Pittsburgh Pirates Wake-Up Call – Trying to Finish Strong

In our daily Wake-Up Call, we get you ready for the day with a complete look at all things Pittsburgh Pirates.

The Pittsburgh Pirates surprised us all this weekend when their offense came to life and they put a halt to their losing ways by winning four in a row before losing on Sunday. While the Pirates haven’t been mathematically eliminated from the playoffs just yet (they’re five games back at the moment), the focus for many of us has already turned to the off-season. But there’s still a couple of weeks left in the regular season, and there’s still a lot to watch for. Clint Hurdle has slowly started using more of the young players like Alen Hanson and Tyler Glasnow as they come to grips with how the team’s season is ending. Ivan Nova is trying to finish his Pirates tenure well and set himself up for a nice contract this off-season. And Andrew McCutchen has heated up recently. The Pirates as a team are trying to finish strong, and if they finish the season above .500 then I am okay with that, considering how even that seemed impossible in the middle of last week.

Yesterday Ivan Nova had his worst start as a Pirate, and arguably his only poor start as a Pirate. Nova gave up five runs (four earned) in just three innings, his shortest outing with the team. I’ll give him a pass for this start, even though it was against the lowly Reds. I’d still like to have him back on the Pirates, and he should still be able to set himself up well for a contract barring a few more bad outings.

Josh Bell is going to be a stud in this league, even if he’s never great defensively. He’s still working out the kinks at first base, but he’s nowhere near Pedro Alvarez-bad, and with time, maybe his offense will allow his defensive shortcomings to be overlooked. I still see Bell as the future at first base, and would like the Pirates to play him at first almost exclusively down the stretch. Try to let him get some of his struggles out of the way this season before it ends. There’s no need to overreact and give Bell a lot of reps in the outfield, as there’s a prospect you may have heard of named Austin Meadows sitting in the minors that has his eye on the outfield as his future home in Pittsburgh at some point.

The Pirates can certainly make the Wild Card race interesting by beating up on the Brewers in their next series.

Yesterday’s Player of the Game

The Pirates drop the finale of the series to the Reds 7-4. Who is your player of the game?

— Jason Rollison (@jrollisonpgh) September 18, 2016

Baseball Talk Around the Web

• For a take on a team that knows the struggles the Pirates are going through, check out this piece by Wallace Matthews of ESPN on the Yankees and how they have fallen apart down the stretch.
• Clint Hurdle has seen his third collapse in the past six seasons. Is he on the hot seat? Ryan Fagan of the Sporting News lists seven managers that are on the hot seat and could be out after the season.
• The Pirates have collapsed over the past month, but their fall is nothing compared to that of the Giants. Jonah Keri of CBS Sports lists his worst collapses of all time. Did any Pirate collapses make the list?

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