36 Comments

sources saying the team will service bednar as an opener until further notice

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Not concerned with Bednar. It's all about release point, and he just couldn't find it.

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Someone needs to tell Benar where his release point is hiding so he does’t have to go looking for it anymore 😁😁

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A Shim report! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

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Why is it managerial standard practice to remove a pitcher when he gets to the 9th inning? Perez was still moving along, with 100 pitches thrown. How many times in his career do you suppose he's thrown more than 100? Let him finish the game. If he falters bring in help. Way too many games are lost when pichers cruising along get removed. We might have won had Perez been allowed to continue. Don't take pitchers out when they are doing well unless they ask out or are obviously out of gas.

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I agree, why not let him start the 9th and if he allows a runner pull him. I believe he had a 5 pitch inning in 8th or maybe that was the 7th, but still he was cruising. Tough loss but a lot more ball to play this year. I can see the side of being overly cautious.

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It was only perez's third start of the year, I dont think that theres a huge argument against pulling him after 8 strong. If you wanted to say that Ro shouldve been rewarming, after already being up in the 8th, as soon as bednar walked then hit a guy- I can support that thought

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I like how our second basemen have looked after the first dozen games. Triolo and Alika are more than holding their own in the majors. In Indy Peguero is hitting .425 and Nick Gonzales is hitting .390. Not to mention, Bae went 2 for 4 with a home run in his first game In Indy.

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Feels like we could certainly be opportunistic in the coming weeks with any team that might have a 2B/MIF that is either underperforming or gets hurt.... I see the Red Sox just lost Story for the year

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Perfect time to make a move for Blaze Jordan.

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Weeeelllll, I've got my new favorite T-shirt on: Pesces Dorados Beisbol!

Went to the Curve game last night and got a good eyeful.

It looked early like Luckham was gonna struggle for the Senators, but he wound up out-pitching Ashcraft. The comparative lines looked like this:

Ashcraft went 3 innings, 6 hits, 4 runs, 0bb, 3k

Luckham went 4, 2hits, 2 runs (none earned), 2 bb, 5k

Ashcraft was sitting mid 90s and had good separation on his pitches for speed. I was not RIGHT behind home plate, but over beside the visitor's dugout, so I couldn't see the pitches coming in... could not see the run or fade from the side. I guess I could have moved over there.

Luckham was done in early by infield defense, but he recovered nicely.

The marquee matchup did not go well, though the Curve won in 10 innings eventually. But it looked bad between Ashcraft and Meis getting whacked around for 7 runs in 4 innings. Dylan Crews hit the stink off the ball going 4 for 5 with a run and 4 rbi, taking Ashcraft deep and without a doubt. Hassell III and Senzel also hit solid doubles off Braxton.

Nobody got Crews out until Brad Case in the top of the 9th managed a fly-out. Of course, the first pitch Crews saw from side-armer in the 7th, he laced for a single. But otherwise, Case looked good. Big dude.

The Curve overcame the Senators on the strength of that bullpen, I'd say overall, giving Aaron Shakelford (I always think of that ship, The Endurance, when I hear his name.) time to bang two no doubters to even the game at 7.

Grant Ford relieved Meis in the 4th and pitched through the 6th. He only allowed one hit and notched 3 Ks. My impression of him was "decent." He seemed confident sitting low 90s with trust in his secondary pitches.

Case is interesting with that Kent Tekulve kind of whip he uses. He does not look like he's throwing hard. It's almost as if he's massaging the ball in there, but it seemed to give a decent hitting Senators side difficulty. He pitched the 7th, 8th and 9th scoreless, allowing 0 runs on 2 hits, a walk and 3 ks.

I think he did hit a guy right in the middle of the back though. It was funny, because the guy seemed not to know where to go to get out of the way. It looked to me like the right hander tried to turn away by crossing over the plate. Heh heh. Case was comin' right for 'im.

Secret - Not So Secret Weapon (not withstanding Shack's heroics) was Tsung-Tse Cheng (check spelling). Dude is good. He only went 1 for 2, but he walked three times, stole two bases and scored twice. Add to it that he's very good at short, having a hand in two stellar double plays. The one in the first he layed out to his left and flipped to Glenn from the ground to turn two. In the tenth, he saved the game. With the Sens catcher, Israel Pineda, batting, he hit the ball that I thought was a sure game winner to Cheng's right, but somehow Cheng layed out to his right and snuffed it. From his knees and going away from first, he threw out Pineada(who, admittedly isn't a burner). It was an "Oh, MY!" type of play that reminded me a little of the Curve days of Gift Ngoepe. And he's FAAAAAsssst. On those two steals he had.... There was no doubt.

Felt bad for Pineda, though, because his significant and his toddler son were there rooting for him. It was lovely to see him come over to the netting and put his hand up for the kid to put his hand up to his. I wish I'd gotten the picture. Pineda went 0 for 4 with a walk and two strikeouts, though he did make a fine catch jumping right up into the netting for a foul ball that most would not have caught.

And OH YEAH, I ALMOST FORGOT: The Toons won in the tenth. Francisco Acuna was the free runner at second base and Dylan Shockley executed a nice bunt down the third base line to get Acuna to third.

Tres Gonzales, who wore the collar on the night, grounded sharply out to second and was robbed by a very good play by 2nd baseman Hassell.

But Kervin Pichardo (something about guys from the Bronx) hit a two out single to left to walk it off and the standard team mugging of the man happened somewhere in shallow center field.

It was a fun day at The Altoona Curve, my friends. A very good ballpark and, for my lowly means, far more bang for my buck than a trip to the Burgh. Again, the invitation remains if any of you guys wanna trip up, I'd be happy to host you and show you the fun side of Toon-Town!

Best to all!

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Excellent work Wabbit!

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The hometown of Paul Winter, btw!

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Shack attack! Maybe we have an actual internal option for 1B?

Lots of overreaction to Bednar’s blown saves going on. Many people ready to displace him from the role of Closer, or even option him to Indy. I say Pirates exhibit patience with him.

A player with several years of exemplary results deserves a longer leash than a few “bad” games. If he’s still not producing by May 1, then I’ll happily be joining those who want to see him put on IL or optioned to Indy to rediscover his command. But I have a feeling Pirates will have made that sort of move sometime between now and May 1.

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This comment by Anthony, "After pitching just once in Spring," says a lot about some of Bednar's problems and after that we are left to wonder why he wasn't given a chance to get up to speed. Maybe the staff thought his side work was enough but I really only follow the Pirates doing st so I don't know if other teams would handle a player like this. It seems irresponsible to me but I'm not privy to the inner workings.

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It was dispiriting to hear the home crowd booing The Renegade when he left the field.

Bednar was a man, though, in his comments afterward. Tough guy. He'll get there.

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Shelton was on the field then too, so some of the boos would have been aimed at him expressing frustration for his stubborn refusal to acknowledge (which he finally did do after the game) that Bednar wasn't ready to pitch high-leverage innings yet.

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Rivas hitting a ball 113 is pretty dope

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Looking at the remaining schedule for April my hope is they head into May at 20-11.

I hate that this team is 9-3 and everyone is just talking about bednar losing it yesterday. This team is playing well and bednar obviously didn’t get enough work before the season. I think he’ll be fine and we need to remember this is only one loss in a 162 game season. They’ll be fine. The loss sucked but it shouldn’t define the season.

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Like to see the Pirates getting after their future needs in the minors, especially with RH hitting CF's. Looking at the top 3 levels of the minors, the Pirates have Gilberto Celestino, 25 at AAA, Jase Bowen 23 at AA, and Lonnie White, Jr, 21 at A+.

Celestino is perfect defensively and has 10 hits in 32 AB including 3 doubles, 6 RBI, 4BB/6K. Bowen has been in CF for 3 of the Curve's 4 games; struggling at the plate, but is playing well in CF with zero errors and 2 OF Assists. Lonnie White, Jr. was a big doubt of whether he was ready for A+. So far he only has 3 hits in 15 AB, but 1 was a triple and the other 2 were HR's, 6 RBI, 2BB/7K, and playing well defensively. He definitely understands getting lift on the ball with a 0.25 GO/AO rate.

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Gotta laud the acquisition of Oliveras thus far. Two things I like: 1.) you take a guy who posts solid numbers part time and you see if there’s more there and 2.) you target a guy from the Royals, who don’t have the best reputation in terms of being able to identify and develop talent. It’s a similar story with Joe.

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I really liked the acquisition at the time, had a few doubts with his ST performance (but credit to Shelton who said that they viewed his struggles as stemming from feeling added stress to impress his new team), and now that he's settled in I'm looking forward to seeing how things go for him the rest of the year.

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Tough loss and Bed's may need some outings with less stress - not in AAA, but with the Pirates. He only pitched 2 innings in ST and they were not good innings. Just needs the reps.

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Hindsight is 20-20 but I wish they had given him the 9th on Monday with the 4-run lead as a check of whether he was ready to close out a closer game.

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I agree with this. I also agreed with having him begin the 9th with a two run lead. I would have taken him out after 2 or 3 batters.

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Needed to be at least 3 with the 3 batter minimum, but I think help shouldve been warming as soon as he walked then hit a guy

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Yes. Six batters was a lot. That either says Shelton thinks that Bednar was 100% ready or it shows a lack of confidence in the rest of the bullpen.

It also makes me wonder why he didn't have Aroldis warming up. He did not pitch Sunday and only threw 7 pitches on Monday. Oh well, it is a long season and this staff has certainly made more good moves than bad moves so far.

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Perhaps you're right. He did apparently come back from some injury and so missed most of spring. I'd say put him on the 15 day and run him down to Bradenton to log some innings under close supervision. I think he's dealing with some lingering problem.

They're saying he's "not injured." His velocity seems ok. But he is not sharp. Not sure if they CAN send him down to work back into shape having put him on the opening day roster.

Anyone know how those things work given the circumstances.

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Gotta feel for Perez, dude has his best start in nearly two years.

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Im not sure, but im just guessing he is fine and though disappointed the team didnt win, internally proud of his good effort... who knows what he is thinking🤷‍♂️

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One thing perhaps that got lost in the drama and perhaps, just perhaps, overreaction to a blown save by our closer is that Contrearas did a nice job getting the last two outs and stopping the proverbial bleeding. Nice work by Contrearas👏👏

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Yes, absolutely, kudos to Ro. If he can thrive out of the pen that’s another arrow in Shelton’s quiver.

Overreaction? Perhaps. But when a guy that has visibly not been himself thus far comes out and, yes, has his velo, but clearly has no idea where his pitches are going…I’d say that’s cause for concern and, yes, some sort of reaction. 🤷‍♂️

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Seems like both he and ortiz might really be something out of the pen

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They need to take a serious look at both in high leverage situations. A few closers go on for years. Most don’t.

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That is part of the reason I (perhaps foolishly) am never opposed to moving one in a non-playoff season if any team is desperate enough at the deadline to bring a needle moving return. Enjoy the magic for their best year or three and then cash in.

Maybe one of those times you trade the next Mariano, or Aroldis, or Billy Wagner, etc. But most of the time (esp in today’s max effort, super spin, turning elbow ligaments into angel hair league) cashing in is probably playing the odds.

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Your comment made me think back to March 31 when I was watching the Dodgers/Cardinals game and Roberts brought out 37 yo Daniel Hudson for the save, lol.

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