Welcome to another intriguing edition of Stock Report! The Pittsburgh Pirates were unable to continue their winning streak this week as the team won three of their six games against the San Francisco Giants, Chicago White Sox and San Diego Padres.
After changing things up and focusing on four standout performances last week, this week’s edition of Stock Report will once again return to the usual format of two positive and two negative performances. We here at Stock Report are hoping to spend more time discussing strong performances on the field, but unfortunately that was not the case this week. Now, on to the profiles!
Whose Stock is Rising
Neal Huntington appears to once again assembled a fantastic group of relievers in 2018. The bullpen allowed just three earned runs in 17.1 innings and gave up 18 hits and three walks in last week’s contests. The relievers also racked up an impressive 24 strikeouts in those appearances. All of the damage was limited to two games last week, a three run home run served up by Richard Rodriguez to Nick Hundley on Sunday and then appearance by Tyler Glasnow and George Kontos Saturday night when they both allowed an earned run to score. WIth a series against the lowly Cincinnati Reds set to begin on Tuesday, the bullpen could continue their dominant ways.
After two consecutive starts that saw him fail to finish six innings, Trevor Williams bounced back with a seven inning shutout performance against the Chicago White Sox on May 15th. He struck out six and did not walk a batter, the first start this season that he did not issue a free pass to the opposition. Williams is scheduled to close out the current series against the San Diego Padres on Sunday, a team that ranks at the tailend of the National League in on-base percentage (13th, .298) and slugging percentage (14th, .367).
Whose Stock is Falling
Chad Kuhl turned in a rocky start on May 17th in the second game of the series against the San Diego Padres. He lasted just four and a third innings and allowed four runs on six hits and two walks. He did generate eight groundball outs, but this start was his second of the last four when he gave up four runs and failed to finish the fifth inning. Kuhl did have two quality outings in between the two abbreviated starts, but he could be the odd man out if the Pirates want to keep Kingham in the rotation. He could bolster his case to stay in the rotation the next time he takes the mound, which is currently scheduled to be Wednesday, May 23rd in Cincinnati. However, with Great American Ballpark being one of the most notorious friendly yards in the National League, he will need to generate groundballs like he did in his previous start since some flyballs that would be routine outs elsewhere might clear the fence.
While the offense has been on a roll lately, Jordy Mercer has not found much success at the plate. In 18 at-bats last week, Mercer collected just four hits hits, and three of those game in Saturday’s contest. Mercer did have four walks to three strikeouts last week, so that along with the modest four game hitting streak he has the week before, there is some reason to believe that his recent struggles could come to an end soon.
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