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 dropped testerday’s matinee to the Detroit Tigers, leaving them on the losing in end in three of the four games against their AL Central foe.
To me, the main takeaway from the game was Gerrit Cole rebounding after a poor start to the season. Cole went for six innings and struck out five. From a pure “eye-test” perspective, he looked far more relaxed and in command than in his first start.
Masterson finally signs
After an off-season flirtation that was never consummated, Justin Masterson signed a minor-league deal with the Pirates yesterday. Our own Tyler Thomas was all over it with analysis, but the signing itself merely arouses more question marks instead of answers. In my view, the impetus for Masterson’s signing could fall under one of three scenarios
First, this may purely be a play for starting pitching depth. In years past the Pirates have had serviceable options on deck at Indianapolis for spot start duty. This year the cupboards are a little bare of Major League ready talent not named Tyler Glasnow or Jameson Taillon.
Second, the recent shakiness of early-inning bullpen work might necessitate a move for Juan Nicasio to head back to the bullpen. Through no fault of his own, Nicasio may just better be able to help this particular club at this particular time as a reliever.
Third, there may be more to Francisco Liriano‘s injury than the club is letting on. Though this is the least likely scenario, it would have be considered close to a worst case scenario of sorts. Going into 2016, the Pirates knew how much they would have to rely on their top two starters, and to lose one for any significant stretch could torpedo the team’s pursuit of an NL Central crown.
Yesterday’s player of the game
Even during losing efforts, Pirates Breakdown will put out a poll asking readers for a player of the game. Here now are the results from last night’s poll:
It's time for an early edition of #Pirates player of the game fan Twitter poll!
— Jason Rollison (@jrollisonpgh) April 14, 2016
Make sure to watch for this poll on our twitter feed after each game.
Baseball talk on the web
- Yahoo’s Jeff Passan reports on bad blood between Pablo Sandoval and the Boston Red Sox.
- The Hardball Times asks – what happens when the sport you love does not love you back?
- Our friend Matt Gajtka peers into Gregory Polanco‘s hot start over at DkPittsburghSports.com (paywall)
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