6/8 Recap vs Royals

This one looked good from the very start whenever the Pirates jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the first inning whenever Garret Jones hit an RBI double to bring in the games first run. The Bucs furthered their lead in the second inning with singles by Neil Walker and Clint Barmes. On the Barmes base-hit it was just stupid base-running on behalf of the Pirates when they sent the slowest guy on the team Barajas home with none out.

After looking real strong early Erik Bedard got slightly rattled in the fourth inning allowing the Royals to get all the way back to within one run. Bedard finished strong after this though going 7 inning's on just two runs. Bedard also stuck out five and only allowed five hits as well, a very good start from the left-handed pitcher.

The Pirates tacked on one more in the third with some very bad and good base-runing in the same play. Jose Tabata got picked off of first base with just one out with Pedro Alvarez on third, Alvarez kept a heads up eye on the rundown waiting for the right moment to head home. He made it there without a throw while the Royals tagged out Tabata

I was slightly disappointed with the energy in the stadium tonight. The energy was better then most nights don't get me wrong but I do not think that it was to the level that everyone said it was.

Tomorrow night at 7:15 the Pirates will look to take an early series victory when James McDonald (5-2, 2.14) will go against Vin Mazzaro (2-0, 2.25). Should be another good game one that I am looking forward to.

Hammer Time Doesn't Mean What It Used To.

Joel Hanrahan blew his second save of the season last night against the Reds, but unlike most people I was not particularly surprised about this. Hanrahan has still gotten the save in 15 out of 17 opportunities so far this year but he has not looked nearly as sharp as he did in his 2011 campaign. I do think that if Hanrahan does not fix some things that he could blow even more saves in the future, costing the Pirates valuable wins.

There are a few obvious stats that stick out to me right right off the bat that show that Hanrahan is not up to par, one of those stats being his walks. Hanrahan has only pitched about 1/3 of the total innings that he had pitched last year and he already has 13 total walks compared to his 16 all of last year. I know this is obvious but it is really hard to not give up runs when you are giving the other team free base-runners like Hanrahan is. It is especially important in a reliever's role to not give up walks because most of the time you are coming in a one or two run game so any run you give up is especially important.

Another eyebrow raising stat is Hanrahan's especially high number of home-runs allowed. Hanrahan has already given up four home-run's this year compared to his one all of last year. This is a 400% percent increase and we are only 1/3 of the way through the season. Granted only one home-run in 68.2 innings is outstanding for any pitcher but allowing four in only 22 innings is especially bad. If Hanrahan continues on this pace he will finish the season with 12 home-run's allowed. This high of a total is not close to what should be expected by a 4.1 million dollar a year closer like Hanrahan.

The next stat that jumps out to me is Hanrahan's ERA. I myself am not a particular big fan in reliever's ERA but I think in this situation it is very telling. To this point in the season Hanrahan has an ERA of 2.86 not terrible by any means but it is still a whole run higher then his ERA last year of 2.83. You can live with a 2.86 ERA but in my estimation I see this ERA going up. This seems like a fairly random prediction but trust me I have a reason for this. Hanrahan's BABIP is at a crazy low mark for this point in the season at .191. In case you are not aware BABIP is is basically a number to tell you how lucky or how unlucky a pitcher or hitter is getting. For a pitcher the lower the BABIP the luckier you are the higher the BABIP the more unlucky you are. If you are more interested on the stat you can read one of our previous article's here where it explains BABIP when talking about James McDonald. There is no way that Hanrahan can keep this luck the entire season which means that he will give up more runs and blow more saves unless he figures out what he is doing wrong and fixes it.

The last thing that is standing out to me is Hanrahan's loss of velocity from 2011 to 2012. This is something that has gone unnoticed by most but not by me. Last year Hanrahan averaged a speed of 97.0 MPH on his fastball, fast enough to blow by even some of the best hitters in the league. This year Hanrahan has a speed of only 95.9 MPH on his fastball. This might not seem like much to you but to a major league hitter it makes a huge difference. This mere 1.1 MPH drop of Hanrahan's fastball has caused Hanrahan's fly-ball percentage to rise from 28.6% all the way to 51.0%. In my opinion a 22.4% increase in fly-balls is enough evidence to say that  major league hitters can tell and take advantage of a velocity drop of 1.1 MPH.

Joel Hanrahan has gotten to this point in the season with average stats and has gotten away with it 15 out of 17 times. This will not continue unless Hanrahan makes a change. I am not a pitching coach or even much of a pitcher so I can not tell you what Hanrahan is doing wrong mechanically but he is defiantly not doing anything perfectly. The Pirates are a team that can not afford to blow a lot of games late, every chance they have a chance to win in the ninth inning they must do it. If the Pirates want to win a championship like Hanrahan himself says he wants to and thinks they can do then, or even be a contender for the playoffs then Hanrahan must find the hammer within him and bring it out for the world to see.



6/7 Game Recap vs. Reds

On a Thursday night in Cincinnati Ohio the Pirates squeezed out a tight 5-4 win over the Reds taking the series and moving back up to just two game out of first place and two games over .500. This one took ten innings to settle and came in a very unlikely almost unthinkable situation.

This one started off on a rough note for the Bucs when Jay Bruce came to the plate in the second and crushed a solo homer to center-field off of the starting pitcher Kevin Correia, this was Bruce's 13th home-run this year. The Pirates answered and took the lead in the top of the fourth when Neil Walker drove in lead-off man Alex Presley with a solid double to right field. Walker later came around to score on a sacrifice fly hit by Garret Jones.

When the Reds came to the plate in the fifth inning the becoming infamous Ryan Ludwick did it again and hit a solo shot to left-field. The sixth inning was an exciting one and it all started when Garret Jones came through with his second RBI of the game with a single to left to once again bring home Presley. The Pirates had to work some magic in the bottom of the same inning to just limit the Reds runs to one run. Michael McKenry hit a sacrifice fly in the seventh to give the Pirates a 4-3 lead.

The Pirates held the lead until the very first pitch of the bottom of the ninth where Joel Hanrahan gave Ryan Ludwick his second homerun of the game. The Reds brought in their lights out closer Aroldis Chapman and his 0.00 season ERA. The Pirates started the inning off with a truly great at bat by Clint Barmes where he crushed a double to left-center. The very next batter Michael McKenry hit a powerful opposite field double to drive in Barmes and give the Pirates a 5-4 lead. The Pirates held onto this lead in the bottom of the tenth but it was interesting when Resop allowed runners to reach first and second with just one out, but he
successfully worked out of it giving the Pirates a very exciting win.

Correia's final line went as followed: 5 Innings Pitched. 8 Hits. 3 ER. 1 BB. 4 SO.

The Pirates will return home tomorrow to face the Royal's just two games out of first place. Lets get excited about this team's performance and head down to the stadium this weekend and fill up PNC. It could be an exciting weekend at the ballpark if all goes well.

The Pirates Offense...It's Not That Bad

In six games from May 28th to June 3rd the Pirates scored 22 runs, averaging 3.67 runs a game.  Granted, that may not sound like much, but lets compare that to other stretches so far this season.  Throughout, April the Pirates offense was record breaking bad.  The club was last in almost every major offense category, except homeruns.  In fact, in a similar six game span from April 16th to April 22nd, the Bucs only scored 12 runs, averaging 2 runs a game. Why the dramatic change?

A lot of people may be thinking this is due to less challenging pitching, but that cannot account for the dramatic change.  For example, the Reds are 7th in the MLB in pitching and when we played them in early May we only scored 4 runs over a three game series.  While in the first two games of this series the Bucs have scored 12 runs and counting.  So pitching challenge may account for part of the change, but I think there is still more to this story.

The difference between then and now has been offensive production from younger players.  Even though most of them do not have the numbers we would hope, there has been a considerable increase in performance.  Take Hague as an example, at the end of April he had a terrible average of .111, but since then he has increased it to .229, a considerable change.  Garrett Jones, even though he is not a young guy, is also contributing greatly to the teams recent success.  He is batting .313 in June so far and is on pace to hit around 20 homers this season.  Jones has also been helped by McCutchen who has been a constant throughout the season, and his stats show this as well.  He leads the team in every major offensive stat, an unprecedented accomplishment.

Overall I would expect this uptick in offense to continue and the Pirates pitching to subdue a little as it has recently. But, if nothing else, it makes the games more exciting to go to when you get to see so much young talent performing well.  The future of the Pirates offense may not be as bleak as had been predicted, in-fact I think the best is still to come.

5/6 Recap vs. Reds

The Bucs lost 4-5 in a close game to the Reds tonight, who increased their division lead to 3 games.  The Pirates scored off of a Walker single that scored Barajas, and a McCutchen three run homerun.  Cueto had a great game, and Lincoln looked promising through 3 innings, but giving up 4 runs in the fourth did him in. After Lincoln was taken out Slaten and Hughes pitched four more scoreless innings. Chapman came in, to close it out for the Reds striking out Barajas on a smoking 101 MPH pitch

The Pirates record now stands at 28-27 one game over .500 and the Pirates will look to take the series tomorrow.  The Reds also improved their record against the Bucs to 12-5 in the last 17 matchups.  Overall, it was a decent game for the Pirates, Hague went 0-4 again but Presley seems to be regaining some of what we saw last year.

A Closer Look at Pirates Top 10 Picks

Obviously the draft has been going on for the past few days and everyone is trying to figure out how the Pirates did compared to the rest of the league. Figuring this out goes way beyond the first round especially in baseball so instead of doing one big post on Pirates first round draft pick Mark Appel I thought it would be more appropriate to do a post on the Pirates Top 10 picks where of course Appel would be included. But just in case you are looking for a place to take an even deeper look at Appel you should check out the link below at fangraphs where they thoroughly explain Mark Appel and the big problems that come with him.


1.) Mark Appel- By now most of you already know the story of Appel but I will just go along and tell it again anyways. Appel was the 8th overall selection of the draft and the first pick taken by the Pirates. Appel is currently a Junior at Stanford where he is preparing to play in the NCAA super regional tournament the final step before the college world series. Most people were highly surprised that Appel fell all the way down to the 8th pick partly because he was the number one ranked player in the draft according to Baseball America. Appel has a mid 90's fastball and an above average slider along with a spectacular circle change. The one problem that comes with Appel is that he represented by Scott Boras and even though Appel was only the 8th overall pick Boras will be demanding that he gets paid like a 1st overall guy which will be difficult to pay with the new CBA. Like I mentioned before the article on fangraphs explains this in detail if you are interested.

2.) Barret Barnes- Many thought that after picking Appel in the first round the Pirates would really back off on their picks going for guys that they could sign for cheap contacts to free up room for Appel, but they did the opposite in picking Barnes. Barnes is a Junior outfielder coming out of Texas Tech and really performed well late in the year moving his name up the boards late. Barnes has good pop in his bat and hits for a good average. Barnes has played mostly center-field showing great speed in college but projects to be more of a corner guy at the pro level.

3.) Wyatt Mathisen- The 69th overall pick of the 2012 draft was especially interesting to me when the Pirates took a high-school catcher who has never really eve6r played catcher before. Mathisen mostly played SS and pitched for his high-school team in Texas, but looks like he will be playing catcher as a pro. Mathisen goes R/R and has okay power in the batters box. This move interesting to me because just a few days ago the Pirates promoted their number one catching prospect in Tony Sanchez to Triple-A. Most likely Sanchez will have already been in the Big Leagues by the time Mathisen gets to that point but it will be interesting to see how Mathisen's numbers compare to Sanchez as he comes up through the minors that is if they get him signed.

4.) Jonathan Sandfort- With their fourth selection in the draft the Pirates took their second right handed pitcher of the draft. Sandfort is a prep guy and is committed to playing baseball at Florida next year but is very open about playing pro-ball if the right opportunity arises. Sandfort has very good speed on his fastball but a little to slow of a curve-ball. It will be interesting to see if Sandfort signs or sticks with his commitment to play for Florida.

5.) Brandon Thomas- The Pirates had the 136th pick in the draft and they decided to use it on their third College Junior of the draft and their second outfielder. The big upside in my opinion about Thomas is that he is a switch hitter and can go gap to gap from both sides of the plate. Thomas also has great speed like most center-fielders but is often afriad to use it on the base-paths. Thomas's downfall is his arm which is average at best but that can be improved with long toss and other similar activities.

6.) Adrian Sampson- Sampson is a victim of the infamous Tommy John surgery which he had his senior year of high school causing him to go undrafted and take the Junior College route. Sampson does not have overpowering stuff but he can commend his pitches very well being able to throw all of them for strikes consistently. Sampson is defiantly someone looking to sign very quickly, he is also right handed.

7.) Eric Wood- It is tough finding a lot of information on this guy but what I do know is that he plays third-base and in high-school he ran a 7.20 60. So take it for what its worth but I think this is just a pick where the Pirates were looking not to save a little bit of cash. I really dont ever see Wood making it to the big leagues but then again what do I know?

8.) Jacob Stallings- Stallings was taken as the 226 overall pick in the draft and is a college catcher at North Carolina University. Stallings his just below .300 this year at UNC but shows his real upside on defense. Stallings knows how to handle a pitching staff and really shows it in a article write by Tar Heel Monthly. Stallings will most likely start progressing faster then previous pick Wyatt Mathisen because of his strong defense but will eventually be passed because of Mathisen's stellar bat.

9.) Kevin Ross- The Pirates finally addressed there lack of depth in the minors at the middle infield positions when they took Kevin Ross a SS out of high-school in Illinois. Ross hit .451 in his senior year at prep schooll and shows a quick bat with good pop. Ross will most likely be looking to play third at a pro level not having the speed to play SS. So even though the Pirates addressed the middle infield they really did not address the middle infield.

10.) Douglas Crumilch- The Pirates took a college SS out of UC Irvine as the 286 overall pick of the draft. This is the second straight year the Pirates have taken Crumilch but this year he seems to be an easy sign considering he is a Senior and his only real option is to sign. Crumilch unlike Stallings projects to be a professional SS and had a nice average this year hitting .324 for UC Irvine.

I would say that to this point in the draft the Pirates have been strong and it's a class I feel pretty confident about. Also if you are wondering why I didn't do anything about the later rounds in the draft it's because that hardly ever do those players make it to the big leagues. Player taken beyond this point are used strictly to fill roster spots and used as organizational players their whole careers. Also if you are looking for more information on the Appel situation then this is by far the best website for it. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/the-pirates-game-theory-dilemma/.

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Draft Pick

With the 8th pick overall the Pirates take RHP Mark Appel.