Morning Rundown: Jared Jones dazzles in debut, Paul Skenes strong in Triple-A
Two of the top pitching prospects in the system pitch on same day to great results.
After making the team out of camp, Jared Jones made his major league debut on Saturday and showed why he was in the rotation despite not having any experience at the highest level.
Jones became the first Pirates in over 30 years to strike out 10 or more batters in their major league debut—the last of which was Tim Wakefield.
The former 2020 second-round pick out of high school, Jones struck out 10 batters in 5.2 innings pitched, allowing three runs on three hits and two walks.
He picked up 22 whiffs on 48 swings, including nearly a 60% whiff rate with his slider. While the command in the zone wasn’t perfect, it didn’t matter because the hitters couldn’t keep up with his stuff.
While going exclusively with the fastball and slider early in the game, he did incorporate his secondary pitches as the game progressed. He was able to pick up double-digit whiffs with both the fastball and slider, topping 99.9 mph with the former.
The Pirates' offense did its best to ensure that the decision was never in doubt and that Jones would pick up his first career win. They scored nine runs on 16 hits, including five doubles.
The bullpen pitched a shutout again, with David Bednar getting his first piece of action this season.
Bailey Falter will pitch for the Pirates in the series finale as they look for a four-game sweep. It's not confirmed, but with Luis Ortiz being labeled as having a ‘bulk role’ out of the bullpen, this is the kind of game that would suit him to appear in, too.
Paul Skenes also made his Triple-A debut, needing only 46 pitches to flash the stuff that made him the first overall pick in this past draft.
He threw 22 fastballs, averaging 100 mph with them over three innings pitched. The first overall pick from 2023 also picked up 12 whiffs on 23 swings, including six with the fastball (on 14 swings, 42%).
The slider picked up four whiffs (80%), and the change got another two. In total, he faced nine batters and got nine outs, with five of them being strikeouts.
Jim Rosati of Northshore Nine was at the game and recorded every pitch Skenes threw.
Top Exit Velocity
Ke’Bryan Hayes - PIT - 110.4 mph - Single
Rowdy Tellez - PIT - 110.1 mph - Single
Edward Olivares - PIT - 109.9 mph - Single
Michael A. Taylor - PIT - 109.5 mph - Double
Ke’Bryan Hayes - PIT - 108.2 mph - Single
Top Pitch Velocity
Paul Skenes - IND - 101.2 mph
Paul Skenes - IND - 100.8 mph
Paul Skenes - IND - 100.7 mph
Paul Skenes - IND - 100.6 mph
Paul Skenes - IND - 100.5 mph
Most Whiffs (Whiff%)
Jared Jones - PIT - 22 (46%)
Paul Skenes - IND - 12 (52%)
Eric Lauer - IND - 6 (29%)
Brent Honeywell Jr. - IND - 3 (33%)
Ryan Borucki - PIT - 2 (50%)
There are a couple of roster transactions to go over;
Canaan Smith-Njigba and Ali Sanchez were outrighted to Indianapolis. Sanchez can still refuse the assignment. (Update: According to the transaction log, Sanchez did elect free agency)
They released minor league right-hander Cristopher Cruz. He was signed as an international free agent in 2019 and had a career of 7.71 ERA in 70 innings pitched.
Catcher Luis Hernandez was also released. While strong defensively, Hernandez could never hit enough to stick and had a .549 career OPS.
It’s Easter, so there is no daily feature today, but there will still be a Gameday article that comes up, probably around 10 am, in its place.
Indianapolis has its first home series this week, and the rest of the full-season affiliates open up with a three-game weekend series.
We will have plenty of stuff to accompany that, including roster previews, players to watch in the lower levels, and another mailbag article.
Indianapolis Indians - 3 vs Louisville Bats - 4
Top Pitcher: Paul Skenes - 3 IP, 5 K
Top Hitter: Liover Peguero - 2/5, 2B, 2 RBI, R
Since it won’t let me do ONE DAY only, the 50% off a yearly subscription I did for Jones and Skenes making their debuts in the majors and Triple-A, respectively, will continue through today.
With the yearly subscription, you help support the site and get access to our video breakdowns, live coverage from my in-game trips, and our Top 25 prospects, which have complete player write-ups.
Skenes was the top prospect, with Jones coming in fourth. Sign up (it also comes with a free seven-day trial), and read what we wrote about them before the season.
Happy Easter my fellow Bucs fans.
3 down. 78 to go.
Pirates win 9-3 and are in first place with the best record in baseball.
The carrot juice is going straight to my brain and I never like to drink alone on a Sunday morning so it's time to spread some CARROTS ON THE HOUSE!!!!
One delicious root for the Bullpen, which threw 3.1 innings of shutout ball. Accepting today for the Pitchburgh Pen is the once and future renegade, David Bednar.
Two (2) Eyesight Enhancing Vegetables for those cave-men gathered around the bat rack who accounted for 16 hits on the day and were consistently hitting brickbats to the wall. Accepting for Onk, Grog and Gomp is Connor Joe (3 for 5 with 3 runs and 2 rbi, not to speak about one of the aformentioned stone missile 2 baggers)
THREE (3) Orange Triangles of Divinity for Jared Jones who foreshadowed a Pitchburgh Rotation to come by striking out 10 in 5.2 innings. Good golly, if there was ever a duck to water, it is Jones to the rubber.
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"Oh Finster! Oh Finster, baby! There you are, you naughty baby! How many times have I told you not to play with the doity money?"
-Wabbit