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The zone map from Luis Ortiz yesterday is a thing of beauty. Go back and pull up the same from his April outings and the improvement in command smacks you in the face.

A dude that can fill the zone with his kind of movement stands a real chance of getting by through managing contact.

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OH! THAT narrative!

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Feels like he’s the exact type of pitching where the catcher should set up middle middle for every pitch and let the ball do the work.

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Heat exhaustion for Brennan Malone. Why he left early. Had a baby three days ago so not much sleep/hospital food for a couple of days. He said he’d be back next week.

Seeing how it exploded raining down there mid game, humidity had to be through the roof

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Now that is fast and A+ reporting.

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If last night becomes the model for the "bullpen" games, then we should start referring to them as "opener" games. Ortiz essentially did the job of a 5th starter, going at least 5 innings and keeping the team in the game. Get him to a 6th inning, and no longer will the so-called bullpen games put us at a disadvantage the next day.

That said, had the Rockies not sent the runner on Joe's DP (and assuming things play out the same way with the triple in the next AB) and had Jack not been able to track down the flyball that would have been a HR in the other 29 parks, the narrative on Ortiz would be very different.

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Wait…what narrative on Ortiz?

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You know . . . the narrative.

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I HEARD about that. That's something.

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If the narrative on Ortiz is not a decent multi inning relief pitcher, then it’s wrong in my book…

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No, that (decent multi-inning reliever) could still be the consensus. But, if not for a couple of breaks, I don't think we'd be hearing/seeing comments about him going back to the rotation. I.e., I'm not quite ready to push for him to be our 5th starter though with another quality outing or two, I would be (unless they're ready to give Ashcraft his first taste of the majors).

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I think it would be insane to put Ortiz back in the rotation. He doesn’t miss enough bats or have the command to be a starter. The nice thing about him pitching out of the pen is he can be ya led at any time. He reminds me of a lesser version of Falter- who I also don’t want to see in the rotation.

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I agree, for now. There was just discussion of it on the postgame show last night and Andrew Destin wrote in the PG:

"The way Ortiz has pitched in June, earning his first career MLB save and covering a plethora of innings, he’s building an argument for a chance to enter the starting rotation for the first time this season."

I agree with Andrew (and the postgame guys) that he's "building an argument", but had those things I noted been different, nobody would be writing or suggesting such.

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Ohhh ok. I didn’t see the post game or the article. Yea, I just don’t see sustainable success for a guy who is striking out 7 batters per 9. I guess the conservation exists since 2/5 of the rotation is not playoff caliber.

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The good news is, most teams with 3 playoff caliber teams compete well in the playoffs. The Pirates have 3 top end starters now.

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Brennan Malone just left his FCL start mid at bat with an apparent injury

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That guy has no luck, though some refer to the ability to stay healthy as a skill. It almost makes me wonder if the Dbacks recognized a higher-than-normal risk with him which made him available in the Marte trade.

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Heat exhaustion why he left today. He’ll be good for next week

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That's a relief.

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That is what Brennan said in the clubhouse getting cool down treatment 😁. I too am glad that is all it was for him.

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You're Saturday Updated Carrot Leader Board

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The Carrot Tally So Far:*

Keller 22

Jones 15

BabySkenes 13

Falter 12

Nick the Stick 12

B.Rey 12

Cutch 11

O’Cruz 10

L. Ortiz 10

Joe 8

Oliveras 7

Tellez 7

M. Gonzales 6 injured

M. Perez 6 injured

Bednar 5

Suwinski 5

HodorMan 5

ChapMan 5

Flemming 3

Granny 3

Triolo 3

Hayes 3

R.Ryan 2 minors

Davis 2

Bart 2 injured

Williams 2

Bae 2

Contreras 1 traded

J. Hernandez 1 minors

M A Taylor 1

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Friday, June 14

33 down. 48 to go.

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The Pirates win another bullpen game (strategery!) with a good showing by L. Ortiz. The cavemen were back at the bat rack knocking the spit outta some baseballs. The Pirates are in fourth place, seven games outta first, one game outta third and a half a game outta last. With all this said, things are looking sunny. The team has some holes in it, but feels like it is about to …click.

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CARROTS ON THE HOUSE!!!

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@> The Bullpen, accepting for the pen today is the guy who had the clear standout performance, Luis Ortiz, who bulked five innings of one run ball.

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@>@>B. Rey, who went 2 for 4 with a run and two knocked in.

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@>@>@>Cutch, who has been nothing but a joy to watch in his Pops-type season. The once and future pirate is nothing if not a pleasure to watch with a bat in his hands. Relish it while you can, folks.

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_______________________________

“I’ll do it. But I’ll hate myself in the morning.”

-Wabbit

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Down here at the hottest place on the planet, Pinehurst 2 for the US Open. I think it hit 93 and the sun is merciless. Followed Tiger and my thought regarding his day came true - he is not in shape to walk 18 in this type of heat and humidity. Looked like he would make the cut after the front nine, but he melted on the back.

Glad to see 'Cutch, Reynolds and Suwinski go yard, and an interesting move with Tri giving Oneil a one game break at SS. And, the Vols had them all the way in the CWS. Sweep of the whole system in the US? LL Ortiz is quickly establishing himself as a key part of the team.

For subscription renewal there have to be a lot of us in the last month - some easy way to renew?

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The only way Tiger could compete on the PGA Tour is in a cart.

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I'll be at Oakmont next year. Although not a fan of how they cleared the course of trees about 10 years ago.

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I was there in 2016 and remember thinking how bad it looked without all those trees that gave it such character.

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It should auto renew when you hit the year mark. Next month will be a year for the site, so in turn a lot should hit the renewal mark as well.

If you want an exact date email me and let me know and I’ll pull it up to find out.

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I clicked on the picture of my avatar in the upper right hand corner and then "manage subscription" and it told me the renewal date (July 22) and which card I used, which I wasn't sure of. Much easier to get the info than a previous prospect site I belonged to which I won't mention.

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