#But honestly when did max make a mistake due to him being under pressure?

[grogumaximus]

[iloveyoupittsburghpirates-blog]

Keeping Your Head Above Water, Pittsburgh Pirates

My Dearest Pittsburgh Pirates,

That could have been a lot worse. It’s hard to forgive getting swept in a four-game series but Washington was due for some good games and that’s a very talented roster. You faced arguably the best pitcher in the game in Max Scherzer and probably a top 15 pitcher in Stephen Strasburg. They also have Bryce Harper, one of the best hitters in the game. This was a team that, even with injuries, was under-performing. They were bound to have a great series especially at home. You took the hit, got your clock cleaned, and lost four in a row. Things honestly felt even more dire than normal afterwards because you were headed to Milwaukee where you have barely won a game over the last decade even when the team was mediocre unlike the formidable opponent that exists there now. Kudos on bouncing back to win two out of three in Milwaukee. You got another big series from Corey Dickerson, who is your best player right now. You averaged six runs in the three game series thanks mostly in part to a 9-0 win earlier today. You might have even had a chance to win all three if Clint Hurdle could remotely manage a bullpen but more on that shortly. Either way, this is about as happy as I could be with a 2-4 week. You are currently only two games out of first place and you at least appear to be on par with the other teams in your division. So far, the season is still a welcomed surprise but there are certainly still glaring issues that won’t soon go away.

Saturday night’s loss was particularly infuriating and it’s because of Clint Hurdle’s inexplicable decision making with the bullpen. In a 1-1 game in the bottom of the 7th, Hurdle brought in Kyle Crick to pitch which was fine. Crick got into trouble putting men on 1st and 2nd with two outs and one of the Brewers’ best hitters, Christian Yelich who the Brewers acquired from monster offseason trade with Miami, coming up to the plate. Yelich is a lefty and Crick is a righty. I don’t think it’s always necessary to bring in a lefty to face a lefty but this seemed like a no brainer with Steven Brault, a lefty, back in the bullpen. Yelich has a career OPS of .840 against righties and .705 against lefties so bringing in a lefty made logical sense especially with Brault, who lefties have a .635 OPS against in his career. Hurdle left in Crick and Yelich singled in the lead run. Hurdle stuck with Crick who then threw a wild pitch to make it 3-1 before Hurdle finally yanked him for Brault. Brault faced Travis Shaw, a lefty, and got the final out. It was maddening. Then miraculously Polanco walked and Marte homered in the top of the 8th to tie it and all was (somewhat) forgiven. Then came the bottom of the 8th when Hurdle brought in George Kontos. Kontos has been OK as the 8th inning guy this year but it was obvious he didn’t have it this game. After a double, he walked Eric Sogard, who was in an 0-24 slump, on four pitches to make it 1st and 2nd with one out. The Brewers decided to pinch hit with Pirates’ killer Ryan Braun and I assumed you would bring in Richard Rodriguez who has actually pitched quite well since joining the team. No such luck. Kontos stayed in and Braun roped an RBI double. I can’t fathom why Hurdle would let Kontos face a hitter of Braun’s caliber when he was so obviously struggling. Kontos had pitched the last two days so when he showed signs of fatigue it’s incumbent on Hurdle to get him out. Hurdle bullpen management has always been questionable and yesterday it was down-right inexplicable.

Sooooo, Gerrit Cole has basically become the best pitcher in baseball since leaving you. He is the front runner for the AL Cy Young award right now and is on pace to have the most strikeouts in a single season in the last 130 years. Yes, that’s 130. Charlie Morton has also become utterly dominant since going to Houston so it seems like there is a pattern. There have been rumors and discussions that the use of pine tar and how that affects their spin rates could be a factor but for now let’s focus on facts. The fact is the Astros’ method to pitching is to throw more off-speed pitches than fastballs and the fastballs they do throw are more in the top of the zone. Your philosophy is the exact opposite. You want pitchers to throw more fastballs low in the zone in order for them to induce groundballs and to keep pitch counts low allowing starters to go deeper into games. Obviously, for a while, your philosophy worked given how much respect Ray Searge gets and for how many pitchers he fixed over the years. I do know you’ve had pitchers focus a little more on fastballs in the top of the zone this year because baseball has found that’s a good way to offset launch angles. It seems like the game is changing again allowing pitchers to throw more off-speed pitches and it’s something you might have to address. I’m sure you will say the hesitancy is the likelihood of increased arm injuries especially for young, minor leaguers if this became more of an organizational philosophy. I can understand that concern. All I see right now though is that you couldn’t remotely get the most out of a number one overall pick and that’s very concerning. You can’t afford to miss on any first round pick, let alone an early one. But you equally can’t afford to fall short of developing a superior talent. That’s arguably more devastating.

Speaking of not developing superior talents, that’s becoming a legitimate problem for you. Cole is obviously the premier candidate for this argument. How can someone go from being barely above average the last two seasons to the most dominant pitcher in baseball? The more disturbing element is that this hasn’t only happened with Cole. Gregory Polanco has become a concern. After his scorching hot start, he’s been a dud. Over the last month, he has a .198 average with a .300 OBP. He still lacks plate discipline and, even with improvement over the last two weeks, doesn’t appear to be anything in the realm of an elite player. The same could be said for Jameson Taillon. Rather than stepping up into a different stratosphere, he seems to almost be regressing with his strikeout rate decreasing and his dominance wavering. Tyler Glasnow was a top 20 prospect in all of baseball at one point and now he can’t go two innings without getting rocked. We could go even further with the theory by discussing Josh Bell’s pathetic start but I’m far from deeming him a problem. The point is elite talent is not coming to fruition and that can’t happen when you are a small market team. It costs you years. This isn’t something you can blame on a cheap owner. You have the talent and you need to find the people that can develop it properly. Cole and Taillon are both top two picks in the entire draft. I know Taillon has had injury problems but I need to see something more encouraging to believe in the people in charge of bringing out the best talent in people. So far, it’s been below acceptable.

This is an important stretch of games for you. I mentioned last week that your next fourteen games are against teams with a combined record of 49-98 (.363). Nine of those fourteen games are at home and three of those home games are against the only team you will play in that stretch with a winning record, the 19-15 San Francisco Giants. Take them out of the equation and you play eleven games against teams with a combined record of 30-71 (.297) who currently hold three of the worst six records in all of baseball and two of the worst three. This week also offers the you a chance to catch up on some rest which could affect the rotation. Nick Kingham has pitched well in his first two starts but it might behoove you to rest him now if he has an innings limit in case you need him to start important games in September. Tomorrow is a day off, followed by a two-game series in Chicago against the 9-23 White Sox, and then another day off on Thursday. Following the day off, the former face-of-the-franchise, Andrew McCutchen, makes his first return to Pittsburgh for a weekend series with the surging San Francisco Giants. It will be an emotional event for everybody from Cutch, to his former teammates, to all of the Pittsburgh fans. Cutch did start out a tad slow, like usual, but has been great the last month (.436 OBP with 3 homers) and on fire the last week (.500 avg with a .636 OBP) so expect his best. In a five-game week, you need to nurse some injuries and get some rest. You also don’t need to be stingy with your bullpen, Clint! Sorry. Harping on that a little bit. Either way, you have two weeks to take advantage of lesser opponents. You weren’t able to do that in years past so here’s hoping your string of consistency with that this season will continue. Glad to see you on another resurgence and hopefully talk to you after a (no pressure) 4-1 week. Good luck and lots of love as always.

                                                                                Treading Water Beside You,

                                                                                                     Brad

P.S. stands for Pens’ series (Though please check out the radio play, sunshine noir podcast I co-wrote with Chris Maxwell titled DEATH AT SUNSET: HARD TIMES AND SOFT DRINKS. It’s a detective story that follows P.I. Jack Dime as he tracks down the secrets behind a missing busboy and a LA booze shortage in four, 20-ish minute episodes. It’s available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher Radio, Google Radio Play, and SoundCloud.) Unfortunately, the Pittsburgh Penguins are on the brink. After tying the series with the Capitals 2-2, they blew a 3-2 lead in game five in the 3rd period with stupid mistakes and sloppy play. Tomorrow, they will fight for their playoff lives at home to try and force a game 7. Let’s Go Pens!