Realistically speaking, the only thing we should be hoping for from Spring Training is that every player makes it through healthy.
The results aren’t nearly as important, especially in the first game, but regardless there were some interesting things to go on during the Pittsburgh Pirates first game against the Toronto Blue Jays, which they lost 9-7.
Mitch Keller was as good as you can be in two innings of work. He faced the minimum, with the lone single allowed erased on a double play that ended the first.
He picked up two strikeouts, threw 22 pitches, 16 of which were strikes. Baseball Savant credited him for throwing seven different pitches, fastball, sinker, slider, curveball, cutter, changeup and sweeper – which is a new pitch on the site.
This MIGHT be the revamped cutter Mitch Keller was talking about.
90 mph. 28" of vertical break. pic.twitter.com/Z29oGWaPYU
— Alex Fast (@AlexFast8) February 25, 2023
The ‘sweeper’ had a spin rate of 2655 rpm, and had 37-inches of vertical break along with 18 of horizontal. Half of the ‘cutters’ he threw were either ‘called strikes’ or ‘whiffs’.
I talked about Keller the other day, and how him starting on Saturday actually lines him up for Opening Day on March 30. He took the right step forward in solidifying that against Toronto.
– Keller was fantastic, Roansy Contreras made it through his inning, but it was a different story for three players expected to make up part of the Pirates’ bullpen.
Jarlin Garcia, Duane Underwood Jr., and David Bednar allowed eight runs (seven earned) over their collective three innings of work.
It’s not a horrible thing to have happen, if only as a reminder to try and not lean one way or another too hard this early – if at all – in Spring.
– Not sure what the weather was like in Bradenton on that day, but the Pirates’ bats brought a nice breeze at times. Not only did they strikeout 16 times, they also whiffed 26 times on 74 total swings (35%), with four players having at least three.
– Liover Peguero had two of this six hardest hit baseballs in the game (107.4 and 104) and while he was credited with two singles, he ended up on second base on both instances. He also had a throwing error, which pretty much describes his 2022 season to a ‘T’.
Getting Peguero back on the right track, after mostly being off season last year, would be huge. It feels like it gets lost in the mix to some just how well he started the season.
Pirates Prospects Daily
By Tim Williams
**No game today. We will be posting the Spring Training lineups at the bottom of these Pirates Prospects Daily articles each day.
**Spring Training Recap: Blue Jays 9, Pirates 7 Pirates played a game yesterday that did not go well, though there were plenty of positives, as show above.
**An Early Pittsburgh Pirates 2023 Draft Preview Our draft coverage began this weekend. We will have a Monday update for the top college players, checking in to see how their weekend went.
**Pirates DVR: Elijah Birdsong Strikeout, Aaron Shortridge Live BP, Nick Gonzales At Third
**Pirates Prospects Daily: Finding Value In JT Brubaker For 2023, And Beyond
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