Last night, Nick Kingham put together his second straight solid performance. They came right after his worst outing of the season back on July 19th when he allowed eight earned runs over four innings. These last two starts have each been one run over seven innings with no walks. The only real downside to them is that he allowed eight hits in each game.
I’ve watched these games closely because this is a big time period for Kingham. He was added to the 40-man roster after the 2014 season and used up his three options over these last three years. Tommy John surgery really cut into that time, but we are still talking about some who had Triple-A experience before 2015, then made six starts that year before the injury and a total of 11 starts last year, including his playoff game. He was actually throwing during the entire 2016 season, just most of it was spent down in Extended Spring Training. So despite the injury, Kingham still has a lot of minor league experience up to this point, including over 350 innings between Double-A and Triple-A.
The 2018 season is a big one for Kingham. He is going to need to be on the Opening Day roster. With that in mind, the Pirates should be trying to get him Major League experience ahead of time. They aren’t holding him back though. The problem is that he hasn’t been pitching like someone who should be in the majors until these last two starts. That’s not enough to say he is completely back to form, but it’s a great start.
The difference in these last two games has been fastball command. That is something that wasn’t an issue for him before his injury. Even last year, he had his moments where he was really pitching well and all we were waiting for was a return in his velocity. That hasn’t returned to the previous level of 92-95, touching 97-98 MPH, but I did notice that there were a lot more 94’s on the gun last night and fewer 91’s than I was seeing earlier in the season. The slight velocity increase is a nice sign, but the command of the fastball is the big deal.
Kingham has really had just one bad inning over the last 14 innings and that was the first inning of yesterday’s game. The first two batters reached on singles, one of them well hit. They then attempted a double steal and Jacob Stallings caught the lead runner. That was followed by two hard hit balls right at fielders, both for outs. It was a lot of hard contact that doesn’t show up in the line score. That’s just one inning out of 14, so you like your chances when he looks strong in 93% of his innings over two extended starts.
The lone run in his first start during this stretch came on a home run, which was quoted as his only mistake. That’s one of the funniest things about baseball lingo, when a pitcher says he made just one mistake. I watched the location of every single pitch in that game, some of them more than once with the replays. Kingham missed the target from Stallings badly on five pitches, three of which went for outs, one was called a ball and one was a swinging strike. That’s five pitches out of 98, but the home run came on a 92 MPH fastball on the outside corner and down, right to the target. There was no mistake on that pitch, the batter won that battle by raw power.
When you miss on five pitches during an entire seven inning start, with three of them actually coming during the final two batters, you have what is known in the baseball world as plus command on that night. If you look back at all of those poor starts from June and early July, the one constant was Kingham missing location on pitches. When he wasn’t missing off of the plate, he was missing down the middle and paying for those mistakes. You don’t often get away with mistakes down the middle unless you’re throwing harder than the 91-93 MPH we saw then.
If his command is back, and I won’t say it is based strictly on two games, then Kingham is someone who will have no trouble making the MLB roster next year because he will be one of the best 12 pitchers for the Pirates. He won’t be forced on the roster because of the rules.
Kingham never lost his changeup, which I consider a plus pitch. It’s a pitch he uses in any count, to any batter, and has a lot of success with it. Kingham never lost the curve, which can look like a plus pitch at times, one of those being last night. He did have some games this year when he wasn’t throwing it for strikes, so it wasn’t effective, but that hasn’t been the case in many starts I’ve watched. His problem in most of those games was the fastball getting hammered on mistakes.
So now you have a player, who in these last two starts, has had three pitches that look at least above average. He does a great job of using all three pitches as well, really mixing them all game. When all three are on at the same time, that makes him very difficult to hit against. We might be seeing an uptick in velocity as well, if last night is any indication.
Due to his status for next season, he is someone who I think should be up on September 1st, even if Indianapolis looks like a playoff team. Leaving him down might give him nine more Triple-A starts instead of just six if they call him up the day rosters expand. The experience in the majors for the final 31 days would outweigh anything he could gain from 2-3 more Triple-A starts. It would be nice if they could get him up sooner than that though. If he continues to pitch like he has these last two games, a couple extra weeks in Pittsburgh could be a possibility.
PIRATES GAME GRAPH
Source: FanGraphs
TODAY’S SCHEDULE
Today’s Starter and Notes: The Pittsburgh Pirates lost 4-2 to the San Diego Padres on Saturday night. The Pirates will send Gerrit Cole to the mound tonight for his 22nd start. He has a 4.31 ERA in 11 road starts this season. Cole has a 2.52 ERA in four starts this month. The Padres will counter with lefty Clayton Richard, who has a 5.37 ERA in 127.1 innings, with 90 strikeouts and a 1.61 WHIP.
In the minors, Tyler Glasnow gets the start for Indianapolis. He has not allowed more than two earned runs in any of his eight starts. Mitch Keller goes for Bradenton today and he has looked really strong in each of his last two starts, hitting 99 numerous times and even one 100 MPH. When both Glasnow and Keller started on Tuesday night, they were hitting 99 MPH often early in the game at the same time. With both of those top names going today, the best pitcher right now might be Ike Schlabach, who is going for Morgantown. He has allowed one run in his last 24 innings, going six innings in each of his last four starts.
All of those doubleheaders yesterday really messed up the schedule, so there are some unknowns for starters today. Luis Escobar and Travis MacGregor should get starts because Saturday was their turn in the rotation before the Friday rain outs. The GCL and DSL Pirates are both off on Sundays.
MLB: Pittsburgh (50-54) @ Padres (47-57) 4:40 PM
Probable starter: Gerrit Cole (3.62 ERA, 17:78 BB/SO, 131.2 IP)
AAA: Indianapolis (58-49) vs Pawtucket (54-52) 1:35 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Tyler Glasnow (1.46 ERA, 22:64 BB/SO, 49.1 IP)
AA: Altoona (54-50) vs Trenton (71-34) 6:00 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Austin Coley (2.90 ERA, 26:82 BB/SO, 105.2 IP)
High-A: Bradenton (59-43) vs Palm Beach (57-45) 1:00 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Mitch Keller (3.28 ERA, 20:60 BB/SO, 71.1 IP)
Low-A: West Virginia (47-53) @ Hagerstown (57-45) 2:05 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: TBD
Short-Season A: Morgantown (23-14) @ Williamsport (20-16) 5:05 PM (season preview)
Probable Starter: Ike Schlabach (1.66 ERA, 8:25 BB/SO, 38.0 IP)
Rookie: Bristol (9-28) @ Danville (18-19) 4:00 PM
GCL: Pirates (11-18) vs Yankees East (14-13) 12:00 PM 7/31
DSL: Pirates (26-22) vs Rangers1 (28-19) 10:30 AM 7/31 (season preview)
HIGHLIGHTS
Here are two highlights from Danny Ortiz from this week. Highlight choices are light because Indianapolis hasn’t had any the last couple of days, and Altoona was rained out. Plus, Morgantown is on the road, so they haven’t been able to put together any Bligh Madris highlights. So here is some defense by Ortiz…
…Followed by a homer
RECENT TRANSACTIONS
7/28: Jordan Luplow promoted to Pittsburgh Pirates. Edwin Espinal promoted to Indianapolis. Jordan George promoted to Altoona.
7/28: Austin Meadows assigned to GCL Pirates on rehab.
7/27: Logan Hill placed on disabled list. Justin Maffei assigned to Altoona.
7/27: Steven Brault optioned to Indianapolis.
7/25: Connor Joe activated from Altoona disabled list. Justin Maffei assigned to Indianapolis.
7/25: Jonathan Schwind assigned to Morgantown.
7/23: Adrian Valerio placed on disabled list. Andrew Walker assigned to West Virginia.
7/22: Gregory Polanco placed on the disabled list. Steven Brault recalled from Indianapolis.
7/22: Hector Garcia assigned to Morgantown on rehab.
7/21: Adonis Pichardo assigned to GCL Pirates from Bristol. Ryan Valdes, Hector Quinones and Will Reed promoted to Bristol.
THIS DATE IN PIRATES HISTORY
Seven former Pittsburgh Pirates players born on this date, plus four trades of note and another birthday mention. Before we get into the players, current manager Clint Hurdle turns 60 today. With all the players and trades, I’m only going to list their names and then you can just check the link above if you want to read about Johnny Rizzo holding the club record for homers in single season, or what it was like when Chuck Ward took over at shortstop for Honus Wagner in 1917.
Mickey Mahler- Lefty reliever for 1980 Pirates
Bill Hall – Catcher, who played for the team in 1954, 1956 and 1958
Johnny Rizzo – 1938-40 outfielder, set club record with 23 homers in 1938.
Hal Finney – Catcher from 1931-34, 1936. He went 0-for-35 and didn’t reach base once that final season.
Chuck Ward – 1917 shortstop. How hard could it be to replace Honus Wagner?
Casey Stengel – 1918-19 outfielder. Yes, that Stengel. He was a fairly good baseball player before becoming a Hall of Fame manager.
Bill Merritt – Catcher from 1894 until 1897.
THE TRADES
2011: Derrek Lee acquired from Orioles for minor league first baseman Aaron Baker.
2009: Tom Gorzelanny and John Grabow sent to Cubs for Josh Harrison, Kevin Hart and Jose Ascanio.
2004: Kris Benson and Jeff Keppinger sent to Mets for Ty Wigginton, Jose Bautista and Matt Peterson.
2001: Jason Schmidt and John Vander Wal dealt to Giants in exchange for Armando Rios and Ryan Vogelsong.
