Welcome to this week’s edition of Pirates Breakdown’s Stock Report! The Pittsburgh Pirates had a rough week that included a four game sweep at the hands of the Washington Nationals, but here are the players who stood out for the right reasons and those that stood out for the wrong reasons.
Whose Stock is Rising
To the surprise of absolutely no one, Nick Kingham is probably the player on the Pittsburgh roster that boosted his stock the most in the last week. In his debut on April 29th, Kingham turned in one of the most impressive debuts in not only the history of the organization, but the league as well.
After tossing seven shutout innings when he allowed just one run against the St. Louis Cardinals (with no walks and nine strikeouts as well), he came back to earth on May 4th against the Milwaukee Brewers.
In his second start, he lasted five and one third innings and allowed four runs on six hits and a walk. He struck out seven but did allow two home runs. He is making a case to stay in the rotation, but whether he does or not is up to management.
Corey Dickerson continues to make the Tampa Bay Rays regret giving up on him. He clubbed three home runs in the last week and drove in seven runs, while collecting at least one hit in each of the games he played in (except for Saturday’s loss).
Dickerson is not just doing it at the plate, he has been a tremendous steal for the Pirates in the outfield too. He currently has DRS (defensive runs saved) of six and to put this in perspective, a certain outfielder who is no longer with the club currently has a DRS of one.
Whose Stock is Falling
Ivan Nova’s streak of quality starts ended at five on May 2nd as the Washington Nationals tagged him for eight runs (five earned) in just four and two third innings.
He also did not surrender any walks in those five starts and that streak came to and end as well as he gave up two free passes. Nova allowed two home runs in the first inning to Bryce Harper and Matt Adams, and fortunately both came with no men on base or the damage could have been much greater.
He’ll look to get back in the swing of things when he takes on the Chicago White Sox next week, a club that has struggled in the first few weeks of the season.
Jordy Mercer seems to have hit quite a rough patch at the plate in the last week. He had just three hits in 23 at-bats and only one of those went for extra bases, a double on May 1st.
Not only that, but he is not getting on base by drawing walks either, as he had none in the last week as compared to six strikeouts. Mercer is in no jeopardy of losing his job and hopefully he can get it going again next week.
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