Welcome to this week’s edition of Pirates Breakdown’s Stock Report! The Pittsburgh Pirates had a decent stretch of games last week, taking four of the seven contests against the St. Louis Cardinals, Colorado Rockies and San Francisco Giants. The team received some great performances last week while they try to battle back into the postseason discussion, but there was also at least one that very much short of what the team needed.
Whose Stock is Rising
Jameson Taillon gave the entire bullpen the night off on August 7th when he went the distance in the team’s 10-2 win over the Rockies. Taillon allowed two runs on ten hits and a walk and struck out two in his second complete game performance of the season. He has now registered seven quality starts in his last two outings and will look to keep the success on the mound going when he takes on the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday at 8:10pm.
Taillon’s rotation mate Trevor Williams had two starts last week and performed well in both. He took a tough loss in the team’s 2-1 defeat against the Cardinals last Sunday as he limited them to just two runs in five innings. He followed that up with a gem on August 11th, a seven inning shutout against the Giants that saw him give up five hits and a walk to go along with a pair of strikeouts. In his last five starts, Williams has thrown a combined 29 innings and allowed just the two runs to the Cardinals in last Sunday’s loss. Williams is in line to get the ball again in the pivotal weekend series against the Chicago Cubs.
Adam Frazier has been without a doubt the hottest hitter on the Pirates in the last few weeks. Last week Frazier collected nine hits in 19 at-bats in five games including back to back three hit games on August 8th and 9th. He collected four extra base hits, one of which being his fourth home run of the season that he hit on August 5th. With the way that he has been making contact lately, Clint Hurdle should keep penciling him in the lineup everyday. He has been doing a terrific job of getting on base and his ability to play multiple positions should help him stay in the lineup.
Whose Stock is Falling
The Pirates elected to bring up Clay Holmes to start the Friday game in San Francisco so that the members of the rotation could get an extra day of rest. That game went just about as poorly as possible for the rookie right hander as the San Francisco hitters got to him right away. Holmes lasted just two and two thirds innings and surrendered seven runs on eight hits and a walk. He did have a good outing when he pitched six shutout innings against the Milwaukee Brewers on July 14th, so he has had some recent success at the big league level. But with the team trying to claw back into the playoff picture, it is hard to see Holmes getting any more starts as the season winds down.
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