The Pirates have had a starting pitching problem this year, but as I’ve written recently, they might be coming out of that mess and emerging with some good rotation options. This is largely in part due to the farm system producing a lot of good prospects, and that was on display again tonight.
Trevor Williams pitched eight shutout innings tonight, and you can read all about the start in Brian Peloza’s live report. This continues a strong recent stretch from Williams over his last few starts, which Brian also wrote about recently. In his last five starts, tonight included, Williams has given up three earned runs in 34 innings, with a 24:3 K/BB ratio.
And yet, you could make the argument that Williams is currently the fourth best starting pitching option out of Indianapolis. Tyler Glasnow isn’t going to come close to his upside this year, but looks like he could be a better option than the others. Chad Kuhl needs to get over his recent struggles with leaving the ball up in the zone, but he’s shown that he can do well in the majors, even without his best stuff. Steven Brault looked good in his one outing, and continues pitching well in Indianapolis.
As good as Williams is pitching, he might not even have a shot at the Pirates’ rotation this year. Gerrit Cole and Jameson Taillon are back from the DL. Francisco Liriano isn’t going anywhere, and you hope tonight was a sign of what’s to come for the lefty. Tyler Glasnow could be returning on Saturday, as he has been replaced in the Indianapolis rotation that day by Chad Kuhl, and the Pirates have an opening in their rotation that day. I wrote last night that Jeff Locke needs to be removed from the rotation. The Pirates don’t need a fifth starter until August 6th, so they could just go with the first four guys until then. At that point, they could turn to Kuhl, Brault, or Williams.
It’s possible the Pirates could make a trade to add another starter before the deadline, and it’s possible that the guy traded away could come from the Kuhl/Brault/Williams group. Looking at the situation short-term and long-term, at least two of those guys will be relegated to bullpen options, or starting depth out of Triple-A.
Furthermore, we’ve been working a lot this week on the mid-season prospect rankings, and I couldn’t help but notice that another wave of back of the rotation starters are coming up behind this group, with Stephen Tarpley, Brandon Waddell, Tyler Eppler, and Clay Holmes all potentially arriving in Indianapolis in the next year. And I haven’t even mentioned Frank Duncan, who looks more like a middle reliever in the majors, but could also provide some starting depth out of Triple-A. Then there are the high upside guys in the lower levels — Mitch Keller and Gage Hinsz.
The system still remains very rich with pitching, and the Pirates could afford to trade one of their upper level guys for immediate help in the big league rotation, while probably not feeling the loss in the long-term. But they also could just turn to those upper level guys, and churn through them until they’ve found a guy who can help.
Between Liriano’s potential to bounce back to the pitcher he was before this year, and the strong performances from the Indianapolis starters, the Pirates have everything they need to have a strong rotation down the stretch.
**All week I’ve been mentioning that our mid-season top 30 prospects list will come out by Friday at the latest. Unfortunately, we ran into a last second change of plans, and the mid-season top 30 won’t be happening at all. By that, I mean that we will instead be releasing our mid-season top 50 prospects tomorrow. We went through the process of ranking everyone in the system, and we got to the point where we could have just pushed on and finished the list, so we did. We will have some normal coverage in the morning, with the top 50 going up at noon.
You can only get the top 50 with a subscription to Pirates Prospects. The article will have a database of featured articles, with one piece of analysis for each prospect. So your subscription will give you plenty of articles to read this weekend, and information on every top prospect in the system. Subscribe today to get the rankings.
**Francisco Liriano Strikes Out 13 in Pirates Win Over the Brewers. Alan Saunders with the live report from Pittsburgh tonight.
**Prospect Watch: Trevor Williams Throws Eight Shutout Innings. Live reports tonight from Indianapolis, Altoona, and West Virginia.
**Pirates Notes: Brewers Intend to Make Liriano Throw Strikes Tonight. That kind of backfired on them.
**Casey Hughston Getting a Second Chance in West Virginia. Abigail Miskowiec writes about Casey Hughston’s added power, and his strikeout issues since returning to West Virginia.
**How a Home Run Derby Led to Eric Wood Switching From a Pitcher to Third Base. Sean McCool tells how Eric Wood turned into a position player, and what has led to his power emerging this year.
**Morning Report: Pirates Have Seen Struggles from Players Making the Jump to the States. John Dreker looks at players making the jump from the DSL to the GCL.
