175 Comments

Everyone is rightly focusing on Jones, Skenes, Bubba, and Barco today, but did you notice Lauer came in and threw 4 scoreless in relief of Skenes. Only 1 hit given up.

Bailey Falter you’re officially on notice.

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Lauer i thought was such a solid signing. Gonna help with the rotation a lot if he’s healthy

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That’s fantastic news

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Good to see that Mlod pitched too. I was worried we might not see him back for quite some time.

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Morning Rundown is going to be short and simple tomorrow. Had my gallbladder taken out, heading home now. Gonna slap something together and go to bed

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When my gallbladder was removed, I spent a few days in the hospital while tube pumped opiates into my body. I think you were short changed!

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I wish I was short changed. I spent two weeks in the hospital- missed Christmas and New Years.

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That’s rough to hear, sorry you went through all that.

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It’s all good. It was a long time ago. Glad to hear your surgery was less complicated. I’m really enjoying the content on this site.

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Sounds like it! Apparently though I was close to having them need to actually cut me open to get it out though, it had swollen that bad and the stones were that big.

I’m guessing I’d be in that position. If so

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Rest up and get better!

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Thank you! Resting in my recliner watching games from yesterday on my tablet.

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Rest up AM!

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Feel better Anthony. Get some good rest.

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Welp 6 down 154 to go………..

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Carlson Reed doing a real start is an interesting development. You can never have too many SPs, but still interesting for a low-control college reliever to go at least 4 IPs in a home opener.

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let's go chandler!

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Skenes strikes out the side including Nootbar.

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Pssh. 5 Ks in 2.0 innings. Gonna need more seasoning in AAA. Might even hold him there until after the end of Super Two.

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They pulled him after 40 pitches and 3 innings, so Skenes went over to the bullpen and threw another 40 pitches. Does this make any sense? If he is going to throw 80 pitchers anyway, why wouldn't you want him to do it against live batters?

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If he was throwing left handed it might make sense, lol.

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I just live on this planet. I don't make the rules.

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Looks like they pulled him after 3, and Skenes was frustrated (since he says he wants to work on sequencing and seeing how his stuff plays, which requires some consecutive innings to do), so he went over to the bullpen on his own and starting throwing to thwart their plan to baby him.

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Part of me hopes that it was entirely his decision. The best starting pitchers have that "don't even come near me" vibe that lets them pitch into the 9th because the manager doesn't want to be humiliated.

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Termarr is 1-1 with a run scored proving he has mastered High A. I can pick him up in Greensboro if somebody will meet me half way to Akron and finish the drive so he can play tomorrow for the Curve.

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That whole sequence is the kind of thing you want to see for the future of the team.

1) Brannigan walk.

2) Termarr single, Brannigan to 3rd.

3) Jebb single, Brannigan scores and Termarr to 3rd.

4) Pass ball scores Termarr.

5) White walks.

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I don't like the loss but you have a 22 year old kid pitching 6 innings and holding one of the very best teams in baseball to 2 solo homeruns is encouraging as hell.

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Jones wasn’t the problem today. 4-7 ice cold

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Worked out of some real jams to ice the cake too 😁

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He's exciting to watch Robert so do we fans deserve a 22 year old phenom, lol. Or are we once again going to be cursed? God I hope not, lol.

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Tank with a sub-.500 OPS makes me sad.

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My biggest concern is Tank has only Haines who has proven to be a disaster as a hitting coach and Shelton a former hitting coach who didn't have a great track record as a hitting coach to try to advise him.

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Same. Maybe Hayes is sneaking him lessons with Nunnally

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*going to sneak him lessons with Nunnally

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Stephen Nesbitt did a sort of AMA on the NS9 podcast shortly after his and Rosenthal’s piece in The Athletic dropped.

Among the disturbing things that Nesbitt elaborated on that weren’t actually included in the Athletic piece was talking to a former Pirates pitcher who reported that in the dog days of August, if guys needed help, like just getting through their next start, or they needed a way to get a couple inches on their slider or a couple miles per hour on their fastball, they didn’t have enough former big league-types on the coaching staff to give them hands-on help. They had plenty of analytics-type guys who said, “You need a slider against these batters,” etc.

I wonder if something similar could be going on in the hitting program, especially with the ouster of old-school nuts and bolts guys like Nunnally.

It’s all well and good to have analytics tell you what kind of pitches to expect. Obviously it’s essential. But if you need hands-on help actually swinging the bat, does this organization have enough of those people to actually help these guys? Or instead a surplus of theory people?

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I definitely remember last season when the Pirates played the Yankees one of the Pirates broadcaster interviewed Clay Holmes and said that Holmes helped Keller who is a good friend of his but I don't remember the exact details of what he helped him with but it came right before Mitch's turnaround last season. It was a pregame broadcast I believe. So I wasn't surprised when I heard Hayes went to Nunally who is no longer with the organization.

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Sinker

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Holmes introduced Keller to Tread IIR.

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This has been my primary question for some time now.

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Tomorrow Falter starts

So obviously Cutch homers and somehow the Bucs will win

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Didn’t Kimbrell blow a game against us last year?

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Yes, vs Phillies September 23rd I believe. Davis took him yard

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There will be better days for the offense. Perspective on JJ: that's only his second start. 🙂

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His line matched Rodriguez's. He pitched well. A better offense could have brought him a victory.

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I guess I'm glad I missed it due to work, but 0-16 with 9 Ks from our 4-7 hitters is not going to win many games.

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You beat me to that fact about 4 thru 7 today. Jones pitched very well again, and HR's from Oneil Cruz and Jared Triolo. A well pitched and played game for the most part from two very young and talented teams.

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I would have liked to have seen Jones pitch, though. The only two games I've not been able to watch are the two that he's pitched.

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Hank looks like he’s not seeing the ball well.

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I just texted Shelty: new contacts for Rowdy.

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My kidneys ache with that foul tip…… ouch!

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