these guys can't hit. This is year five of the offensive clown show. Until the idiot in charge does something about that, nothing will change.
I just don’t understand the Pirates. Why do we have Grant Koch on the roster who can’t hit, but we have our former #1 down at AAA to work on hitting, where he has a 1.000 OPS? Who gives the major league team more chance to win?
Trying to make sure hank is 100% setup for the best chance of success long term is the right call over maybe winning an extra game or two now. My opinion at least
I guess my thought is that some of his success is buoyed by a few homers off position players, etc. clearly he was struggling badly up here so no reason to rush him if they dont think hes ready
My bigger issue is why do you have Hernandez in the pen if you can’t call on him to get Vogelbach. I hated the call to go with Stratton and still don’t understand it!!!
I don’t think Shelton executed the pitching change well but I won’t fault him if he talks about Stratton not executing—that’s now a meatball to Vogelsong, a wild pickoff throw, and a hanging curve to Schneider.
Frustrating—two walks and then our batters kept swinging at balls. What’s that about playing as a team and taking a walk, trusting the next batter to come through? At least Hayes had a good AB.
Davis to be recalled according to a Mackey source.
In quasi-related news, Det is sending down Spencer Torkelson, the can’t-miss college hitter in the 2020 draft.
BA had an article the other day suggesting that early first-round college hitters aren’t working out that well. I didn’t have a chance to read it, but I noticed Dylan Crews isn’t tearing up AA.
I'm probably wrong but I would be very cautious taking a right handed college bat early in the first round. I think most rh only hitters have the hardest adjustment to make once they reach the majors. Velocity, off speed and breaking pitches are the best they've ever seen, especially from RHPers. The control and command is better as well. Most of the best college bats can rush through the minors with good results but still struggle with mlb pitching. In recent years these hitters never really had to adjust back even when there was warning signs (Gonzales). Some will get sent back down make the adjustments to potentially succeed (also Gonzalez) while others either don't or can't. I'm not saying this isn't true with left hand hitters but they do have a visual advantage in a larger sample.
Dylan Crews was initially my favorite college bat last year but got passed by Langford and Schanuel (only as a hitter) by the draft. The latter 2 have still struggled, both brought up to soon in my opinion. What I've seen from Crews, his approach has changed from a gap to gap with a right center focus to a pull power hitter. His strike outs have increased and batting average has went down. The game itself is probably dictating the approach players are taking but hopefully they are able to figure out what works. Torkelson seems to be similar to Crews with his approach, if he can revert his game back to gap to gap (knowing he's a 20 to 25 hr player with a decent average) or try to be a low average 30+ hr player will probably determine if he has a future.
Sorry I got long winded, it's an area of interest for me.
I feel kind of bad for Koch as he’ll likely retire with that career batting average of .000. But he did walk and caught a Skenes’ win, so he’ll always have that which of course is something the rest of us can only dream of.
A kind take. I think he's being optioned so there may a chance, however slim, of another shot
Yeah but he's the first dfa candidate when needed.
I DFA him and purchase the contract of Heller immediately. Might mean sending Mlod or Nicholas down, perhaps Hernandez if you are never going to use him but this pen needs a different look
Sign me up.
Heller had a bad stretch in mid-May, but he's mostly been lights out. 16.7 K/9???
I like it.
I'm waiting for an official acknowledgement from Elias that today's game was the best ever offensive output for batters with BMIs over 32.
I don't know, some Babe Ruth guy hit 3 homeruns against the pirates near the end of his career. Combined maybe?
Babe
4 ab 4 hits 3 runs 6 rbi (3hr)
Tellez/Volgy
8 ab 5 hits 0 runs 6 rbi (2doubles)
Seems like a meaningful stat that Brault just gave—29th in batting against relievers.
It'd help if we had one competent bench bat lol. Olivares would have been my choice there but high velocity isn't his strong point. (for Bae)
Missing Palacios, Andujar….
Palacios definitely filled that role after the all-star break last year.
Is this all that Reynolds has to offer? We don’t complain enough about this guy . He stole the salary that we should have given Cutch a decade ago…
I agree and have been saying for awhile now that Reynolds is just average and has especially not done well in the clutch.
Hearing Marshall Van Cleef again after Rowdy’s 4th RBI…..” How the hell did that happen?”
Do we have someone other than Bae here?
Not a lefty ……
We had Olivares.
Totally overmatched.
Quality ABs today by Rowdy.
2-13 wRISP.
There'll be lots of grousing about Priester and Stratton, but the simple, never-changing factor that dominates with this team is that these guys can't hit. This is year five of the offensive clown show. Until the idiot in charge does something about that, nothing will change.
No doubt about it. They have failed miserably in hitter development and acquiring decent bats.
I just don’t understand the Pirates. Why do we have Grant Koch on the roster who can’t hit, but we have our former #1 down at AAA to work on hitting, where he has a 1.000 OPS? Who gives the major league team more chance to win?
Trying to make sure hank is 100% setup for the best chance of success long term is the right call over maybe winning an extra game or two now. My opinion at least
Pretty hard to see how a week on the ML roster would keep him from being set up for success.
I guess my thought is that some of his success is buoyed by a few homers off position players, etc. clearly he was struggling badly up here so no reason to rush him if they dont think hes ready
Preister seems unable to make it through a lineup twice.
Think it was the third time through that got him today
This bullpen is so shallow and bad, we cant be comfortable with anything like than a 7 run lead
My bigger issue is why do you have Hernandez in the pen if you can’t call on him to get Vogelbach. I hated the call to go with Stratton and still don’t understand it!!!
Yep, make their manager decide if he's going to pinch hit for his dh.
Shelton, when we had Voggy he couldn’t hit lefties, maybe something change.
Shelton was keeping that in his back pocket for when the game was on the line lol.
Just noticed that Hernandez hasn’t pitched in the last 8 days. Is he still on the 25 man roster or did I miss something?
They had him up warming up before Stratton. If they aren't going to use him, they're just wasting a spot on the 26man.
Whoever was unsure about varsho in center, i think hes alright
Pretty solid with he and Springer, cover a lot of ground.
I don’t think Shelton executed the pitching change well but I won’t fault him if he talks about Stratton not executing—that’s now a meatball to Vogelsong, a wild pickoff throw, and a hanging curve to Schneider.
It was still stupid to bring a rhp in to face Volgy, but Stratton hasn't executed.
Hernandez is available right??? What better place to use him than vs Vogelbach?
Yep
Definitely agree, the pen arms gotta execute better no matter the situation that they are put in
Could be up a handful still if we could just find a timely hit or two
Now we throw it around like little leaguers.
Frustrating—two walks and then our batters kept swinging at balls. What’s that about playing as a team and taking a walk, trusting the next batter to come through? At least Hayes had a good AB.