In our daily Wake-Up Call, we get you ready for the day with a complete look at all things Pittsburgh Pirates.
Back to the Basics of Run Prevention
In a post from this past Saturday, Travis Sawchik of the Tribune Review reported that the Pittsburgh Pirates will focus once again on overall run prevention in 2017.
Please do take a few moments to read the post – Travis does outstanding work, as always – but the takeaway from this is that the Pirates may feel that their everyday lineup is solid enough to focus on other areas. It is hard to argue with that, as a quick look around the diamond shows some strong offensive talent at every slot.
Of course, part of run prevention is solid starting pitching. Sawchik has quotes from Pittsburgh Pirates’ GM Neal Huntington on the changing starting pitching market, including this on the growing competition for ‘reclamation’ pitchers:
[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”Neal Huntington” link=”http://triblive.com/sports/pirates/11303887-74/pirates-huntington-ball” color=”” class=”” size=””]“It’s absolutely become more competitive, more challenging,” Huntington said. “When more teams evaluate the way you do the prices get driven up and resources become the advantage again.[/perfectpullquote]Huntington makes a great point. The Pirates returned to relevance mainly due to their ability to identify trends in the game before they catch on, and by identifying market inefficiencies before everyone else.
In an increasingly data-driven game, it will be interesting to see how Huntington and his regime attempt to stay ahead of everyone else. They may already find themselves behind the eight-ball with the latest developing trend.
Let’s go Circumstances!
Both League Championship Series are in full swing, and Jose Bautista thinks something fishy is going on.
Jose Bautista implied today that there are "circumstances" working against the Jays & we're not talking about whatever they are. #postseason pic.twitter.com/cbTfN7gqws
— Mike Vorkunov (@MikeVorkunov) October 16, 2016
https://twitter.com/brianhavrilla/status/787821022120599552
Okay, so it would appear that Bautista may be referring to a widened strike zone as the culprit for his club being down 2-0, to say nothing of sterling pitching performances from Corey Kluber, Andrew Miller and others. Of course, I can not be sure what circumstances may have been at play in this strikeout:
[mlbvideo id=”1206623783″ width=”400″ height=”224″ /]We’ll let the Cleveland Indians have the final word on this, via their social media team.
"circumstances" pic.twitter.com/4o87foKZmF
— Cleveland Guardians (@CleGuardians) October 16, 2016
Kershaw Rewriting his Legacy?
Last night, Clayton Kershaw was marvelous. Holding the Chicago Cubs scoreless in a 1-0 win is impressive enough, but the overall body of work that Kershaw is piling up this postseason speaks to something much larger.
Simply put – fairly or not – the best starting pitcher of the last 10 years has had a rough go of it in his postseason career. Underwhelming performances, relative to his talent level, have slapped a label on the southpaw of an ineffective postseason pitcher.
All he’s done in this year’s playoff is make four appearances – one start on short rest against the Nationals and a save in the same series to boot – and given his team a chance to win each and every time he toes the rubber. Sure, he is not his dominant self – his strikeout numbers in this postseason are not overwhelming – but for a pitcher who was so dominant for years only to be hittable in the postseason, this renewed success cements his already solid legacy.
Still, the Los Angeles Dodgers will need more contributions if they are to dump the Cubs. Kershaw and reliever Kenley Jansen have pitched 44 percent of the team’s innings in the 2016 postseason.
Bsaeball Talk on the Web
- Each week, MLB Trade Rumors puts out a weekly roundup of the best in independent baseball media. PBD is honored to be featured, and would love it if you checked out the latest edition.
- Our friends over at Jays from the Couch have a quick hit podcast on the Pittsburgh Pirates North dropping game two.
- Dave Cameron from FanGraphs echo what many baseball fans are thinking right now. Baseball is just the best.
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