CHICAGO – After talking to Jacob Stallings yesterday about getting called up to the big leagues, I talked with him about the two top pitching prospects remaining in Indianapolis — Tyler Glasnow and Chad Kuhl. The Pirates could use some pitching help. However, neither pitcher looks ready at the moment.
Kuhl has been hit around a lot lately, giving up 12 earned runs on 24 hits in 13 innings. Glasnow hasn’t seen the earned runs or the hits, with just one run on five hits in his last four starts. However, he has seen some serious control issues, walking 17 in 21 innings over that span.
“They’re just still going through their process,” Stallings said. “Obviously early in the year they had a ton of success. Chad is working his way through struggles for him. For most people, it would probably be a normal start. It’s been great. Those are guys I’ve come up through the system with. They’re two of my best friends in the system, so it’s been fun to see them grow and just try to help them get better.”
Stallings has always been great at breaking down what is happening with his pitchers — probably one of the reasons he works so well with pitchers. So I wanted to dig a little deeper to see what was happening with each guy in their recent outings.
Tyler Glasnow
Glasnow creates an interesting debate. Some point to his lack of hits and runs as a sign that he could help in the big leagues now, with those trends eliminating his control problems. But the reality is that if he’s walking almost a batter an inning in Triple-A, then the control will only be worse in the majors. The hits and runs will also go up when that happens. We’ve seen with Francisco Liriano this year what happens when a guy can’t throw in the strike zone consistently.
“I think he’s just trying to get in a good rhythm in his windup,” Stallings said. “I think most of the walks have actually come in his windup. He’s just trying to get comfortable. People like him, long limbs, it’s hard to always stay connected and stay on time. He’s just trying to work through that. His stuff, it’s always been there.”
Stallings said that he’s not as worried about the windup, since Glasnow is doing a good job of throwing to both sides of the plate. He just needs to get all of his moving parts in control going forward.
Another thing Glasnow has been working on lately is throwing his changeup.
“He’s throwing his changeup more, which was really effective for him in his last start,” Stallings said. “I know he hates walks, and likes to cut them down. He’s been aggressive. He’s not okay with it, but I’m okay with it if he’s being aggressive.”
The final thing Glasnow needs to work on is throwing his curveball for strikes early in counts. Right now, hitters can sit on the fastball early, knowing that the changeup isn’t developed and he can’t throw a curve for a strike early in the count. He needs one of those two to develop before he can be an option in the majors.
“He’s getting better with that,” Stallings said of the curve. “He’s been really putting guys away with it too. We’re trying to throw it enough where guys can’t just sit fastball early in the count and ambush him. He’s done a really nice job of keeping guys off counts.”
The changeup requires more work for Glasnow. That said, if he can get to a point where he can throw the curve for early strikes, it would really help his control, as it would give him a pitch to battle back with when the fastball is struggling. Right now, if the fastball struggles, he’s in trouble.
Chad Kuhl
Kuhl looked fantastic early in the season, but has hit a wall in his most recent games. He’s a pitch to contact guy, so the large amount of hits are more troublesome for him. His slider is good enough that he could get strikeouts if he worked for them, but his sinker usually gets weak enough contact that he doesn’t need to extend the count and go for strikeouts.
Stallings didn’t have a clear answer on the recent starts, except for Kuhl just hitting a wall recently and trying to work out of it.
“I think he’s just partly trying to work on things,” Stallings said. “Just working on his changeup. We’ve been throwing that more. Not saying that’s why he’s been getting hit. He’s been a little up in the zone. He put so many good starts together, he was bound to run into some trouble. He’s working hard, and he’s going to get out of it.”
The changeup is the big pitch that Kuhl has been working on this year. Stallings praised the pitch when I talked to him about it a month ago. However, it has struggled a bit lately.
“He was throwing it really well early in the season, and I think he just lost a little confidence with it,” Stallings said. “So he started throwing it to both sides of the plate, and really get that confidence back. I think we’ll start seeing the Chad that we saw the first two months of the year.”
That would be good, because the Pirates need a lot of help with their rotation. Glasnow has the much higher upside in the long-term, but right now, Kuhl looks like he’s closer to helping in the big leagues if he can get back to where he was before this recent stretch.
