Today is the last day before the All-Star break begins and it’s a pretty good day on the schedule. The Pirates have taken the series from the Cubs and look for the sweep on Sunday. They are guaranteed a winning record at the All-Star break, which didn’t seem like something you could say back on June 23rd when they lost at home to the San Francisco Giants to drop to 34-39 on the season. I think most people would have signed up for a .500 record at the break in a second at that time, especially with the Dodgers, a west coast trip, four in St Louis and the Cubs all coming up on the schedule.
While I’m sure most of you will be following the action in Pittsburgh, the start in Columbus for Gerrit Cole is a pretty big game. He threw three shutout innings in his first rehab game on Tuesday and dominated a Triple-A lineup. The results today won’t really matter that much, unless they are drastically bad. Even then, the bigger deal will be how he feels after going five innings today. You really just want to see his velocity look good, while using all of his pitches and for him to get through his day feeling strong. That would likely put him in line to start the first game back from the All-Star break on Friday in Washington.
The other rehab game in the minors is Ryan Vogelsong scheduled to go five innings for Altoona. This one isn’t as important for the Pirates, as he won’t even be eligible to come off the disabled list until July 23rd. Then when he is eligible, they might not have a spot for him. From a feel good perspective though, I’m sure everyone wants to see him have a successful comeback from his gruesome injury back in May.
Down in Bradenton, Tim Williams will be watching Yeudy Garcia pitch and we should have some updates about his recent success and ability to keep his pitch count down, which wasn’t happening for the first three months. He has had two straight starts in which he had strong control and a solid pitch count. He was getting results early in the year despite some command issues and a lot of base runners. The problem was that he was forced to leave games early due to his high pitch count. We should also get an update on the velocity and see if it’s gone up at all, possibly to 2015 standards when he was sitting 93-95, instead of the 91-94 we got early this year.
Lastly, I’ll be in Lakewood for my fourth game of a four-game series for the West Virginia Power. I’ll have some passing thoughts in tomorrow’s Morning Report on the players. Most of the position players I also saw last time they were in town, plus I’ve watched about ten games online. It will be my first time seeing Bret Helton other than one online game. He’s not really a candidate for our top 50 prospect list at this point, but seeing him live will give a baseline of what to expect, which then helps spot any possible improvements down the line. His scouting report will go into the secret files at Pirates Prospects Headquarters and we will use them for future reference.
For an idea of how that works out, look no further than Dario Agrazal last night. Our reports had him sitting 87-91 MPH for a long time, touching 93 on occasion. He has been in the system since signing in late 2012 and through the end of last year, nothing changed. There was always the potential though, because he has a motion like he’s just playing catch, very low effort. He also displayed impressive control. If you’re going to add velocity, it helps to control that lower velocity first.
Agrazal went to the Fall Instructional League last September and we heard he hit 94 MPH. That was a new high for him, but we still needed to see if it was something like saying Tyler Glasnow can hit 99 MPH. I have watched every Glasnow start this year and as far as I know, he hit 99 once, and 98 in two different starts, but only 3-4 times total. I got to see Agrazal pitch in March and he was sitting 92-93 the whole time in a three inning outing.
On to last night and he hit 92 with his first pitch, then a couple 93’s before hitting 94 MPH. So there was the magic number, but it wasn’t a one time thing. He hit it a few times in the first, then every fastball in the second inning was 94, except one 93 mixed in there. That changed the scouting report again on him because that’s not touching 94, that’s sitting 94. He wasn’t done though, because in the third and fourth innings he hit 95 MPH.
While his stats this year haven’t been great, Agrazal is now a 21-year-old starter, with excellent command, who was 92-95 in his last start and getting a lot of ground balls. That’s a pretty good scouting report, and if the results start matching the stuff more often (four earned runs in his last 19.1), then you will probably see him on our top 50 prospect list for the first time at the end of the year.
PIRATES GAME GRAPH
Source: FanGraphs
TODAY’S SCHEDULE
Today’s Starter and Notes: The Pirates won 12-6 over the Cubs on Saturday night. Jon Niese gets the start today in the last game before the All-Star break. He is coming off a start in which he allowed one run over 5.2 innings against the Cardinals. In his two prior starts combined, he allowed nine earned runs in 10.2 innings. Niese has faced the Cubs twice and allowed ten earned runs over 10.1 innings. The Cubs will counter with John Lackey, who has a 3.50 ERA in 110.2 innings, with 111 strikeouts and a 1.08 WHIP. In his last start, he allowed five runs on six hits and five walks over six innings against the Reds. Lackey has not faced the Pirates yet this season.
In the minors, two rehab starts of note with Gerrit Cole going for Indianapolis and Ryan Vogelsong pitching for Altoona. This will be the first rehab start for Vogelsong, who has been out of action since May 24th with facial fractures. Cole made a rehab start on Tuesday and threw three shutout innings, striking out six batters.
Yeudy Garcia gets the start for Bradenton, trying to continue his season-long string of not allowing more than three runs in a game. He ranks first in the Florida State League in strikeouts and he’s fifth in ERA. Nicholas Economos goes for Bristol, while both the GCL and DSL Pirates have off today.
MLB: Pittsburgh (46-42) vs Cubs (52-35) 1:35 PM
Probable starter: Jon Niese (4.87 ERA, 34:68 BB/SO, 98.0 IP)
AAA: Indianapolis (48-43) @ Columbus (48-43) 1:05 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Gerrit Cole (0.00 ERA, 0:6 BB/SO, 3.0 IP)
AA: Altoona (49-38) @ Erie (37-53) 1:35 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Ryan Vogelsong (NR)
High-A: Bradenton (45-40) vs Brevard County (26-58) 1:00 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Yeudy Garcia (2.35 ERA, 30:89 BB/SO, 76.2 IP)
Low-A: West Virginia (42-44) @ Lakewood (38-48) 1:05 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Bret Helton (3.81 ERA, 31:59 BB/SO, 82.2 IP)
Short-Season A: Morgantown (10-12) vs Tri-City (11-11) 4:05 PM (season preview)
Probable Starter: Danny Beddes (2.20 ERA, 5:13 BB/SO, 16.1 IP)
Rookie: Bristol (8-8) @ Princeton (8-8) 5:00 PM (season preview)
GCL: Pirates (4-9) vs Tigers East (7-6) 10:00 AM 7/11 (season preview)
DSL: Pirates (11-20) vs Rangers1 (21-9) 10:30 AM 7/11 (season preview)
HIGHLIGHTS
Here is a home run from Matt Diorio, the first of his pro career for the 2016 16th round pick out of Central Florida. No comment on the audio or camera work.
RECENT TRANSACTIONS
7/9: Jonathan Schwind promoted to Indianapolis.
7/8: Pirates sign Josh Outman.
7/8: Josh Bell promoted to Pittsburgh. Tyler Glasnow optioned to Indianapolis.
7/8: Nick Kingham assigned to GCL Pirates on rehab.
7/7: Juan Paula promoted to Morgantown.
7/7: Tyler Glasnow recalled. Kyle Lobstein optioned to Indianapolis.
7/6: Steven Brault optioned to Indianapolis. Kyle Lobstein promoted to Pirates.
7/6: Jacob Stallings sent outright to Indianapolis.
7/6: Pirates released Clario Perez.
7/5: Gerrit Cole assigned to Indianapolis on rehab.
7/5: Steven Brault promoted to Pirates. Jacob Stallings designated for assignment.
7/5: Austin Meadows placed on disabled list.
7/5: Tomas Morales promoted to Indianapolis (sent back to Altoona on 7/6)
7/4: Jameson Taillon placed on 15-day disabled list.
7/4: Jin-De Jhang promoted to Indianapolis. Tomas Morales assigned to Altoona.
7/4: Erik Lunde activated from disabled list. Assigned to Bradenton. Raul Hernandez assigned to GCL.
7/4: Elias Diaz assigned to Bradenton on rehab.
7/4: Chris Stewart placed on disabled list.
7/4: Pirates claim Eric Fryer off waivers. Rob Scahill placed on waivers.
7/3: Pirates sign Chris McDonald and Evan Piechota. Both assigned to GCL.
7/3: Pirates sign six international free agents.
7/3: Yunior Montero promoted to West Virginia.
7/3: Curtis Partch sent outright to Indianapolis.
7/2: Pablo Reyes activated from temporary inactive list. Trace Tam Sing placed on temporary inactive list.
7/1: Julio Vivas promoted to West Virginia.
7/1: Rinku Singh assigned to GCL Pirates on rehab
7/1: Pirates sign Andrew Walker. Assigned to GCL.
6/30: Jorge Rondon sent outright to Indianapolis.
6/30: Erik Lunde assigned to GCL Pirates on rehab.
6/30: Raul Hernandez assigned to Bradenton.
6/30: Jose Regalado placed on disabled list. Tanner Anderson promoted to Bradenton.
6/30: Tomas Morales assigned to Indianapolis. Ed Easley released.
6/30: Jose Osuna promoted to Indianapolis. Jhondaniel Medina assigned to Altoona.
6/29: Pirates sign Nick King and Daniel Cucjen.
6/28: Trevor Williams activated from temporary inactive list.
6/28: Carl Anderson assigned to GCL Pirates on rehab.
6/28: Pirates sign Max Kranick. Assigned to GCL Pirates.
6/27: Pirates sign Buddy Borden. Assigned to Bradenton.
THIS DATE IN PIRATES HISTORY
Two former Pittsburgh Pirates players born on this date, and both were pretty good infielders. Starting with the oldest one first, because his career with the Pirates was very brief. Bobby Lowe pinch-hit for the Pirates on April 17, 1904 and struck out in his only at-bat. He never actually signed a deal with the Pirates, and after making the team as a utility player out of Spring Training, he was quickly let go so he could sign with the Tigers. Lowe played 18 seasons in the majors and put together a solid career, but he is known for just one game. On May 30, 1894, he became the first player in Major League history to hit four home runs in one game. Over 1,821 career games, he hit .273, scoring 1,135 times, while driving in 988 runs and stealing 303 bases.
The second player actually made his name with the Pirates, shortstop Gene Alley. He signed with the Pirates out of high school in 1959 and played for the team from 1963 until 1973, which was also his entire big league career. Alley was the double play combo partner of Bill Mazeroski, and while Maz was getting all the defensive attention, Alley won the NL Gold Glove in both 1966 and 1967. He made two All-Star teams and twice received NL MVP votes. He ended his career with 999 base hits, though if you count his playoff stats, he had exactly 1,000. Unfortunately for Alley, he was 1-for-27 during the postseason. He turns 76 today.
