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Pete Hansen had a very nice start today as well. 6 innings, 1 hit, 2 walks, and 7 K’s. No runs allowed. Lots of Quality starts all around our minor league teams. Maybe this will rub off on their Major League older cousins!
I 100% think there is a lot of validity to this last comment. Our pitching has still been poor, but no question that poor defense has exacerbated the problem. Walker has been really bad. O’Neill in center field has been pretty bad. Burleson in general isn’t very good. And both Knizner and Contreras are poor at D as well. That’s a lot of difference from last year. We saw the alternate outcome the night Woodford pitched against the Pirates and was pretty poor, but we had an elite defense that night behind him that saved multiple big hits. Our starters just aren’t elite. They are really ho-hum. But with an elite defense, then generally perform a little above average.
Thomas and McGreevey both have very good lines tonight as well.
McGreevey is starting the 7th inning now. But he came into it having walked zero and given up one run. 7 hits and 9 strikeouts.
Thomas has pitched his best game thus far. 6 innings, 4 hits, 1 run, 1 walk, 3 strikeouts. And he may still continue into the 7th.
He finishes with 6 innings, no runs, no walks, 2 hits, and 7 strikeouts. Only allowed a grounder through the infield and a ground ball single to the catcher.
Rajcic so far – 5 innings, 1 hit, no runs, 7 Ks, no walks. Both he and Mautz look great so far. But it is Low A. At this pace, both will probably move up around Memorial Day like we did with McGreevey and Graceffo last year.
Correction on what I said above. Curialle isn’t quite as old as I thought. I was thinking he was 22 going on 23. But he’s 21 and will be 22 in June. So he’s not really “old” for his level. Maybe just slightly older than average.
I wouldn’t be interested in Bumgarner unless he agreed to go to AAA. Right now he’s pretty bad. He’d certainly be behind Woodford and Liberatore and maybe Connor Thomas too. And, if I were a gambling man, I would bet on the Cardinals now taking an opportunity to stretch out Pallante and allow him to start again. Hudson appears about done (I’m not quite ready to throw in the towel, but it’s close) and Graceffo really needs at least 4 months of seasoning. Plus, VerHagan isn’t an option anymore since he is now completely relied on in the pen. So the starting pitching depth in the short run is going to be Libby, Jakey W, and Pallante. At least that would be my bet. But sure, if Bumgarner wants to come pitch at Memphis, then why not?
He’s old for his level. He actually used to be a well thought of college player who just never really blossomed and got passed up. So we got him with a late round pick. He has an outside chance to one day be a MLB utility infielder I think. He does have fairly good raw skills (hence why he used to be well thought of). So maybe we find a way to unlock that?
It looked like a hanging slider to Marte. But overall, Jack was pretty good. Too bad he couldn’t get through one more inning though. The bullpen could have used some rest.
Yeah, catching has been the same black hole in the lineup as last year. But at least last year we had Yadi’s defense. I wasn’t a fan of the Contreras signing. I have no doubt that he will hit a lot better than he has. But 5 years is a really long time for a poor defensive catcher in his mid 30’s. At least we have Herrera, Bernal, and Crooks coming up to potentially move him to backup long-term.
BikeMike, I think we as fans need to have some more patience with certain pitchers. Especially ones that look like they’re still learning. Oviedo fits that. Liberatore is certainly another that we’ve seen so many of us harp on before even though he was (and is) still so young.
He threw Carlson 5 sliders in 6 pitches. And Carlson swung and missed 3 of them. Clear game plan against Dylan.
Wow Euro! In today’s age we see so few sac bunts. But a guy like Eddy is probably the right pick for it. He occasionally gets into one and his sac bunts are still competitive tries for a hit due to his legs.
I hear you BikeMike on the walks. Woody was solid there and typically has been in his career. But when I look at every pitch that got hit and 80% (or about there) were hit at 100mph or more (by the Pirates mind you), that’s scary. Our defense saved us a few times.
I like the defensive alignment tonight much better. It just feels more comfortable getting O’Neill back in left and Dylan in center. Plus as much as I love Walker’s bat, I prefer Burleson in right by quite a bit.
I agree on O’Neill ZTR. He always seems like he’s guessing at every pitch before it’s thrown and decides beforehand if he wants to swing. He does go on little streaks where his guessing is good. It seems to me in those times he does one of two things- hammer the first pitch or become extremely patient and hunt a sloppy pitch that doesn’t break. But that hasn’t been the case this year.
I disagree with all of you. Woodford was really bad tonight and extremely lucky. He left lots of balls in the middle of the plate and nearly every Pirates hitter was teeing off against him. Nearly every ball hit was a sharp line drive. They just happened to be at many of our defenders. Woodford was extremely lucky and needed to come out. He did earn a few strikeouts, but it’s the Pirates.
On the other hand, Oviedo looks really good. Lots of pitches right on the black or in the corners. He was slightly wild, but not nearly as much as we remember. He’s wearing down a little now and the Pirates should have had a short leash on him this inning like Ollie did with Woodford.
