Morning Rundown: Jared Jones with another fantastic start, Nick Gonzales picks up four hits
Jared Jones continues his great start to his major league career, Nick Gonzales has four-hit game for Indianapolis
To say that Jared Jones has been good to start his major league career is easily one of the biggest understatements you can have.
He’s been every bit of what a lot he could be and then some. While walks were a major concern in the minors, he has two through four starts.
Jones pitched five shutout innings on Tuesday, striking out seven batters. It took him 59 pitches to roll through those innings, 50 of those went for strikes.
That’s a strike rate of 84%, an insane number for a power pitcher like Jones.
He would only get 59 pitches, as he was pulled after five innings in a planned move from the Pirates.
They lost after the bullpen couldn’t hold the lead, and the offense could only muster one run.
In four starts now, Jones has allowed just eight earned runs (3.13 ERA) on 16 hits and two walks while striking out 32 batters and holding opponents to a .188 average.
Nick Gonzales finished a home run shy of the cycle, going 4-5 on the night as the Indianapolis Indians defeated the Saint Paul Saints.
Off to a hot start, Gonzales has 25 hits in just 15 games, 11 of which have gone for extra bases (9 2B, 3B, HR). He has eight multi-hit games and has a slash line of .397/.441/.619.
Gonzales has a history of doing damage, especially against fastballs, which three of his hits were against (all in the low 90s). The struggle has been against breaking pitches, against which he did have one hit.
His strikeout rate is down to start the season, but there has still been some swing and miss regarding non-fastballs.
Regardless, you have to imagine that he will get an opportunity at some point if the offense continues to struggle, even at least to see if there has been any progress.
Yasmani Grandal began his rehab assignment with Triple-A Indianapolis on Tuesday. He went 0-2 with a walk and RBI as the catcher and was replaced in the sixth inning by Grant Koch.
Transactions
Altoona Curve placed LHP Tyler Samaniego on the 7-day injured list
Altoona Curve sent Andres Alvarez on a rehab assignment to the Bradenton Marauders.
Altoona Curve activated Wyatt Hendries while also transferring Dylan Shockley to the Development List.
Joe Perez was assigned to the Altoona Curve
Bradenton Marauders placed RHP Mike Walsh on the 7-day injured list, retroactive to April 14
Indianapolis Indians activated Fineas Del Bonta-Smith from the 7-day injured list
Pittsburgh Pirates sent Yasmani Grandal on a rehab assignment to the Indianapolis Indians
Indianapolis Indians activated Jake Lamb from the temporarily inactive list
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Top Exit Velocity
Edward Olivares - PIT - 109.9 MPH - Lineout
Matt Gorski - IND - 109.4 MPH - Double
Alika Williams - PIT - 108.5 MPH - Double
Matt Gorski - IND - 107.8 MPH - Groundout
Javier Rivas - BRD - 105.8 MPH - Flyout
Top Pitch Velocity
Jared Jones - PIT - 99.7 MPH
Jared Jones - PIT - 99.6 MPH
Jared Jones - PIT - 99.5 MPH
Jared Jones - PIT - 99.5 MPH
Jared Jones - PIT - 98.8 MPH
Most Whiffs
Jared Jones - PIT - 15
Carlos Jimenez - PIT - 12
Drake Fellows - GBO - 9
Alessandro Ercolani - GBO - 8
Brandan Bidois - GBO - 7
Magdiel Cotto - BRD - 7
Indianapolis Indians - 10 vs St. Paul Saints - 6
Top Hitter - Nick Gonzales: 4-5, R, RBI, 2B, 3B
Top Pitcher - Brent Honeywell Jr: IP, BB, 2 K
Altoona Curve - 4 vs Bowie Baysox - 10
Top Hitter - Tsung-Che Cheng: 3-3, R, 2 RBI, BB, HR
Top Pitcher - Grant Ford: 1.2 IP, 2 H, 3 ER, BB, 2 K
Greensboro Grasshoppers - 4 vs Hickory Crawdads - 5 F/10
Top Hitter - Hudson Head: 1-2, R, HR, RBI, BB
Top Pitcher - Brandan Bidois: IP, H, 2 K
Bradenton Marauders - 2 vs Daytona Tortugas - 5
Top Hitter - Shalin Polanco: 1-4, R, 2B, RBI
Top Pitcher - Carlos Jimenez: 3 IP, 2 H, BB, 5 K
Probable Pitchers
Pittsburgh Pirates - Bailey Falter
Indianapolis Indians - Cam Alldred
Altoona Curve - Nick Dombkowski
Greensboro Grasshoppers - Hunter Barco
Bradenton Marauders - Hung-Leng Chang
Lots of SSS observations here....
Alika Williams is punching well above his weight class right now and we haven't even noticed really, and won't run a .400 BABIP forever.
We aren't getting a good version of Cruz right now, and really a lot of our guys are not taking advantage of balls in the heart of the plate. (I feel like every game I get Deja Vu to Pedro Alvarez getting hosed on outside pitches called for strikes then he is already down 1-2 and strikes out. I feel like that is happening with Cruz and the low pitches....) I felt like Alika was on the team to play SS to backup, so if not, I'd rather have Gonzales. But that brings me to 2b. I was a big advocate of 'what if Triolo gets power after recovering from his hammate injury last year and plays super defense at 2b - lets try. Well, Triolo has come back to earth with a normal BABIP, but man I didn't realize how bad he is against lefties.
Rowdy Tellez, while getting positive air time for his clubhouse character guy, is hitting like a sub replacement level bat. I have confidence from his xWOBA he will get a bit better, but but he also isn't a guy who will run a bapip >.300 for long so its not all pointing up from here
Cutch contact % of pitches in the zone is at an all time low, and not even close. at 74% vs career 85% and 82% last year. It shows.
We are lucky to have our record, and really need a change in offensive mindset from my point of view right now.
The Pirates are 11-7 and a solid reason for that can be found in the Starting Pitching, which was supposedly going to be a mystery, especially at the beginning of the season. A look at the leaderboard on Fangraphs with 76 SP's listed in order of fWAR shows Jared Jones 22nd with an fWAR of 0.5. Right behind him at 23rd is Martin Perez also with an fWAR of 0.5. At 33rd is Mitch Keller with an fWAR of 0.4, and Marco Gonzalez is not listed, but has enough innings to qualify. His 0.3 fWAR would fall into the group between 37-48, so 4 Pirate SP's in the Top 50!
Of that group, Jared Jones is the only Rookie I can identify. That could bode very well for being in contention for ROY, but it is still very early.
An excellent outing by Carlos Jimenez at A Bradenton yesterday. He was very strong in 2022 at BRD, starting 15 games with 70 IP, 88 K, but ran through injury issues in 2023. Still only 21. Second most Whiffs with 12 as pointed out above, and he went 3 IP, 2 H, 1 BB, 5 K, 0 Runs. Never have enough SP's!